PVCC Puma Press: December 2006

Throughout the past year, relations between PVCC administrators and faculty members have frayed due to communication breakdowns over budgetary and staffing decisions.
The administration’s decision-making is negatively “impacting instruction,” says Reyes Medrano, PVCC business faculty and president-elect of the Maricopa Community College District’s Faculty Executive Council. “We will not let that happen.”
At its December meeting, the PVCC Faculty Senate will determine a procedure for formally notifying Dr. Mary K. Kickels, PVCC’s president, of issues contributing to the faculty’s increasing loss of confidence in administration.

According to faculty leaders, the following issues have strained relations between faculty and administrators:

• The creation of four new high-paying administrative positions over a one-year period during a budget crunch;

• A 10 percent budget cut for every division and department across campus this fall as administration filled one of those new positions and is currently seeking to fill another;

• A failure by administration to consult with faculty on important budgetary, staffing and procedural decisions;

• An overemphasis on running the college on a business model to the detriment of learning.

HIRING CONTROVERSIES

Much of the tension has grown from administrative hiring decisions made during a time of budgetary strain.

Institutional Advancement—The first such decision in 2005 involved the creation of an office and directorship new to PVCC. The Office of Institutional Advancement manages functions including public relations, fund raising, marketing and alumni relations. Last fall, the college hired Dr. Julia Devous as director of IA, a position with a salary of $78,783.

The IA hiring raised questions among faculty.

According to Medrano, administration did not reveal to faculty its intention to fill the IA or other new positions. In fact, he says that faculty only learned of the search for an IA director by finding it posted under new job listings on the District website.

Kickels says that the IA position is one of two established in response to a recommendation by the Higher Learning Commission, an association that accredits institutions of higher learning.

Institutional Advancement was essential to “the college’s plan to merge a number of independent units and bring them together as one,” she says.

Executive Assistantship—Also, in September 2005, PVCC hired Judi Anderson into the permanent position of director of Continuing Education at a salary of $79,415, paid from the Institutional Operating Budget. Prior to that hiring process, Anderson had held the same job for 8 years on an annually renewed contract, specially funded through Continuing Education. In October 2005, just one month later, Kickels appointed Anderson to the contracted position of executive assistant to the president, boosting her salary to $90,600. Anderson’s appointed position was set to expire in June, 2006, but her contract was renewed through June, 2007. At the time of publication, the source of funding for the executive assistantship portion of Anderson's position was unclear. At this time, Anderson serves as both director of Continuing Education and as executive assistant.

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	(File Photo)
	Dr. Jane Saldaña-Talley, PVCC vice president of Administrative Services exchanges banter with members of PVCC faculty and staff.
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Faculty leaders say that administration, to this day, has not formally notified them of the move.

Faculty Senate president-elect, Jeffrey Lace, says he thinks the process in which the executive assistant position was appointed reflects a pattern in which administration unilaterally undertakes decisions without going through the normal collaborative process.

“Arbitrary movement of a person from one department to another, without any mention of it is probably more disturbing (than the hiring of other administrative positions),” he said.

Institutional Effectiveness—Additionally, this semester administration hired a director for the newly created Office of Institutional Effectiveness. The IE’s principal functions are to conduct planning and research, providing the college with statistical information to improve its programs and services. The college hired Dr. Laurie Pemberton at a salary of $94,121 for the IE directorship.

Again, Kickels points to the HLC’s recommendation for the new position, saying that establishing the IE was “a response to the Higher Learning Commission’s urging.”

Faculty Senate president and CIS faculty, Jim Patterson, says that many faculty members are not convinced by Kickel’s rationale for the IE hiring, calling it “an overreaction on our president’s part, based on a comment from the Higher Learning Commission member....”

Before IA and IE directorships were established, Rod Fensom, current director of marketing and public relations, handled public relations for the college and Paul Marsh, current director of research, was the school’s statistician. Both now work within the new IA and IE offices, headed by Devous and Pemberton respectively.

Manager of Business Operations—The college is also currently advertising for a manager of business operations, a position ranging in salary from $51,000 to $79,000. Money for the position will come from an early release of 2004 bond money, according to a document presented to faculty by the office of the vice president of administrative services. This manager will oversee new construction and support maintenance on campus.

Faculty Hiring—Meanwhile, administration has delayed the final decision on three new, full-time faculty positions approved last April by the faculty staffing committee. Despite the fact that the District was willing to match PVCC’s college-funded faculty positions—in effect, boosting three faculty positions at the school to six—chairpersons say they are still awaiting a decision from administration on whether to proceed with the faculty hires. Faculty chairs say that according to District standards, administration should have informed them of the hiring decisions by the end of September.

English Division chair, John Nelson, is concerned that at this late date there will not be sufficient time left to handle the paperwork involved in the hiring process.

“If we’re truly a learning-centered college, a decision about faculty staffing needs to be made in a timely manner,” Nelson says.

Kurt Hill, chair of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Division and Karen Fehr, chair of the Health and Exercise Science Division, are also awaiting word on new faculty positions approved by the faculty staffing committee. According to Hill, the college had set aside the money for the positions last year.

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	'The focus is beginning to shift more and more away (from instruction)'
	—Reyes Medrano President-elect MCCCD Faculty Exec. Council
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Additionally, when business and information technology faculty, Ned Miner, retired last spring, administration did not want the division to fill his position.

“I wanted to fill it,” says Patti Marsh, chair of the Business and Information Technology division. “...We still have enough FTSE (full-time students) to support that position.”

Marsh says she is not sure whether administration will permit her division to keep the budget line supporting Miner’s position. She has requested that the money for that position at least be used “on the instructional side of the house.”

BUDGET CUTS

The environment in which the administrative hirings occurred was one of serious financial strain at the college and throughout the District.

Student enrollment for Spring 2006 flattened throughout MCCCD, resulting in financial pressure to meet budget requirements Districtwide. The enrollment turn caused a loss of over a half million dollars in projected state funds for PVCC alone in 2006-2007.

Budgetary constraints led administration to request every division and department across the board to contribute 10 percent of its budgets back to the genral operating fund early this fall. Administration also asked division chairs to give up budget requests for items like new hardware. Meanwhile, administration proceeded with the hiring for the institutional effectiveness directorship and is currently attempting to hire a manager of business operations.

According to the vice president of administrative services, $47,238 was originally taken from divisions and departments under Academic Affairs alone. Of that amount, $10,214 or 22 percent of the original contribution has been restored. Those figures do not include funds taken from non-academic divisions on campus.

Kickels says that administration spread budget cutbacks equitably to avoid inflicting disproportionate financial pain in any one division. She says that she chose to slash division funding as “the least invasive” of several unappealing options to respond to a shortfall in the college’s budget.

“The most invasive would be to eliminate employees or to go with a moratorium on certain initiatives, and we have tried really desperately not to do that,” Kickels says.

Responding to faculty concerns over the IA and IE hires at a time of budgetary restrictions elsewhere on campus, Kickels says that “the funding for those positions has come from funds that were set aside, were separate funds that were part of a plan.”

In response to a faculty senate request for how new administrative positions came to be, the office of administrative services provided a document noting that the IA was funded from the salary of the retired coordinator of Alumni and Community Relations, plus money from college contingency funds. According to a separate administrative document, IE was funded from the salary of the retired director of College Business Services as well as additional college contingency funds.

In order to seek clarification in the college’s budgetary decisions, Patterson says he will soon appoint a subcommittee of faculty and senators to meet regularly with Dr. Jane Saldaña-Talley, vice president of administrative services, to discuss the college’s budget.

SHARED GOVERNANCE

Faculty members say that a return to harmonious relations will require more than an adjustment in how the administration explains its budgetary and hiring decisions. It will also involve a correction in the process of how they arrive at those decisions.

According to faculty leaders, PVCC’s current administration has drifted away from the precepts of shared governance under which the college has traditionally run. Shared governance is a governing model under which both faculty and administration confer on important issues facing the school and make decisions together about the best course of action. “Our relationship with the president and vice-president is that of a partnership,” is how Patterson describes it.

In contrast to previous administrations, faculty members see current administrators as less committed to a spirit of inclusiveness. In particular, faculty cite the following as manifestations of the administration’s lack of respect for faculty’s role in campus affairs:

• a lack of interest in faculty advice,

• failure or refusal to clearly explain important decisions, including those surrounding hirings and the budget,

• a tendency to regard faculty members more as employees than colleagues.

Marilyn Cristiano, chair of the Communications and Humanities Division, who has taught in the District for 29 years, says “Many faculty feel that the faculty voice has not been sought out, and when it is volunteered interpersonally or in open meetings, it has not been respected and many times not even heard.”

In addition to experiencing a sense of disrespect, “the faculty are feeling...disenfranchised,” says Cristiano.

Faculty members express a belief that more forthright explanations for procedural and budgetary decisions could go a long way toward building a respectful relationship.

They report that they asked Saldaña-Talley about the 10 percent budget cuts that had been imposed on division and department chairs. They say that she told them that no budget cuts had been made. They say that she later told them that no cuts had been made since they were not permanent reductions.

Several faculty senate members say the above example is one of many instances of administration’s “double talk” that leads to misunderstanding of decisions and intentions.

Kickels, who refers to shared governance as a “valuable” model, says that she is open to criticism.

“I am not above reproach,” says the college president. “I can honestly say that it is my personal intent to approach participative shared governance and I have seriously made attempts to do that.”

However, faculty members insist that administration must do more.

“Our culture is one of shared governance,” says Medrano. “That does not seem to be the culture of the current administration. It seems to be a top-down management.”

Medrano’s criticism finds wide traction among the college’s faculty.

While conceding that faculty may perceive her as running a top down model at PVCC, Kickels says she believes that such criticism does not resonate with her history in education. “Regarding the top down (critique), it strikes me that in my 20 years of community college I have always worked in a model communicating with my partners, my colleagues,” she says.Still, faculty members claim that Kickels’ management style may be better suited for a corporation than a college. In addition to her experience in educational administration, Kickels has a background in business, having formerly worked as vice president of corporate planning and marketing development for Encyclopedia Britannica from 1988 to 1993.

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	Photo by Matthew Casey
	Inscribed on a sculpture in PVCC's meditation garden is a motto that reflects the school's core mission as a learning-centered college.
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“All we’re asking for is open and clear explanations of budgetary decisions and hiring,” says Patterson, who hopes that more straightforward answers from administrators will expose problems dogging faculty and administration as primarily a case of serious miscommunication.

Kickels says, “I make, hopefully, as many attempts as possible to communicate with faculty on issues that are of interest to the campus in a number of ways.” She cites a biweekly newsletter, a recently announced series of coffees, personal conversations on campus and appearances at faculty meetings as measures she takes to maintain open lines of communication.

Spanish faculty, Dr. David Rubi, and anatomy and physiology faculty, Lace, believe that the communication problems that faculty members say they have had with Kickels are possibly attributable to a learning curve on the part of a college president who is still fairly new to the school. Kickels is now in the third year of her PVCC presidency.

BUSINESS VS. LEARNING

While PVCC prides itself on being a learning-centered college, faculty say that too many administrative decisions favor business over learning.

A 2005 self-study, authored by PVCC’s administration and submitted to the HLC, emphasizes the college’s commitment to “becoming a more learning-centered college.” The document notes that “planning and budgeting are focused on learning” and quotes Kickels as saying “every decision made by a college should focus on learning.” How well the administration has maintained the standard it set for itself in the self-study is at issue among the school’s faculty.

A consequence of running a school like a business model is that important decisions that impact instruction are made with an eye toward the bottom line.

“I don’t think instruction is getting its proper due,” says Medrano. “The focus is beginning to shift more and more away from (instruction)” and more toward the administrative side (i.e., budgetary and staffing issues).

Kickels responds, “I would disagree that there is a shift (from student learning to being more numbers-oriented). I would say there is a pressure on the part of the college and all colleges to be responsible stewards of our campus.”

In addition to faculty demands for financial commitments to academic funding, Kickels says she is faced with “extraordinary external pressures.” Those pressures include economic conditions unfavorable to high enrollment and increased competition from other academic institutions,

“The piece that is so challenging,” she says, “is that we are enrollment funded. So if our enrollment changes minimally or significantly it has a serious effect on our funding from the state and District.”

Probably no single academic program has felt administration’s push to produce profitable numbers more than theater. Administration is pressuring student theater productions to measure success by numbers, emphasizing revenue and costs of production rather than learning. Theater program head, Alan Tongret, says that such pressure infringes on his academic freedom, and the faculty senate agrees.

Kickels says she hopes the conflict will be resolved “in a respectful, honorable and professional way.”

All members of PVCC’s faculty and administration desire a peaceful and mutually acceptable resolution to the disputes that have plagued them over the course of the past year. Most are optimistic that there will be a happy ending.

“I seek for understanding,” says Kickels. “We’re all in this together.”

While PVCC’s faculty members are optimistic that they can come to an understanding with the administration to resolve the areas of disagreement, they say that the administration must treat them like colleagues and consult with them on important decisions before making them instead of informing them after the fact.

“We don’t want to just hear about decisions from “News From The Front” (a bi-weekly newsletter distributed via email by the President),” says Cristiano.

Faculty cite improved channels of communication as a critical component to improved relations. Patterson is of the opinion that clearer answers to questions posed by frustrated faculty members will “help to defuse some dissatisfaction.”

Neither faculty members nor administrators suggest that an intermediary will be needed to bridge their gaps in communication, but if one were, they would not need to look outside the District for such help. The MCCCD chancellor, Dr. Rufus Glasper, attended an Oct. 11 faculty meeting where he heard some of the faculty’s concerns, which he then relayed to Kickels.

Glasper believes that he has a role to play with the District’s presidents in assisting and encouraging them to maintain positive relationships with their faculty members. While he has not been asked to play a specific role in resolving the disputes at PVCC, he does plan to return to the campus to further assess the situation.

“I need to at least follow up and see how things are going,” says Glasper.

Citing a series of open coffee talks that Kickels recently announced and her appearances at faculty senate meetings, Patterson says that the president “is making a good faith effort at this point” to reach out more to the faculty.

While there is genuine hope throughout campus that an amicable resolution to issues of dispute can be found among administrators and faculty, there is also a foreboding sense of serious consequences should differences remain intractable.

“These are not concerns to be taken... lightly,” says Medrano.