Committee Meetings and Minutes

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eStaffing Committee

Meeting Minutes

Current Status of Minutes: Final
Date	April 27, 2015
Time	9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Location	HBC 220

Members Present
David Albert, Sue Bloodsworth, Andrew Christie, Joe Lostracco, Tobin Quereau, Gaye Lynn Scott, Gillian Waterston
Guests Present
No guest attendance has been recorded.

Item # 1:	Review of Previous Meeting's Minutes
Presenter	Andrew
Discussion	Minutes approved. { DA; GLS}

Item # 2:	Review of Fall 2015 eStaffing
Presenter	Committee
Discussion	The old file import program that extracts course, course section, and faculty data from Colleague and imports it into eStaffing functioned poorly at the start of eStaffing phase 1. It seemed to run successfully after the first day, but while this corrected some problems, it overwrote some completed section preferences which tended to create confusion. Departments ended up having to do manual intervention as a result of the first file import. IT AppDev eStaffing priority #1, as soon as the Fall 2015 eStaffing period ends, is to rewrite the file import process via an SSIS package. This will allow IT to get everything on new-ish servers and have more control and flexibility with handling course and course section anomalies. Departments reported that the re-assignment process frequently stopped, forcing the departments to close eStaffing, re-boot, and start the process over. IT AppDev will research and resolve the problem. Combined courses were allowed to be selected as preferred sections, and were allowed to be assigned via departments, but the acceptance function would (sometimes) prevent adjunct faculty from accepting the combined courses. The LEH counter seems to not get updated once assignments are made by the departments. When an adjunct declines a section, or a re-assignment occurs, the adjunct's LEH counter remains the same in eStaffing. IT AppDev will research and resolve. The error report, which is designed to explain why course section assignment data is being rejected when uploading into Colleague, was described as unhelpful; i.e., not providing relevant information for understanding the cause of the rejection. Some of the reports, e.g., the Faculty Preference List, are no longer listing the faculty in alphabetic order. There is a desire for the sort order to be corrected. The functionality that warns/prevents a faculty from selecting as preferences, as well as departments from assigning, two course sections from different campus that are within a 90 minute timeframe needs to be tweaked. Currently, the system allows the earlier course section, but warns against the later course section. There is an override option, but when the operator selects 'Yes', the system does not abide by that override preference. The Committee would prefer a warning that, once the override option is chosen, the section preferences and section assignments are processed. There were reports that the 'Senior' computation does not appear to be updating. A few examples for research were provided so that IT AppDev can research and resolve. On the Appointments page, the History link has dropped Summer 2015.

Item # 3:	Review of 2015-2016 MSTA Process
Presenter	Committee
Discussion	As noted in the minutes of the March 2015 meeting, a request has been made to create an 'Are You Sure?' button before adjuncts submit their MSTA application, and also to have a confirmation message appear back on the screen to verify that the submission was successful. For those applicants that believed that they submitted an MSTA application, but the system shows no evidence of it, the most likely scenario could be that a time-out occurred. Given that as a credible hypothesis, IT AppDev will explore possibilities to assist applicants. (One possibility might be the type of time clock that is now standard when purchasing tickets for an event.)

Item # 4:	Conversion of Course & Course Section Import Process; Discussion of Frequency of Import Process
Presenter	Andrew
Discussion	The Highest eStaffing priority. See Item #2 above, first paragraph. The frequency is to be just prior to phase 1, just prior to phase 2, and after the completion of eStaffing. The file import process that occurs just prior to phase 2 should occur after the deadline for full-time faculty to have second overloads assigned. Departments will be encouraged to refrain from making course and course section changes during phase 1 and phase 2 of eStaffing.

Item # 5:	Question re: Inactive Disciplines
Presenter	Andrew
Discussion	The following disciplines within eStaffing can be de-activated beginning with the Spring 2016 semester. Note: This will not destroy eStaffing history; it will just reduce confusion by not injecting these previous disciplines in future terms. Fine Arts - Art is the name of the currently active discipline. Developmental Communication - Developmental Reading and Developmental Writing are the currently active disciplines. Physical Sciences - This is the umbrella name for a set of individual disciplines within eStaffing. Digital Publishing - No longer an active, current discipline. Quality Assurance - No longer an active, current discipline. Travel - The correct name for the department is 'Travel & Tourism'. Events & Planning - No longer an active, current discipline.

Item # 6:	Email Message Scheduling
Presenter	Andrew
Discussion	The Committee unanimously agreed, with AFA representation present, that the email alerts should occur at 12:05 A.M. of the current day rather than 01:00 A.M. of the day before the event. Once this change has been updated in the system, stakeholders will be notified of the change.

Item # 7:	AFA Factbook
Presenter	Andrew
Discussion	The AFA is sponsoring the AFA Factbook which is expected to be released around May 1, 2015. The eStaffing Compliance Report will be added to the AFA Factbook. (A request was made that the eStaffing Compliance Report have its sort order changed so that it appears by Dean Area, then by Department Name.)

Item # 8:	Status of MSTA Exception/Senior Change
Presenter	Anaka
Discussion	Anaka was not present, but Gaye Lynn updated the Committee regarding the ad hoc committee that is looking into several things related to adjunct staffing. One of the issues is the definition of 'Senior' and what impacts a senior designation should have within the various categories of eStaffing. One of the other issues is whether to treat ECS classes as a third round within eStaffing.

Item # 9:	Discussion of future training needs
Presenter	Committee
Discussion	While there is support for ensuring necessary training for all people new to eStaffing, the main concern amongst the Committee membership is that there seems to be a couple of certain areas where the same mistakes are occurring almost every semester. The Committee agreed to compile a list of the areas where similar mistakes were occurring on a regular basis.

Item # 10:	Additional Items
Presenter	Committee
Discussion	The Committee is requesting a report of all adjunct instructors who have been awarded more than 9 credit hours for Fall and Spring semesters. (This will be done as an Informer report.) Also, as reported in the March minutes: There was also a request to include functionality informing adjuncts that certain ECS course sections will require the instructor to be finger-printed. Currently the schools that require this are Leander and Lake Travis. (The request was too late to be implemented for Fall 2015 eStaffing.)

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