At the January Board of Trustees’ Meeting, the Board approved designating a portion of money to extend the computer license and update the software and hardware that is used for administrative programs. At the time, Vice President of Business Affairs, Gean Ann Emond, stated that the college would fall apart without this program. A total cost was never mentioned, so PJCFA requested that information from Dr. Gonzalez’s office. We recently received the following response:
“At the January 20, 2009 meeting the District Board of Trustees designated $1,750,000 to be used for the Administrative Computing Hardware and Software purchase that will be required in December 2009. The existing prepaid software and maintenance agreements we have with Unisys will expire and the college will have to pay for maintenance and support for the existing system, if possible, or purchase new equipment and software from Unisys.”
There are a few interesting points to consider. First, $1.75 million is not a small amount. Administration has argued in the past that money in the reserve fund cannot be used to fund pay increases because the money isn’t recurring. Even if this is true, could this money have been used as a stopgap to help prevent faculty layoffs? After all, the most recent budget cut totaled $1.4 million. Second, notice that the current agreement expires in December 2009. It’s ironic that the Administration isn’t willing to plan ahead when it comes to faculty positions, pay, etc., but it is willing to designate funds for computer software/hardware eleven months in advance.
If you haven’t already written the BOT, do so! Urge them to spend the College’s money wisely and to put learning first.
37 comments:
Could you post the cost savings from the last time a retirement savings plan was instituted?
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Oops. I am sorry. Forgive us. Our pig ears have been tagged for slaughter and we are frightened mercilessly. Strange things escape our lips.
We should aim at the faculty to student ratio Lurleen has. Lurleen has 37 faculty for its 1457 enrolled students. We only have 230 for our 22,000 enrolled students. This brings up many issues: management ability, quality of services to students, etc. The board is free to ask any faculty members they want what is going on.
FactbookYear TotalCosts TotalPersonnelCosts TotalFacultySalaries TotalNon-facultySalaryCosts
2008 $50,885,353 -.3% 38,762,400 10,590,631 28,171,769
2007 $51,035,621 +5.1% 37,808,466 10,362,760 27,445,706
2006 $48,554,181 +6.6% 37,374,001 10,148,978 27,225,023
2005 $45,547,381 +2.3% 35,657,848 10,457,506 25,200,342
2004 $44,518,572 +.0% 35,433,222 10,125,654 25,307,568
2003 $44,491,192 +5.5% 35,159,933 10,379,680 24,780,253
2002 $42,155,464 +4.5% 34,272,680 10,810,866 23,461,814
2001 $40,359,125 +.98% 31,801,847 10,514,692 21,287,155
2000 $39,967,478 -3.28% 30,740,485 10,153,570 20,586,915
1999 $41,323,434 29,937,469 9,908,271 20,029,198
Non-faculty salaries increase $8,142,571 in the past 10 years. Some of you might say, “What’s the big deal?” Well faculty salaries total only $10,000,000, and faculty salaries have remained the same for the past ten years. It has been quite obvious where priorities have not been and aren’t. Faculty is not happy to say the least.
In 1999, PJC did get a budget cut. Did Atwell whack off faculty heads? No. He didn’t. Are other colleges whacking their tenured faculty. No. They aren’t.
I hope the last poster sent that graph to the BOT.I've read all of these posts as well as the PNJ posts, and I have noted the pro-Delaino posts and pro-Meadows posts, but do these people know the fundamental fact that the BOT is allotted X number of dollars every year to spend on PJC? It is their job to divide it into a budget. Their source of info is the President of PJC. 99% of the time they budget what he says because he is their person. In 22 years I have seen no president budget for the faculty. All have paid themselves and fellow administrators(and created such creatures as managerial and professional and assistant department chairperson positions which didn't exist when I was hired)and staff before considering faculty. New buildings named after rapists Hartselle and Atwell have been erected in Delaino's term. Meadows is considering firing faculty to create a 60/40 faculty ratio instead of creating a realistic 25/100 ratio of administrative-managerial-professional/faculty ratio. The disease of the country is greed by uncontrolled, unregulated administrators. Alan Greenspan didn't speak the flaw in his economic failure, but we all know it was GREED. Whether they be bankers, CEOS, college administrators, or congressmen, greed is the fly in the ointment. Laissez-faire fails when the reality of greed enters the picture. The only true answer is Florida governance. Laws must dictate the ratio of administrators to faculty in all state schools(and limit their salaries as Obama has done for executives of our banks) regardless of the pseudonyms used for administrators, laws must dictate the percentage of recurrent and non-recurrent funds available for all schools, laws must dictate expenditures for all schools(not local administrators and BOTS)so that we have named, electable or non-electable politicians accountable to all of us for their actions. We, unfortunately, are lost. The greedy will have what they will. Our letters and imprecations will have no more effect than water on our windshields. Perhaps the only moral politician we have seen in years will save us. Barring that, the latest incarnation of a president at PJC will decide our fates. He presented a budget to the BOT for this year. Think what you will of presidents current and presidents past, but not a single one has done the right thing, and if you are one of the many religious members of our group, not one has followed the golden rule. Search your souls, and you will see the light.
What if they had an All-College Day and nobody showed up? I have personal leave left, and I'm using it on February 20. No students are harmed, and a message is ACD'd.
BOT will get the table in regular mail letter this week probably Tuesday or Wednesday. I take the view that the board wants to do the best for the college. They are just working on limited information. BOT members listened attentively to what faculty said last year.
In the meantime, the information can be shaded copied and pasted into Word if anyone wants to look at it. It won't have the beautiful formatting, but you can restore it easily yourself. The information is all verifiable at www.fldoe.org. See employee information and financial information. I imagine that the board has already received a letter about the lavish salary increases. Someone in here noted the 100+ employee increases. That person also said to stop using 2% as an argument and to pay attention to the issues. I agree. Looking at the inweekly Buzz section I see it mentioned again. The person doing the article could have totally screwed up what PJCFAs take is. He did totally screw up all the facts. Faculty isn't 80% of the budget. We are less than a third of payroll. The number of people terminated quote are people who left voluntarily this year through retirements or new jobs. Word up public, PJC has a lot of retirements every year. That 2% stuff makes us look stupid. Only mention it near closing comments, and only say if you say a 2% faculty raise would have cost the college a piddly $200,000 plus payroll taxes, blah, blah, blah.
"Perhaps the only moral politician we have seen in years will save us."
This is a joke right? There has not been one of these in the past nor in the present!!! Never depend on a politician to save you no matter who they are.
What is the ratio of full time faculty to adjunct-part time faculty? I would make a guess that PJC is way above average for adjuncts.
What is the ratio of full time faculty to adjunct-part time faculty? I would make a guess that PJC is way above average for adjuncts
The number of faculty hasn't went up. Because faculty retirements have been replaced by new faculty, the average wage of faculty has not went up. That is why you see stationary faculty salaries.
Salaries went up by almost the total amount faculty is paid. Tell me what is not fatty about this increase. The technology people were all on board at PJC prior to 1999. You cannot say the salary increase was to keep up with technology. What in this salary increase is not fatty? It is fat, fat, fat, a ton of fat.
Lose the fat not the instructional quality.
Visitor wants faculty and students to pay for the spending party. Visitor has plans to keep on partying.
Again, what is the ratio of full time faculty to adjunct faculty at PJC? Is it 60/40 which would mean for every 60 full time faculty there are 40 adjuncts.
"Again, what is the ratio of full time faculty to adjunct faculty at PJC? Is it 60/40 which would mean for every 60 full time faculty there are 40 adjuncts."
There are 232 full time faculty and 517 adjuncts.
722 full time employees
232 faculty
270 career service (clerical, technical and maintenance)
220 executive and professional
517 adjuncts
We need to hire full time faculty. Who are you? Why do you keep insisting faculty should be cut?
There is some confusion. The faculty to adjunct ratio is a anti-quality measure. It isn't something that colleges in Florida aspire to. Colleges aspire to show quality. They report their faculty to student ratios.
We don't want to say come here because we're cheap and likely not to give you the time of day.
"We need to hire full time faculty. Who are you? Why do you keep insisting faculty should be cut?
February 10, 2009 2:10 AM"
I NEVER said faculty should be cut. There is much gossip and talk about full time/adjunct ratios of 60/40 for SACS--duh?? Much below that in most departments--yes more FULL TIME faculty need to be HIRED, not more adjuncts!! The union should have been pushing for YEARS to hire more full time faculty, but in 20 years, this has not been a top issue. More classes added, more adjuncts hired. And some teach trememdous overloads. This is a huge problem that's been going on for years. Won't be solved now.
Why is no one talking about cutting out athletics and WSRE, two areas most students would NEVER miss?
"Why is no one talking about cutting out athletics and WSRE, two areas most students would NEVER miss?"
Cutting sends out a bad message. A lot of highly paid people retire every year. Other institutions have been focusing on not replacing the retiring people as a solution. In the past, it has served as a regular source of monies aside from increases in the budget. In local schools, they analyze cuts into two tiers, those that directly affect students and those that do not; expenditures that affect students get the highest priority and are considered last for cuts.
"The union should have been pushing for YEARS to hire more full time faculty, but in 20 years, this has not been a top issue."
You are mistaken. This has been a huge issue in negotiations, along with class size, every year. However, the number of hires is TOTALLY up to the Board of Trustees. It is not something that the union can negotiate as it is outside the scope of the contract.
Remember: the Union is YOU. If you aren't happy about what is happening with the contract, get involved, start working with union activities, and let the bargaining team know what you are concerned about. But as long as faculty keeps ratifying the negotiated CBA year after year, you aren't sending a message that you want things changed.
Is it true there is a faculty member teaching one 3-4 hour class this term and getting full pay? How can this happen? I heard this from 2 other faculty members in the same department. Even with release time, how can a full time faculty have this load when so many are teaching multiple overloads, huge classes? Is this position really needed in a time of budget crunch?
"Is it true there is a faculty member teaching one 3-4 hour class...?"
No
Someone may want to check this out but I believe the ratio is calculated on the number of sections taught by full-time faculty to the number taught by adjuncts.
If you are a faculty member and do not understand something, please see PJCFA members or other faculty members. We know you're more than freaked. We care. We will answer your questions.
"Is it true there is a faculty member teaching one 3-4 hour class...?"
No
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I have also heard this--all but one class was canceled and the dept head did not notice until too late to add other classes and the faculty person sort of kept quiet about her/his load.
"I have also heard this--all but one class was canceled and the dept head did not notice until too late to add other classes and the faculty person sort of kept quiet about her/his load."
IF a faculty member is in this position, the department head MUST HAVE KNOWN ABOUT THE SITUATION as ONLY DEPARTMENT HEADS CANCEL CLASSES. Furthermore, the administration stipulate that the administration is responsible for assigning loads and assuring that all faculty members have full loads---not the faculty.
Paige N. Anderson
Chief Negotiator, PJCFA
okay---let me clarify my own post . . . the CBA stipulates that the administration is responsible for faculty loads.
Paige
If this is a true situation then it doesn't matter what the CBA says. Both the department head and the faculty member are culpable! And we wonder why there's no money.
How is a faculty member culpable? Should the faculty member have stood on the street corner with a poster that reads "Register for My Class?" I think there are other questions that should be addressed such as whether or not this is a one-time situation or if this instructor's classes have a history of not making. This is NOT the time to turn on other faculty members. There's plenty of waste around this college. Remember, more money is spent on non-faculty salaries at PJC than on faculty salaries.
Sabbaticals are not the reason for money problems. A few programs with low enrollment here and there isn't the reason for the money problem either. This is a college. You'd expect there to be such things in serving the community.
"How is a faculty member culpable? Should the faculty member have stood on the street corner with a poster that reads "Register for My Class?"
Did you not read the part where the faculty member did not mention it to the Department Head? If we are being paid to do a job then we WORK! We do not accept taxpayers money for doing NOTHING! If there is not a teaching load then we go to the department and say, "What work can I do? How can I EARN my salary." We don't lay low and hope nobody notices!!!!! We are professional people here.
Someone is assuming that the faculty member who has one class is doing nothing else. THIS IS NOT TRUE. The faculty member has been given alternate assignments, as have many faculty members in the past when their loads did not make.
In addition, remember that the department head is the one canceling classes. The department head is the one watching enrollment numbers and deciding whether or not a class will be allowed to go. The faculty member has no power over this process. Blaming the faculty member for not having classes make is ridiculous.
No one is blaming the faculty member because classes were canceled. But if the faculty member did not speak up thinking they could get by getting a check for only teaching one class and doing nothing else(as is pointed out on the blog)then they are as responsible as the department head for the situation. Now if the faculty member went to the department head and asked to be assigned other duties to compensate for canceled classes that is entirely different. However, that was not the situation that was stated here.
Other duties were assigned to this faculty member.
"What work can I do? How can I EARN my salary." Who is posting this? Surely a "professional" would not assume that the information posted on a blog by an anonymous source is 100 percent accurate. Based on faculty pay at neighboring institutions, we could teach far fewer than five classes and EARN our pay. Next subject, please!
Isn't five classes mandated by state law for community college instructors?
Other duties were assigned to this faculty member.
February 13, 2009 11:18 AM
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So there is one faculty member teaching only one course this term? Too bad I can't divide a very large class to provide this teacher with a class (lol)...I guess we all have "redecorated boardrooms" to hide!
You are going on and on and on and on and on about something that probably occurs in less than 1% of load situations when you were asked to drop it. Sometimes when we point fingers at others we are doing it to say something about ourselves. Remember, we are faculty. It isn't necessary for you to make a statement about yourself. We accept you the way you are, rain clouds and all. Hope you brighten up though. Stop beating us over the head with this.
dan bell - you wrote, "New buildings named after rapists Hartselle and Atwell have been erected in Delaino's term."
Who did they rape?
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