The administration just put in place a new structure for the college, combining what were originally 12 academic divisions with 12 deans into six schools with an undetermined number of deans.
Many are wondering what the consequences of this major reformation will do and has done to the efficiency of the college as a whole.
According to Robert Bell, senior vice president of student learning services, the new structure will provide a stronger voice to faculty and allow students to get their classes more efficiently.
“The goal of reorganization is to establish a model in which the faculty within each school assume a lead role in the formation of decisions that are of direct importance to faculty,” Bell said before the implementation of the new structure.
With the new structure, divisions that were formerly “not in communication” with one another in terms of scheduling will be better able to serve students working toward majors that require two disciplines that work together, such as math and science, according to Simon Fraser, Associated Students trustee.
“I think that it makes sense as we start to schedule classes based on students completing degrees or certificates and should reduce the instances of a student needing classes that are cross discipline but traditionally cross scheduled,” Fraser said. “Hopefully it will allow for more innovative and cross discipline curriculum to be developed, but [this] will require our faculty to be willing to engage in these completion-minded endeavors.”
Other members of the campus community are not so optimistic about the reorganization, which was implemented at the beginning of this semester.
Academic Senate Treasurer Daniel Haley, who was also a member of a senate study team two years ago that overlooked the consequences a possible reorganization, was not confident that the restructuring would help the faculty gain more of a voice in any way.
“There is an adverse effect. We have 12 academic deans, and now we go down to six … I think [the reorganization is] going to dilute the voice of each division,” Haley said.
Academic Senate President Eduardo Cairo was also concerned over the possibility of losing six deans who were not chosen to become the heads of the new schools.
“What happens to [them]? We have no idea,” he said.
So far, former dean of languages Ted Young left and went on sabbatical at the beginning of the semester, leaving many language faculty concerned over their division.
ESL instructor Melissa Michelson was one of them.
“Many of us are in shock. It was very sad and strange to come into the office with Ted’s door closed this week,” she said via email.
Bell sent a letter to the ESL and languages faculty earlier this semester explaining Young’s leave as going on sabbatical and welcomed their input on any concerns they had.
“This leadership has never been more important than now as we move forward to define the role of the faculty in the establishment of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences,” Bell said.
Cairo voiced concern over lack of evidence the administration had to support a major college restructuring.
“Where is the data?” Cairo said. “I don’t know how [the administration] came to this conclusion. As part of the Academic Senate, we are not opposed to change. But let’s see the data to support it first. We still have not been shown was is wrong with the [former] model.”
- Calendar Committee recommends calendar with winter - May 5, 2014
- Board votes to re-invite Dustin Lance Black - April 30, 2014
- Calendar committee recommends half a calendar - April 30, 2014
We read that Mussolini “…kept the trains on time…”?
He declared: “…Democracy is weak…”
Here at PCC, when Shared Governance (as delineated by state law) is broken, the Admin or its cronies claim:
“Oh, well, it’s more efficient”
“It’s quicker this way”
“Takes too long to go through the groups”
So somehow, honesty and integrity are trumped by utility?
It’s ok to violate state law, because . . . um. . . it gets things done!
How dare you insult Il Duce by comparing him to PCC’s Admin… although history shows Benito had a Vote of No Confidence, too! (Grand Council of F_____ism on 24–25 July 1943)
It is common F___ist rhetoric to be in a hurry and “fed up” with democracy. Some here have even said that now it is PCC’s “Time to Move Forward”
Good Grief.
President Mark is playing games with the college–again!
He got caught red-handed, and it hurt PCC terribly, when he ignored State mandated Shared Governance with that No-Winter Calendar fiasco.
Now he’s at it again, this time with an ad-libbed re-organization that was pulled out of thin air. Again, he’s ignored state law and pushed through another cock-eyed scheme.
How on earth will PCC keep its Accreditation?
Especially since we’ve been dinged on these exact issues in previous rounds of accreditation.
There has been a consistent lack of sourcing by the administration. This has damaged their credibility extremely. I remember reading one of Dr. Bells recommendations to the Trustees about how great removing Winter Intersession would be. Not once in the entire report did he cite any source to back up a single claim. This unfortunately makes everything the administration says a fallacy.
Everything the administration states have become an appeal to authority. Because while they should be authorities they have shown they are not qualified. If you do not know what an appeal to authority it is let me define it for you. An appeal to authority is defined “as an argument from the fact that a person judged to be an authority affirms a proposition to the claim that the proposition is true.”
Also to state the obvious. The administration is creating a TOP HEAVY organization to silence teachers and students. A goal President Rocha has had since he showed up. How can you claim that you will hear more voices from six “super deans” vs twelve deans? The obvious answer is you cannot. You lose the ability to gain expertise and specialization in exchange for broad information. President Rocha has continued to work against this community and every plan he has will be working against the community.
Summary: President Rocha administration should not be trusted, because they are not experts in their field. Secondly everything they say cannot be trusted, due to their refusal to have the same academic integrity of students.
RE: “not experts in their field.”
This is only going to get worse as faculty who don’t know how (or may not even want to) pick up the duties formerly carried out by deans.
As a colleague of mine elucidates:
“Faculty evaluations, hiring, course selection and scheduling have not been worked out. A supposed Chair system may be in the works, but none of the changes has faculty approval. There will be chaos because the faculty have been excluded. Thus we have another rejection of faculty input and concerns. As with the Calendar committee which the administration ignored (and lost a precedent setting PERB case in December), as with the recent faculty hiring
committee selections which the Adm ignored, and as with a series of catastrophic administrative decisions, faculty are angered and dismayed. “
This realignment plan never got widespread faculty or staff input. No survey was put out. It just appeared one day. Maybe the President doesn’t HAVE to get support or input, but SHOULDN’T he? WOULDN’T he WANT to? That’s what I would’ve called a “good leader”…
They are doing the same thing with the so-called “student-centered class schedule”, aka “Block Scheduling”. No input, and now big problems under foot. It’ll be another catastrophe for students and the smooth running of the school.
President Cairo:
None of the upheaval on campus has had data to support it, and it’s never been explained what was wrong with the former model of anything (calendar; NCNs; divisional structure; scheduling). All we’ve gotten is more administrative “take it and like it” mentality.
Re: Tad Young. “Sabbatical.” Riiiiiight.
Make that “Ted Young.”
The people running the school are Clueless in Pasadena.
Cairo is right. When were staff, students of professors ever asked for campus-wide input on the latest plan, which appears late Dec at a college council meeting (never shown before in public, the college council members had never even seen it), and only sent this week as a memo to the school.