Accreditation - Hartnell College!!

Institutional Self Evaluation – 12-05-12
techniques; clarity of communication, direction, and advice, creation of an educational
environment that respects the dignity and individuality of each student—and professional
conduct, including participation in professional activities and college committees, and
cooperative behavior and willingness to help students with their academic growth. The
evaluation also may assess enumerated professional competence, professional growth, and
professional activities. The process includes several classroom or service observations by
peers and a supervisor, evaluations by students, and a self evaluation. Both the peer and the
supervisor prepare work site observation reports and together prepare a summary evaluation.
Probationary faculty are evaluated at least once during each year of probation. More frequent
evaluations are conducted at the discretion of the District. Regular academic faculty are
evaluated at least once every six regular semesters. The timelines for evaluation are specific
and extensive. At the end of each review process, probationary faculty are provided with a
summary of the evaluations, and recommendations for continued improvement.
Hartnell College‘s written tenure review process has remained substantially unchanged for at
least a decade. The Academic Senate has been interested to change the process to include
more faculty participation, particularly in the composition of the Tenure Review Committee.
Currently, while each probationary faculty member has an individualized evaluation team
containing his or her peer and supervisor, there is one Tenure Review Committee that reviews
the evaluations of all probationary faculty each year. The Committee is composed of two
administrators (the vice presidents of Academic Affairs and Student Services, or their
designees) and two faculty (the Academic Senate president and vice president, or their
designees).
For the last several years, a partner in the law firm of Liebert Cassidy and Whitmore has
presented a tenure review rules and responsibilities workshop to the Board of Trustees at its
March meeting, just before it hears tenure recommendations and makes its determination on
the award of continuing contracts or tenure. That attorney has advised the Board that the
Hartnell Tenure Review process is a very good one.
Part-time faculty are evaluated for their teaching ability and other areas of professional
competence. The District and the faculty union have agreed to negotiate a process for the
evaluation of part-time faculty, but this has not yet been accomplished. This process will be
sunshined for the successor agreement in the faculty-District CBA negotiations in the spring.
Considering that the District, like so many community colleges, relies heavily on the
contributions of part-time faculty, this is an area of critical importance.
Hartnell has been further challenged in this respect by the uncertain and changing staffing of
the academic areas. For instance, in 2007 and 2008, a transformation committee
recommended that the college reorganize in several ways, including the assignment of
academic chairs to departments. The scope of responsibilities for these faculty roles was left
to be negotiated. In the meantime, no deans were hired, as much of that work was to be
accomplished by the new academic chairs, and faculty who accepted release time to perform
the administrative duties of a chair role (called ―pod leaders‖) saw their role as excluding
evaluative duties. Despite diligent and congenial negotiations over the next two years, the
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