College of Liberal Arts NTTF Advisory Committee
Meeting Minutes
February 25, 2022
Present were: Margaret Miller (chair), Pam Duncan, Jonathan Carlyon, Ellie Light, Kyla Masciarelli, Courtenay Biser-Suarez, Steve Shulman, Aunterria Bollinger, Debbie Swann, Dani Castillo, James Roller, and Tom Conway.
1. The minutes from February 11 were approved.
2. Professional Development (PD) workshop: Ellie announced that CSU has received $9 million from the Board of Governors, to be dispersed over three years, for student success initiatives. CLA had made a variety of requests for the money, several of which were funded. One of them was $42,000 to offer PD workshops for NTTF. The goal is an annual conference to be held in early August, supplemented by one more over the course of the year. The funds will go toward $500 stipends for participants; goal is attendance of 75. First priority will be NTTF that have not yet been promoted, and then the workshops will be opened to other NTTF. Ellie shared a tentative two-day schedule said veteran NTTF are invited to propose workshops for the second day. Tom and Margaret will be on the committee to plan the event, so we should contact one of them with any suggestions.
Discussion ensued, including a question regarding how “showing student success” would be defined and/or measured. According to Ellie, the Provost is the audience for demonstrating student success; perhaps to be achieved through pre- and post- surveys? Further discussion focused on the need to talk about NTTF challenges, including inequity as well as the fact that student success comes from instructor success, which is getting more difficult as we are overwhelmed with rising student requests for special accommodations. Ellie invited proposals for workshops on these subjects.
James noted that $42,000 annually is a tiny percentage of the overall amount granted to CSU ($3 million per year for three years), and asked how the rest of the money is being spent. Ellie said that other proposals had been funded that could benefit CLA. James argued that we need to find out what other proposals have been funded—is there a central place for this information? Ellie promised to check.
Steve expressed frustration that the Board of Governors has suddenly come up with $9 million after years of telling us that there is not enough money to provide better salaries for NTTF. He hopes that these PD workshops will not be distractions from equity issues. James suggested a pilot program to see how student success may improve if Master Instructors get funding for a course release.
3. College code changes: Ellie reminded us that the College code is ambiguous on the issue of Contract versus Continuing status. The current language implies that contracts are only for those who have non-teaching in addition to teaching duties, and this was not the intent (Tom reiterated this last point). So a change to the language has been proposed to clarify. The first would change the statement that contracts “should” be given to those with non-teaching duties to one that “recommends” that this be the case. The second change would be addition of the following: “Faculty members may request a contract after 10 semesters of teaching.” Pam pointed out that leaving the decision up to department chairs would allow for a great deal of variation across departments, which conflicts with the goal of consistency included in the recommendations from the CCAF Task Force. James proposed that contracts should be given automatically when a NTTF is promoted.
The code changes will be formalized in a vote at the all-CLA meeting in early May.
4. Subcommittee on service: A few members had expressed interest in serving on this (see Feb. 11 minutes), and Margaret asked for confirmation. Pam said we need more information on the subcommittee’s tasks, time requirements etc. before committing to be on it. Margaret had sent out some information previously, but not everyone had received it. Margaret said she will send it out again, and we can discuss at our next meeting. Steve suggested inviting Alex Bernasek to join one of our meetings to clarify the Provost’s intent and initiatives on service.
5. New business: Steve informed us that Higher Education Labor United (HELU) is holding a conference this week to discuss national efforts to unionize.
Respectfully submitted by Pam Duncan