5. Faculty

Description | Appraisal | Projection | Exhibits

Description

Within the Connecticut Community-Technical College System, of which Capital Community College is a part, faculty categories, qualifications and responsibilities are clearly outlined in systemwide job descriptions (Exhibit 5.1) as well as in collective bargaining agreements (Exhibits 5.2a & 5.3a). Adhering to conditions set by state legislation, all faculty members, full-time and adjunct, are members of one of two bargaining units, either the Congress of Connecticut Community Colleges (4C’s) or the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).

The systemwide Board of Trustees requires that faculty members hold a master’s degree in the discipline in which they teach, but many exceed this minimum. Among the full-time faculty at the College, ten hold doctorates, 51 hold master’s degrees, and two hold bachelor’s degrees. Any newly hired faculty who do not initially meet minimum qualifications are required to complete their master’s degrees within six years of hiring. Full-time faculty credentials are listed in the final pages of the College Catalog (Exhibit 5.4).

Full-time faculty and adjuncts teach in degree programs, certificate programs and, where appropriate, non-credit areas . In addition, faculty members are required to maintain contact with their discipline and with best practices in their field. Contractually defined duties and additional responsibilities of faculty also include student advisement, course and curricular development, and participation in institutional planning and governance (Exhibits 5.2b & 5.3b). The College employs 63 full-time and approximately 190adjunct faculty members. The College and the system evaluate the sufficiency of faculty and strive to maintain a 65/35 ratio between the number of classes taught by full-time faculty and adjuncts. The system supplements funding to colleges that fall significantly below that ratio.

The College’s search process is regulated by state affirmative action and equal opportunity requirements, Board policies and contractual agreements. As a matter of Board policy and local practice, hiring is an open process in which faculty members participate actively. All new full-time faculty applications are reviewed by a search committee consisting of faculty and staff from relevant areas within the college community. The committee selects candidates for interviews. To demonstrate teaching skills, selected applicants prepare and present a sample classroom lesson, and in some cases they demonstrate other competences, such as responses to sample student papers. The search committee prepares descriptions of a small pool of recommended candidates and forwards them to the President for further evaluation and final selection. Faculty appointments are reviewed by the Board of Trustees to ensure compliance with Board policy and collective bargaining agreements, and the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities reviews hiring practices to verify compliance with Connecticut’s affirmative action laws.

New full-time faculty members meet with the Human Resources Director or his designee for a written and verbal overview of the institution’s mission and contractual obligations. The Human Resources Department provides each new full-time faculty member with an individual employment contract as well as the appropriate collective bargaining unit contract, which outlines policies concerning recruitment, appointment, evaluation, tenure, reappointment, dismissal, discipline, and grievance. These contracts also outline criteria for promotion, tenure, and sabbatical leave (Exhibits 5.2c & 5.3c). Adjunct faculty, who are hired by the department chairs, are oriented to their assignments by the chairs with the support of the Center for Teaching representative and the Academic Dean. The Human Resources Department provides each adjunct with an individual contract, the relevant collective bargaining agreement, and verbal overviews of adjunct faculty contractual obligations. In addition to the union agreements, the Human Resources Department provides all full-time and adjunct faculty with outlines of federal, state, and system policies on affirmative action, equal employment opportunities, sexual harassment, violence in the workplace prevention, and the code of ethics (Exhibit 5.5). Policies on ethics are included in the College Catalog (Exhibit 5.4b).

Faculty standard appointments cover one academic year. Faculty in both unions may apply for tenure after six years of full-time employment. Tenure is without limit of time, but subject to evaluation or termination for special reasons. Adjuncts who accumulate 24 hours of teaching within the system, including at least 18 at one community college, achieve seniority and receive first consideration for future assignments. Faculty salaries and benefits are set through contract negotiations and legislative approval, and are outlined in the bargaining unit contracts (Exhibits 5.2d & 5.3d). The contracts are renegotiated periodically.

Eligibility for promotions differs slightly between the two unions (Exhibits 5.2e & 5.3e). Both AFT and 4C’s members must meet the same minimum qualifications for promotion eligibility, but 4C’s members must serve at least three years in their present rank or classification at their college. In contrast, AFT members have no time-in-rank requirement. The Board may waive the time-in-rank or classification requirement in the case of faculty who have rendered exceptional service which merits recognition. Applications for promotion are screened by committees comprising fellow union members who advise the President. The President recommends candidates for promotion, and the systemwide office makes promotion decisions.

The workload for full-time faculty is measured against a commitment of 15 contact-hours each semester. For all faculty, this consists of 12 contact hours of teaching with related duties. The remaining three-hour obligation may be met by performing additional responsibilities (AR). These may include activities that support the college mission, such as the preparation of major reports, participation in special college projects, development of new instructional techniques, and initiating or revising courses or programs. AR may also include teaching an additional three-contact-hour class or an equivalent combination of the above activities. Faculty are responsible for proposing AR activities, which are subject to approval by management (Exhibits 5.2f & 5.3f).

Given the relatively high number of adjuncts, the College encourages adjunct participation in academic endeavors through attendance at department meetings, professional workshops, conferences, committee meetings and the Adjunct Orientation, which is held during the first month of each academic semester. The orientation offers workshops that focus on teaching, strategic planning, and key institutional information on the academic resources of the College. Adjuncts receive an Adjunct Faculty Handbook that outlines institutional policies, academic support resources, academic calendars, policies, faculty roles, student roles, and other college information (Exhibit 5.6). Each academic year, the adjunct handbook is updated to include a revised academic calendar and any modifications that affect institutional policies.

Faculty effectiveness is measured by periodic evaluations, institutional effectiveness assessment, grant awards and scholarly recognition. Faculty evaluation follows a systemwide design established by the Board of Trustees. Full-time faculty members are evaluated by their department chairs annually during the first two appointment periods, once in every two years thereafter for those on standard appointments, and once in every three years thereafter for those holding tenured appointments (Exhibit 5.7). Student evaluations of instruction (Exhibit 5.8) are collected in every class each semester. Data compiled from the student evaluations are sent to the faculty member and his or her supervisor, to the Academic Dean, and to the faculty member’s professional file.

The regular periodic evaluation process for full-time faculty includes a classroom observation, an overall performance evaluation, a self-assessment and a professional development plan. The classroom observation includes a pre-evaluation conference between the supervisor and the faculty member, a classroom visit, an extensive report, and a post-evaluation interview. The faculty member then writes a self-assessment and development plan to address any problem areas. Overall evaluations indicate satisfactory or unsatisfactory performance. Unsatisfactory performance evaluations require the faculty member to collaborate with the supervisor on an improvement plan, which is reviewed periodically to ensure faculty success (Exhibit 5.9).

Adjunct faculty members are evaluated using the classroom evaluation by students, a classroom observation by a supervisor, and an overall examination of both instruments. The overall examination is performed by the relevant program coordinator, department chair or director, or by a designee who may be a senior full-time faculty member from the same discipline. Before submitting a report to the Academic Dean, the evaluator reviews it with the adjunct. Any unsatisfactory evaluation leads to a discussion between the adjunct and the appropriate supervisor in order to develop a plan for improvement in areas of challenge. In the event that the adjunct is unable to demonstrate the required improvement, the College may decide not to rehire him or her.

Faculty are responsible for new program development, curricular modifications, and course content. This process is overseen by college governance committees. Any modification to a program or any new course or program proposal must first be submitted for sponsorship to the relevant academic department or division. It then moves to the Curriculum and Academic Policy Committee (CAP) for recommendation to the College Senate. If the Senate approves, the proposal goes to the President’s designee, the Academic Dean, for approval. New programs or modifications of more than 15 credit hours must be submitted for approval to the Board of Trustees and the State’s Department of Higher Education (Exhibit 5.10).

Department chairs, who are faculty members with partial release from teaching, meet regularly with the Academic Dean and with program coordinators to discuss policies and procedures that shape academic programs. They serve on key committees that drive institutional change and set educational standards. These include most of the College Governance committees, the Strategic Planning Committee, search committees and frequent ad hoc groups that focus on all aspects of the academic environment.

Within academic programs, faculty ensure that professional standards are met. The coordinators of most programs have established program advisory boards that consist of community and business leaders (Exhibit 5.11). These boards review program goals and provide guidance on assessment. As part of their periodic performance evaluations, faculty members review their methods of instruction, and within a growing culture of evidence at the College, faculty members are sharpening their focus on how and what students learn. With support form a Title III grant between 2000 and 2005, eight faculty members each year served on an active Student Learning Assessment Team. The team worked with a nationally-known assessment consultant to clarify learning outcomes for general education and for each program at the College, and then to implement assessments of student progress towards those goals. ( See also Standard 4.)

The College is committed to the intellectual growth of its faculty, and systemwide structures support ongoing professional development. Faculty maintain contact with their academic areas through participation in professional conferences, seminars, and classes. Full-time and adjunct faculty may apply for funding for such participation. T he two unions and the administration, in contract negotiations, determine the size of the funding pools from which professional development support can be requested, as well as the criteria for distribution (Exhibits 5.2g & 5.3g). In the 2005-2006 academic year, each full-time faculty member could apply for $600-$700 and each adjunct could apply for $250. Sabbatical opportunities are also part of the collective bargaining agreement. In addition, the college has obtained grant funding for professional development through Title III, Perkins Grants, and the United Technologies Corporation.

Faculty participate in activities sponsored by the Center for Teaching (CFT), a system-funded project to promote excellence in teaching for both adjunct and full-time faculty members. Each college designates a CFT liaison who helps to design professional development workshops and support faculty initiatives. The CFT liaison for each college receives a yearly allotment to be used for faculty initiatives, special projects, or professional development seminars. Capital Community College’s Adjunct Orientation is one of the activities supported by the CFT. Each year, the CFT sponsors the Barnes Seminar and the Spirit of Teaching Conference, which promote excellence in teaching. The CFT systemwide committee meets monthly to discuss faculty issues of concern, to develop seminars and activities to enhance teaching, and to conduct leadership workshops. A committee of college presidents and deans oversees and consults with the CFT to ensure academic excellence (Exhibit 5.12).

At the College, faculty members are active in designing professional development activities. The Faculty, Staff and Student Development Committee is responsible for two professional days per year that often feature guest speakers. The newly created Capital Community College Faculty Association is committed to enhancing the intellectual environment of the College. A weekly lecture series provides the opportunity for faculty to share scholarship and interests with each other as well as with the rest of the college community. Topics have ranged from political science to poetry readings (Exhibit 5.13).

College administration supports academic freedom within the institution as described by BOT policy (Exhibit 5.14) and as outlined in the collective bargaining agreements (Exhibits 5.2h & 5.3h). The Faculty Association, created to stimulate the intellectual life of the College and support academic freedom, provides a forum for free exchange of ideas and has been embraced by the Academic Division and the President.

Teaching and Advising

Instruction at the College is offered in a variety of modes including: lecture, laboratories, discussion, learning communities, team projects, active learning, internships, small groups, tutoring, field trips, special projects, and independent study. Some of these may be mediated all or in part by distance learning methods. Many faculty members have been responsive to emerging findings about student learning styles and some have designed classroom research projects to measure the effects of different pedagogical emphases. One experiment focused on the effects of offering explicit instruction in learning styles adaptations, and another engaged students in four different modes of note-taking, implicitly engaging different learning styles (Exhibit 5.15). Active learning techniques coexist with high-technology delivery of instruction, sometimes in the same class.

The College is equipped with powerful instructional technology. Each classroom lectern contains projection equipment that enables teachers to present a wide range of materials easily. Faculty take full advantage of this equipment and the support available for its use from the Academic Media Technology Department. Further, many faculty members have been using WebCT Vista within the classroom to enhance instruction. This course management software enables faculty to house additional readings, syllabi, classroom lectures, exams, and other materials in an accessible location for each course. WebCT Vista enables students to communicate with faculty members 24 hours a day and obtain supplemental classroom material with ease.

Scholarly and creative achievement by students is encouraged through honor society activities, special programs such as Bridges (which places students in a university research laboratory), and college-sponsored art shows, all of which bring an external perspective into the assessment of student work. The structure of the curriculum, with required general education courses, assures that students are taught by a variety of faculty members within all programs.

The College endeavors to improve the quality of teaching and learning and to encourage innovation through professional development, course releases and professional recognition. In its support of teaching innovation, the College has funded the development of learning communities, professional development activities on learning styles, a first year success course, a redesigned mathematics curriculum, mentoring programs for Latino/Latina students, a comprehensive student learning assessment program, course-embedded and on-line tutoring, and library references services. The College has been participating in the nationwide Achieving the Dream initiative under a grant from the Association of American Community Colleges and the Lumina Foundation. The project supports the development of innovative classroom strategies in developmental and entry level credit courses. (For details, see Standard 4.)

The College assesses the effectiveness of instruction through a number of measures: individual evaluations, the assessment of student learning, aggregate data from course evaluations, results of the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) and the Community College Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (CCFSSE), student focus groups and assessment of teaching innovations such as learning communities. The results are used to guide professional development activities and to spur improvements in the academic program.

All full-time faculty members are available for academic advising as required by union contracts. Students who are enrolled in specific programs receive academic advising from their program coordinators and faculty who not only guide students through the program but also prepare them for transitions to professional arenas or for transfer to further education. Program coordinators meet with students to outline career and academic goals. The staff of threecounselors collaborates with program coordinators to ensure that students receive updates about program changes and transfer issues. Typically, the counselors also advise entering students and those who have not chosen a major, but a new academic advising model is being piloted this year to expand faculty participation in academic advising.

College and system policies, the collegial governance system, and the administration together assure the maintenance of academic integrity. The collegial governance system provides a structure for communication among faculty, staff, students, and administration to foster participatory decision-making. (For details, see Standards 3 & 4.) Faculty service on both the governance committees and the current Strategic Planning Committee ensures that institutional priorities are consistent with academic program development and with the core mission of the college.

Scholarship, Research, and Creative Activity

The requirements for faculty scholarship are outlined in the collective bargaining agreements and the Faculty Development and Review Plan (Exhibit 5.16). Faculty members must maintain contact within their academic areas through participation in professional activities and scholarly or creative work. When faculty receive professional development funds to foster these efforts, no restrictions are placed on their academic freedom.

Faculty at Capital Community College are engaged in professional development activities supported by systemwide and College administration, such as attendance at regional and national conferences and participation in Center for Teaching activities. In 2004-2005, 55 faculty members applied for and received professional development funds. In the past 5 years, one faculty member was granted educational leave and six availed themselves of sabbatical opportunities to engage more fully in scholarship or to pursue advanced degrees .Currently four faculty members are enrolled in doctoral programs while maintaining their regular teaching loads. Faculty members serve on the boards of professional and community organizations, several have received prestigious awards for service to their fields, and some have contributed publications in their academic areas (Exhibit 5.17).

Appraisal

Faculty at Capital Community College are dedicated to the College’s mission of offering higher education to a diverse community of students. This dedication is seen as one of the College’s greatest strengths (Exhibit 5.18). Full-time faculty are often active in their fields beyond the College, and, attracted by the College’s location and mission, a strong and varied contingent of adjunct faculty has contributed to educational opportunities for students at Capital. Analysis of the distribution of course sections shows a 3:1 ratio of adjuncts to full-time faculty. Some programs employ only one full-time faculty member. While the College works to integrate its adjuncts, the ratio of adjunct to full-time faculty may not meet the College’s needs. As the institution expands, inviting collaboration and articulation agreements, the burden on the limited contingent of full-time faculty has grown. In addition, the large cadre of adjuncts presents other challenges.

• Because department chairs serve only 40% of their time in that capacity, they do not have time for intensive supervision and mentoring of adjuncts. The adjunct pool changes every semester, creating a moving target for orientation and evaluation.
• Adjuncts are seldom fully engaged in College life. They are paid only for their teaching, so they may not be aware of or able to take advantage of the resources available to faculty and to their students. The Adjunct Orientation that provides adjuncts with important institutional information is not mandatory due to contractual constraints.
• Faculty advising of the College’s 3500 students falls on 63 full-time faculty.

The diversity of the faculty supports the College’s mission. In 2005, the College’s full-time faculty was 41% male, 59% female, including 23.8% white male, 50.8% white female, 7.9% black male, 4.8% black female, 9.5% Hispanic male, 1.6% Hispanic female, and 1.6% other female. The full-time faculty also represent a range of disciplines; Business and Technology Department, 10; Health Careers Department, 3; Humanities Department, 14; Nursing Division, 14; Science and Mathematics Department, 13; Social and Behavioral Sciences Department, 9.

Faculty enjoy reasonable contractual security. Salary schedules have been adequate to attract qualified candidates for all vacancies. However, some differences in the working conditions of faculty have been an unintended consequence of the Connecticut Legislature’s decision to accept two unions as representatives of a single class of workers. The System has made substantial progress toward eliminating disparities, but during each negotiation period, new differences arise. For example due to wage concessions by the 4C’s, there is a disparity in salaries. Further, teaching loads have differed between the two unions, with AFT members until recently more likely to be assigned a fifth course instead of additional responsibilities. There are differences in the disbursement of professional development funding as well as in promotion opportunities and procedures. The maintenance of two bargaining units has allowed for differences in distribution of workload assignments and in level of engagement in the non-teaching work of the College. A recent arbitration decision has made significant steps toward a more even balance, which will take effect in the fall of 2006 (Exhibit 5.19).

Although online teaching has stimulated faculty innovation, distance learning instruction raises training and workload issues for participating faculty. In addition to redefining the nature of faculty working hours, online courses require that teachers enhance their own home computer hardware, software, and computer repair capabilities.

Multiple measures point to the effectiveness of the College’s faculty. Results from overall performance evaluations are consistently positive. In the fall of 2005, only one faculty member received an unsatisfactory student course evaluation. In addition, student focus groups, conducted as part of the Achieving the Dream initiative, identified barriers to student success, and faculty performance in the classroom was not cited among them. Capital Community College faculty scored above national means on CCSSE for “academic challenge” and “use of active and collaborative learning techniques.” The College and its faculty have sought and received multiple grant awards including federal Title III and Achieving the Dream grants. Summative program assessments and licensure examination scores indicate faculty effectiveness within their programs.

One area of concern is lack of opportunity for faculty interaction with students outside the classroom. CCSSE results, student focus groups, and interviews with the Student Senate indicated a need for enhanced faculty-student connection beyond classroom contact.

Teaching and Advising

The College is fortunate to have built into its new campus an excellent technological infrastructure which benefits teaching and inspires faculty toward innovative ways to address varied learning styles for students. The addition of distance learning has helped to expand program course offerings in general and especially to students who are unable to take courses at the campus. However, technology requires ongoing support that challenges the College’s capabilities. The Information Technology department has been struggling to maintain classroom technology and network capabilities for instructional purposes, and faculty requests for service have often gone unaddressed for long periods.

The College’s instructional techniques include many that community college literature has indicated are effective, including experiential learning, service learning, learning communities and active and collaborative learning. Among the more experimental of the College’s delivery modes is online instruction, which is available at the course level in several disciplines. Fully online degrees are offered only in the computer and information systems fields, an area judged by the faculty to be compatible with this delivery mode. A comparative assessment of the online and on-site versions of the computing degrees has not yet been done.

Capital Community College endeavors to enhance the quality of teaching and learning, and faculty have been in the forefront of several educational initiatives, including the development of learning communities, the exploration of course-embedded student learning assessment, the development of articulation agreements for transfer to four-year colleges, internships and service learning, and focused inquiries into the problems of developmental education. This work has been hampered by specific constraints.

• Recent funding has been limited for the development of new learning communities and faculty releases to do assessment work.
• The lack of a full-time Institutional Research Director has resulted in minimal collection of data to support program development and assessment. It further deprives the College of research vision and of the ability to unify and nurture the nascent culture of inquiry.
• Although Nursing and Allied Health faculty are supported by a secretary, the remaining 46 full time faculty and 150 adjuncts rely on a single additional secretary. To avoid potential logjam, the faculty secretary is assigned to work for the department chairs, which leaves faculty with little or no clerical support and thus less attention for innovation.
• While faculty are required contractually to advise students, the College has not yet found a truly effective way to advise 3,500 students with 63 faculty and three counselors. Several systematic academic advising models have been tried, but have foundered over structural gaps, particularly for advising students who are not yet enrolled in specific programs. A thorough study in 2005-2006 has led to the design of a comprehensive advising model, which is presently being piloted. The plan is to provide two layers of advising: “high touch” advising for developmental students and “high tech” advising via a web portal for more advanced groups. Grant funding has been obtained to supplement the costs of the pilot project (Exhibit 5.20).

Scholarship, Research and Creative Activity

Beyond the requirements of keeping up in their fields, faculty members have contributed publications that are in use nationwide. Faculty publications include an anthology of Latino literature, a developmental writing textbook (now available online), articles in scholarly journals and encyclopedias, poetry in magazines and collections, and items of journalism. Two college math professors collaborated on the development of a set of applied math learning modules sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The internationally-heralded online Guide to Grammar and Writing (Exhibit 5.21) began with the sabbatical leave of a former faculty member, and the College continues to support the website as a service not only to local students but to users all over the world. These and otherfaculty contributions to academic life (Exhibit 5.17) contribute to the intellectual vitality of the College.

Projection

The Capital Community College Faculty Association, with support from the Office of the Dean of Academic Affairs, is compiling a faculty handbook. The Association has also taken an interest in other areas that affect faculty morale, including more collegial interactions with IT and enhanced communication between management and faculty concerning new grants and other academic initiatives.

The system and the College are committed to providing resources that will enable 65% of all classes to be taught by full-time faculty. The Connecticut legislature has indicated a willingness to fund this effort, having provided eighteen new faculty slots in the current academic year. The system request for the new biennium is shown below. To achieve the 65% goal over the next five years, the system has requested faculty positions as shown. These positions will be distributed across the twelve colleges, with Capital Community College vying for a proportional share.

The Board of Trustees and the Chancellor’s Office are engaged in the nationwide Achieving the Dream initiative, funded by the Lumina Foundation and AACC and aimed at changing public policy and funding related to community colleges. Both the System Office and the colleges have received resources and guidance on changing public perceptions and policy in Connecticut. The Chancellor’s Office and Capital Community College have held stakeholders’ meetings, conducted focus groups, and launched lobbying efforts as part of this initiative.

To further integrate adjuncts into the College, both the Achieving the Dream grant and the College’s own strategic plan include specific actions targeting adjunct professional development, mentoring, and integration (Exhibits 5.22 & 5.23). The Strategic Planning Committee is also developing goals to enhance integration of services and communication throughout the College and to focus on effective utilization of the resources that are available, an effort expected to impact adjuncts positively. Partly in response to clarifications developed in the self-study process, the College is reviewing its adjunct hiring procedures. The Academic Dean has appointed an interdepartmental group to evaluate the current procedures and recommend improvements.

The College and the System continue efforts to harmonize the two faculty union contracts and create uniform working conditions for faculty. A recent arbitration decision has improved balance in workload issues (Exhibit 5.19). Most faculty union issues are outside the control of the College. The System Office is aware of the impact of contract differences at individual colleges and continues strenuous efforts to address multiple issues, including working conditions for faculty who teach online.

College faculty are concerned about the limited faculty-student interaction outside the classroom and have responded in several ways. A key initiative is the revised academic advising model that will involve faculty members in developmental advising, provide training, and also enhance program advising through an interactive web portal. The holistic model, designed by a faculty member in consultation with student services offices and many faculty members, began a pilot with incoming students in summer of 2006. After evaluation, the model will be adjusted and phased in over three years. This project, with supplementary funds coming initially from the
St. Paul Traveler’s Corporation and Achieving the Dream, will clarify and broaden academic advising capabilities among faculty members (Exhibit 5.20). In addition, a component of the Dream grant includes the mentoring of students by faculty, staff and community members.

Improvement of faculty effectiveness is receiving particular attention in developmental and gateway courses through the Achieving the Dream project. Measurable outcomes have been identified in the grant and will be assessed and used for improvement over the four-year grant cycle and beyond. Also as part of the new strategic plan, instruction and student outcomes in the two online degree programs will be assessed in comparison to outcomes for the same courses taught on site (Exhibits 5.22 & 5.23).

In response to widespread concerns about IT support, including those of the faculty, the College has instituted an Information Technology Implementation Plan to restructure the IT customer service component (Exhibit 5.24). This plan, which includes mechanisms for ongoing evaluation and responses to concerns, promises to alleviate faculty discontent with IT support. (See also Standard 8.) Further, the Community-Technical College system office has created an Information System Steering Committee. This committee ties the budgeting process for information technology to institutional needs and explores solutions through input from a range of technical staff members.

The new strategic plan and the Achieving the Dream grant will address some impediments to faculty creativity and instructional experimentation by providing additional funding and reassigned time for faculty (Exhibits 5.22 & 5.23). Collegewide data collection and interpretation have been propelled by the teams engaged in strategic planning, surveying campus needs, tabulating results, and stimulating actions in response to the data. The recent hiring of a Director of Institutional Research will support those efforts and also efforts by faculty to organize the assessment of student learning . The College has not yet committed to additional clerical support for faculty.

Ongoing efforts to increase the number of full-time faculty and more fully integrate adjuncts will enhance institutional effectiveness as related to faculty. Expanded support for experimentation through the Achieving the Dream initiative, along with assessment of the effectiveness of innovations, will foster ongoing faculty attention to the improvement of student learning. The Dream project includes a coach who provides an external perspective and continuous mentoring on institutional effectiveness, particularly in the area of student learning outcomes. The grant also provides a data facilitator to assist with comprehensive data collection and analysis. The combination of these efforts will nurture the growing culture of evidence at Capital Community College.

Exhibits

• 5.1 Systemwide job descriptions
• 5.2 4C’s contract
  a. Faculty job descriptions, Article X
  b. Faculty related responsibilities, Article X
  c. Policies concerning: Promotion (Article XII), Tenure (IX), & Sabbatical (XVII)
  d. Salary agreements: (Latest salary schedule provided as addendum to contract)
  e. Promotion conditions, Article XII
  f. Additional responsibilities, Article X
  g. Professional development, Article XXI, Section 1.F.4
  h. Academic freedom, Article VI
• 5.3 AFT contract
  a. Faculty job descriptions, Article VIII
  b. Faculty related responsibilities, Article VIII
  c. Policies concerning Promotion (Article XXI), Tenure (XII), & Sabbatical (XVIII)
  d. Salary agreements: (Latest salary schedule provided as addendum to contract)
  e. Promotion conditions, Article XXI
  f. Additional responsibilities, Article VIII
  g. Professional development, Article XVI, Section 16.5
  h. Academic freedom, Article V
• 5.4 College Catalog 2005-06
  a. Faculty credentials, p 135-137
  b. Policies on faculty ethics, p 13-16
• 5.5 Human Resources packet for new hires
• 5.6 Adjunct Faculty Handbook
• 5.7 AFT/4C Union K Article XI Evaluation
• 5.8 Student evaluation form
• 5.9 Faculty evaluation form
• 5.10 Program development process
• 5.11 List of advisory boards
• 5.12 Center For Teaching
• 5.13 Lunchtime Lecture Series website.
• 5.14 BOT policy on academic freedom
• 5.15 Reports of classroom assessment experiments
• 5.16 Faculty Development and Review Plan
• 5.17 Professional Publications, Presentations, and Service Beyond the College
• 5.18 Themes Emerging from Appraisal Highlights
• 5.19 AFT Arbitration Award
• 5.20 Academic Advising Model
• 5.21 Guide to Grammar and Writing
• 5.22 CCC Current Strategic Plan
• 5.23 Achieving the Dream grant application
• 5.24 Information Technology Implementation Plan