REMOVAL OF ADMINISTRATIVE-POSITION
REFERENCES FROM BOARD POLICY
Rationale: Although the Board has declared (in Policy I-27,
College Organizational Principles) that the President is responsible
for determining the administrative organization of the College,
some of the older Board policies still specify powers and duties
for subordinate administrative positions.
These policies fall in two classes. The larger class, which deals
with academic administration, defines duties and powers for the
Associate Vice-President for Academic Affairs, the campus Vice-Presidents
(still called Deans in most cases), division chairs, and department
heads. In most cases, simply deleting the provision is all that
is required to give the President the full authority implied by
Policy I-27. In a few cases, typically where approval authority
is referred to, what is needed is the substitution of a general
term such as "administration" or "supervisor"
for the particular reference.
The other policies with specific administrative references are
the policies on external and internal audit (I-11 and I-60). The
proposed replacement policy replaces these administrative references
by functional statements about external and internal auditing.
These functional statements coordinate this policy with other
Board policy on monitoring and with Dr. Fonte's concept of an
expanded internal process for review of institutional effectiveness.
Thus the proposed policy changes in this area are:
[A1] In policies V-74 (Full-Time Faculty Workload), V-75 (Faculty
Evaluation), VIII-70 (Full-Time Faculty Contracts), and VIII-80
(Part-Time Faculty Workload), remove all references to specific
administrative positions below the President either by deletion
of the provisions containing them or by substitution of general
terms such as "administration" or "supervisors"
[see marked-up attachments]
Adopt this new policy to replace policies I-11
(External Audit) and I-60 (Internal Audit):
AUDITING
The Board shall engage external auditors to conduct the annual financial audit and to perform such other services as may be deemed appropriate by the Board, or by the Vice-Chair in furtherance of Policy I-7 (Monitoring Compliance with Board Policy). Such auditors shall have complete access to any institutional records or information they deem needed for their work. The auditors shall report to the Board any significant inappropriate practices they detect in College activities.
The President shall cause a system of internal review of the effectiveness, efficiency, and policy compliance of College activities, and shall provide the Board quarterly summaries of the findings of this review system and of the status of activities designed to address any weaknesses previously identified by either this system or by the external auditors.
REDUCING/CLARIFYING BOARD APPROVAL
REQUIREMENTS FOR STAFFING DECISIONS
Rationale: The current policy on College Staffing Table requires specific Board approval of all long-term positions. It is also unclear about whether the "staffing table" of long-term positions it mandates includes the assignment of particular individuals to positions, and about whether the Board approvals required for salaries (and thus placements) refer to individuals or only to classes and scales.
The proposed new policy on Staffing would make the staffing table an informational report tied to the budget process rather than an area for Board consideration. Board approval would be required only for increases in administration or for changes with a substantial overall financial impact. It would also make clear (as has always been the case in practice) that the Board only decides the pay scales for classes of employees, and has no operational role in employee hiring, placement, or job assignment. It retains the existing requirement for Board approval of contracts.
One function of the staffing table has been to declare organizational structure by the arrangement of management positions and unit supervisors. This would be better done under the authority specified in policy I-27, College Organizational Principles. The amendments to I-27 proposed below do this and also make it clear that the President's authority extends to the arrangement of organizational units.
Combined with the earlier adoption of the new College Budget policy
(II-2, approved 6/3/96), and the previous general delegations
of operating authority to the President, these changes would remove
any further need for the old policy on Budget (I-81, still in
force), which would be repealed.
Adopt this policy to replace policies VIII-3 and I-81:
STAFFING
The President shall, as part of the budget process, publish a staffing table giving the planned distribution of long-term positions for the year, with identification of any changes from the previous year. This staffing table shall list positions, not the current or planned individuals in the positions.
Board approval for changes in the staffing table is not required unless the changes would increase the total number of administrative positions, increase administrative salaries or stipends, or increase the annual rate of personnel expense by more than $100,000.
Pay scales for each class of employee positions shall be recommended by the President and decided by the Board as part of the budget process. Hiring of employees, placement of individual employees on pay scales, and assignment of individuals to positions and duties shall be done by the College administration and does not require Board approval.
Neither the staffing table nor appointment
to a staffing-table position is a contract between the College
and any particular employee. Employment contracts may be issued
only when specifically approved by the Board.
amend policy I-27, COLLEGE ORGANIZATIONAL PRINCIPLES as shown:
... As Chief Executive Officer, the President
is responsible for determining and specifying in writing
the staffing, responsibilities, and powers of individual managerial
positions, of institutional units, and of college-wide
councils or committees. ...
REDUCING BOARD APPROVAL REQUIREMENTS
FOR CONSULTING-SERVICES PURCHASES
Rationale: The current policy II-41 (Contractors, Consultant Services, Professional Services, and Honoraria) requires advance Board approval of all such services when they total more than $5,000 in a fiscal year to any particular vendor. This limit often results in delays as Board approval is sought, and also is far lower than other purchasing approval limits (which the Board raised substantially last year). The proposal is to integrate approvals in this area with the rest of purchasing by appropriate amendments to policy III-1 (Purchasing of Personal Property, Services, and Construction Services) which the Board has already revised and consolidated.
The proposed amendments would retain the $5,000 figure as the
threshold at which an explanatory report must be made, but would
apply the policy III-1 Board-approval threshold of $25,000 for
the actual purchase of services.
Amend policy III-1 (purchasing) as shown, and repeal
policy II-41:
[amend the beginning of preamble of section B]
Purchasing, consulting,
or contracting expenditures . . .
[append to the report list in section C]
5. an explanation of consulting
fees in excess of $5,000 to a single vendor in a fiscal year.