Committee Meetings and Minutes

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eStaffing Committee

Meeting Minutes

Current Status of Minutes: Final
Date	September 26, 2016
Time	2:30 PM - 4:00 PM
Location	HBC 301.7

Members Present
David Albert, Sue Bloodsworth, Andrew Christie, Lyman Grant, Mary Kohls, Norma Mercado, Dianne Olla, Gaye Lynn Scott
Guests Present
Alison Kwiecinski, Dolores Segura

Item # 1:	Review of April 2016 Minutes
Presenter	Andrew
Discussion	Approved. {gls; sb}

Item # 2:	Review of Spring 2017 eStaffing
Presenter	Committee
Discussion	IT is researching an issue that cropped up for the first time where course sections that had been re-created after having been deleted were not imported into eStaffing. Because these course sections had the same SEC.NAME as the ones that were deleted, the import process rejected them because it had flagged the SEC.NAME as deleted. ISS reported that their change in procedure was a result of a suggestion from IT that would make the hourly Course Schedule process perform better. IT is researching whether the 'delete' flag got incorporated into the import process properly, or if there is a different issue.

Item # 3:	Integrated Reading & Writing Dept Setup & Challenges
Presenter	Lyman, Sue
Discussion	The Integrated Reading & Writing Department challenge for Spring 2017 was two-fold. First, it was the department most affected by the issue in Item #2 (above). That is, most of the course sections in INRW were deleted, then re-created with the same SEC.NAME. IT is currently evaluating how best to fix this issue in time for Summer 2017 eStaffng. Second, when two departments are combined into one, eStaffing functionality, which processes the faculty in random order within priority-defined groups, presupposes the concept of only one person (the DC, or designated Admin) performing the section assignment tasks. The logistics of this arrangement were discussed at today's meeting, and having one person handling the assignments, with both DCs present, should resolve this part of the problem.

Item # 4:	Other Spring 2017 eStaffing Challenges
Presenter	Andrew, Committee
Discussion	Developmental Math reported that there were issues related to combined sections not uploading into Colleague. The way eStaffing handles LEH in combined courses may not have been updated to handle a recent change in the way LEH are assigned to combined course sections. It was also reported that the same had happened in Art.

Item # 5:	Email Alerts - Day 0 or Day -1 ?
Presenter	David
Discussion	On behalf of the AFA, a formal request has been made to have the email alerts for both the section preference and section acceptance windows be on the first day at 1:00 am, and the last day (if not certified sections or accepted/declined sections) at 1:00 am.

Item # 6:	eStaffing Scheduling & the ECHS Request
Presenter	Dianne
Discussion	Dianne presented the official Schedule Development spreadsheet with its list of tasks and timelines. It is hard to see how any change to the eStaffing calendar could bring an improvement.

Item # 7:	Change Recommendations
Presenter	Committee
Discussion	1) Enhance/Modernize the Import Program so that it fixes the problem described in Item #2, and minimizes any need for human intervention. Continue to have it run nightly. 2) Add 'Senior' status, where warranted, to the My Info page and the Faculty Eligibility pages. 3) Modify the Email Alerts as described in Item #5. 4) Research and Resolve the LEH as reported in Item #4. 5) Automate and Modernize the Colleague Upload process to occur at 8:00 AM on the days that have been designated for the eStaffing-to-Colleague uploads according to the Schedule Development Spreadsheet (and stored in eStaffing).

Item # 8:	MSTA Categories
Presenter	David
Discussion	AFA is expected to meet and discuss whether to proceed with any recommended changes to the Administrative Rules related to Adjunct Faculty. David will report back to the eStaffing Committee. Of particular interest is whether MSTA Exception will be replaced by MSTA Senior, and if it is, what will be the criteria for being desginated as MSTA Senior.

Item # 9:	Block Scheduling & Other New Initiatives
Presenter	Committee
Discussion	There appears to be no need to modify eStaffing to adapt to Block Scheduling at this point in time. There could be another combined department designation in the near future. If so, the recommendation is to ensure that a single person is delegated to handle the section assignments in eStaffing with the two DCs present to assist in the process.

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