Committee Meetings and Minutes

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eStaffing Committee

Meeting Minutes

Current Status of Minutes: Final
Date	October 26, 2015
Time	2:30 PM - 4:00 PM
Location	HBC 301.7

Members Present
David Albert, Donald Becker, Sue Bloodsworth, Andrew Christie, Mary Kohls, David Lydic, Dianne Olla, Gaye Lynn Scott
Guests Present
No guest attendance has been recorded.

Item # 1:	Review of previous (Apr 2015) eStaffing Committee meeting notes.
Presenter	Andrew
Discussion	Minutes from April 2015 were approved. {DA, SB}

Item # 2:	Discussion of Committee membership.
Presenter	Committee
Discussion	This was delayed until the November 30 meeting. However, factoring in some late-breaking communications regarding membership assignments, the membership is presumably representative and effectively constructed.

Item # 3:	Review of Spring 2016 eStaffing (including multi-dept challenge)
Presenter	Committee
Discussion	These were the issues/complaints and the current status: 1. eStaffing listed some course sections already assigned to full-time faculty, and did not display some new course sections. This was a timing issue. The file import that preceded the start of Phase 1 occurred in the early morning preceding the first day of eStaffing. Many academic departments used the day before the start of eStaffing to make full-time faculty assignments in Colleague. Also (see Agenda item #7), new and modified course sections were occurring throughout the period of eStaffing. In the future, IT will communicate, in advance, to academic departments the date and time of the file import so that changes will be made prior to the first file import. In addition, if (see Agenda item #7 again), the decision is made to proceed with nightly file imports, eStaffing will more accurately represent recent changes made to course sections. 2. Adjunct faculty in multiple departments, where the faculty member is in Phase 1 in one department and Phase 2 in the other department, needed manual intervention in order to be allowed into Phase 2. This was a software bug that has been addressed. The new software code has been added and is in the 'Test' eStaffing system. IT will be working with a couple departments to verify the fix works, and then install it in the 'Live' eStaffing prior to the start of Summer 2016 eStaffing. 3. The ECS/ECHS logic that links individual adjunct faculty to ECS/ECHS course sections was faulty. There are rules that apply to the adjunct faculty at the Appointments level and rules that apply at the Eligibility level. IT has created new software that adjudicates between the two sets of rules. The software fix is in 'Test' eStaffing and will be installed in 'Live' after sufficient testing has been completed.

Item # 4:	Discussion: Placement of 'Senior' and 'ECS' designations
Presenter	Committee
Discussion	It was agreed that 'ECS' and 'Senior' designations should be displayed on the 'My Info' page. Note about the 'Senior' flag: Thus far, the value ('Y' or 'N') has not been displayed where Adjunct faculty can see it. It has only been in recent semesters where the AFA has made the issue of the 'Senior' flag known to the eStaffing Committee. The Draw Order Report shows how adjunct faculty placed in the random draw order for each category, including IA/CA Senior and HPTH Senior. But there is no Adjunct Senior category. Thus, an Adjunct can be flagged as 'Senior', but display only as 'Adjunct' on the Draw Order Report because senior status is not a factor in Phase 2 eStaffing. Additional Note about 'Senior' flag: There is ambiguity as to whether senior status is tied to 5 years of teaching in a specific discipline or 5 years of teaching at ACC regardless of the discipline. It is thought that the intent of the rule was to tie senior status to the discipline, but the rule is not written that way, and the senior status algorithm in eStaffing is not looking at the discipline, only the years of teaching at ACC.

Item # 5:	Status of MSTA Exception -> Senior Recommendation
Presenter	AFA
Discussion	The AFA proposal to change 'MSTA Exception' to 'MSTA Senior' is still in limbo. AFA membership on the Committee would like to revisit the proposal, including the qualifications needed to be considered 'MSTA Senior'. Gaye Lynn will contact the AFA President to initiate the discussion.

Item # 6:	Committee Guidance on MSTA Placement Changes
Presenter	Andrew
Discussion	Due to concerns last year that some departments were not using the MSTA Application process in a fair way and might, in some cases, be bypassing the automated MSTA process, the eStaffing Committee requested tightening the access capabilities for awarding MSTA within eStaffing. The MSTA process is now more reliant upon automated procedures. The consequences of this were mainly positive. But IT has been asked to intervene and make changes to individual adjunct faculty. Four cases were presented to the Committee. 2 of the 4 cases involved 'MSTA Exception' changes, based on documentation that was considered verifiable and accurate. 1 of the 4 cases involved what was labelled 'college error'. The other case involved a department wanting to make 2 professors 'MSTA', and the eStaffing Committee found this problematic. The Committee recommended requesting a fuller explanation to see if the situation fit the 'college error' category. If it does, and the Dean approves the changes, then the eStaffing Committee is okay with the change being made.

Item # 7:	Discussion: Colleague Course Section changes while eStaffing in session
Presenter	Committee
Discussion	Lengthy discussion of the issue. The volume of changes to course sections (additions, deletions, assignments, attribute changes) during the eStaffing sessions has continued to increase over the years to the point where a decision has to be made whether to (a) run a nightly file import from Colleague-to-eStaffing throughout the eStaffing sessions, or (b) run a file import only right before the start of phase 1 and right before the start of phase 2. If an official vote were held on October 26, the preference would have been for option 'a'. A decision needs to be made prior to Summer 2016 eStaffing, which takes place in January 2016. If a quorum is present at the November 30 eStaffing meeting, an official decision will be made regarding the frequency of the file import.

Item # 8:	Declined Assignments Issue
Presenter	Andrew
Discussion	When an Adjunct instructor 'declines' a section assignment there has been confusion and disagreement as to whether the declined section should become available to other instructors. This issue seems relevant only to Phase 1 instructors. The question is: Should the declined section assignment become available to Phase 2 instructors? The Committee was in agreement that declined sections should be treated in the same manner as course section assignments where Adjunct Instructors neither accepted nor declined the assignments; i.e., the section assignments should be made available to others via eStaffing.

Item # 9:	Compliance Report - Spring 2016
Presenter	Andrew
Discussion	The Spring 2016 Compliance Report was presented. IT will distribute it and also advertise where the report can be found - which is on the eStaffing website, under 'Support'. The link title is 'Latest Compliance Report'.

Item # 10:	Discussion: How to ensure new DCs & Admins receive eStaffing training
Presenter	Committee
Discussion	This agenda item is being postponed until the November 30 meeting.

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