President Zeigler announces new procedure for hiring chairs

A new chair hiring procedure that eliminates a faculty vote is now in effect.

The procedure, which adheres to new district guidelines, was distributed Tuesday at a College Council meeting in the visual arts center.

The Department Chair Hiring Procedure, states the president of the college can appoint chairs rather than faculty in a department electing their chair.

The Faculty Senate, Joint Chairs and executive team at this college all worked on the procedure, President Robert Zeigler said.

If the president chooses not to reappoint an incumbent chair after a three-year term, the president will post the position in Peoplelink. Candidates from outside the college may apply.

Chair candidates must be qualified to teach in a least one of the disciplines in the department, and the president will remove from the applicant pool any candidate that does not meet requirements before forwarding applications to a department screening committee.

The department screening committee will submit at least two candidates to the college administration.

The president can appoint one of the candidates to the chair position or readvertise.

The president also has the discretion to replace a chair at any time during the three-year term, and faculty members may approach the college administration at any time with concerns about the leadership of their department.

“The chancellor had recognized the need have some flexibility at the colleges,” Zeigler said. “We developed one I think was really good and solid.”
In other business, Zeigler introduced the new public relations director, Vanessa Torres.

Torres, who has been on the job about a week, came from St. Mary’s University where she was an enrollment marketing manager.

Zeigler also discussed the departure of Dr. Jessica Howard, vice president of academic affairs, who will be leaving at the end of June.

Staring in early August, Howard will be the president of the Southeast Campus at Portland Community College in Oregon.

“Jessica has done wonderful work; we all know that,” Zeigler said. “I’m very happy for her.”
There will be a collegewide reception for Howard at 3 p.m. June 20 in the president’s suite in Fletcher Administration Center.

In other announcements, the college is sponsoring a reception for adjunct faculty members 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. June 27 in Koehler Cultural Center.

Jerry Townsend, Adjunct Faculty Council chair, said the event will be social and will not include an agenda.

“Were just going to have a good time together,” he said.

He asked department chairs to help contact adjuncts who may not check their ACES email during the summer.