SPRING 2003                           A GCC ADJUNCT NEWSLETTER FOR GCC ADJUNCT FACULTY No. 2
PERMANENT PRESIDENT SELECTED
After a lengthy search for a suitable candidate to be our next college president, the GCC Presidential Search Committee has wisely thrown in the towel.  On February 5, 2003, Chancellor Fred Gaskin announced that Dr. Phillip Randolph will continue to serve as our President in a permanent capacity and that the presidential search is now closed.  For those of you who may not be familiar with Dr. Randolph's background, he has been with the Maricopa District for nearly 30 years beginning as an adjunct faculty member at Maricopa Technical College (now known as GateWay Community College).  In 1972, he joined the faculty at Glendale Community College later serving as Division Chair, an Associate Dean of Instruction, and Dean of Business and Technology.  More recently, he was President of GateWay Community College and then served as the Vice Chancellor of Human Resources.  Our recent adjunct faculty orientations, our new adjunct faculty website, and our representation on the PAC are the direct result of Dr. Randolph's efforts to insure that all of us stay "in-the-loop."  I'm sure that I speak for all GCC adjunct faculty in welcoming him as the new (and official) President of Glendale Community College.
ADJUNCT FACULTY ORIENTATIONS
By any measure, I think that the adjunct faculty orientations were a great success.  Of the approximately 550 adjunct faculty teaching this semester, 234 of you (40%) participated in one of the three available sessions.  Overall feedback from the surveys you filled out was very positive and many of the suggestions you made are already being incorporated into the next presentation format for the summer semester orientations.  Those of you who missed out on this opportunity are strongly encouraged to attend one of the summer sessions to see for yourself how invaluable they are.  As one of the survey respondents would tell you: "Wow!  Very well presented!  I learned so much.  Every presentation was excellent."  A lot of work by a lot of people went into this effort and the commitment is there to continue this effort into the future.  Actions speak louder than words and another survey respondent observes "I've been a GCC adjunct faculty instructor in the past.  It's rewarding to see the positive change in the status of adjunct faculty that has occurred since my absence.  Tonight's orientation and web page reflected this overdue change for the better."   [Note:  Please see the other side of this newsletter for the orientation handout that was included in the orientation packets.]
MARCH 6TH - 45TH DAY CLEAN-UP ROSTERS DUE BY 3:00 P.M.
Some of you may not be aware of the importance of our "45th day."  Many of our student-driven funding mechanisms involve calculations based on the number of students that we have enrolled.  Since many students may drop out after a few classes, a more accurate head count is attempted by counting the students midway through the semester.  There are two steps to this process:  the first step is to try to correct any wrong information prior to the actual count; the second step is to have you certify that the information is true and accurate.  The "clean-up" roster you are issued is to let you know what's in the system and to give you a chance to correct any enrollment information.  If you do not have any changes to make, you do not need to turn in your clean-up roster.  If you do have changes, then you will need to make sure that your clean-up roster is turned in to Leslie Prehoda in the Enrollment Center before 3:00 p.m. on March 6th.  On March 7th, you will be issued a "certification" roster that must be signed by you and returned no later than March 14th (it is important that you make any changes only to the clean-up roster and not to the certification roster).
E-MAIL DISTRIBUTION LISTS
Almost all of you that attended one of the orientations provided an e-mail address.  I am currently working with each of the department secretaries to establish reliable distribution lists for the adjuncts in each department.  Some of you are already beginning to receive administrative e-mails (MEMOs) via this list and others of you are not yet included.  However, I expect all of the lists to be completed some time this coming week.  If you want to stay informed and "in-the-loop," I strongly encourage you to double-check with your department secretary and confirm that she has your correct e-mail address for this purpose.
"There are about 800,000 words in the English language, some 800 of which are used in daily conversations. Because the 800 words have 14,000 meanings in total, we have trouble interpreting messages as they are intended." - William V. Ruch

SPRING 2003 ADJUNCT FACULTY ORIENTATION
SPECIAL EDITION

To all GCC Adjunct Faculty:

I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!!!

My name is Jim Hamilton and I am your adjunct faculty representative on the President's Advisory Committee (PAC) at GCC.  For the first time, adjunct faculty now have a voice at the executive level in order to address the concerns that are unique to those of us who only have a part-time affiliation with the college.  If you're like most adjuncts, you probably have another job (or two) and, more than likely, don't have a lot of extra time on your hands to help me with the input I need to properly do my job representing you.  However, busy or not, I really need to hear from you!  I need to find out what GCC can do to help you do your job better ... to either enhance the learning experience for your students or to enhance your ability to educate ... or both.  I need specifics as well as generalities that I can then use as a basis for presenting our combined needs to the PAC for consideration.  But I can't do this without hearing from all of you!  So please take a few moments and let me know your thoughts, ideas, and concerns.  You can call me at 623-845-3518 (if I'm not in, please leave a message) or you can write to me at:

jim.hamilton@gcmail.maricopa.edu

NOTE:  Please be assured that anything I receive will not pass beyond me without your express permission.

CHECK OUT THE NEW ADJUNCT FACULTY WEB-SITE!

There's a brand new web-site that has been developed exclusively for the adjunct faculty at GCC.  In one convenient location, you will find a plethora of information that will provide answers to most (if not all) of your questions as well as many handy ideas and tips for making your professional life a whole lot easier.

You will find this veritable cornucopia of information at:

http://www.gc.maricopa.edu/adjunct/
Check it out and see what's now available for you on-line!  If you don't find what you're looking for, or have any comments or suggestions, please take a few moments to let us know by using the feedback link located in the lower right-hand corner of each web page.

This is the first time that an overall orientation has been held specifically for adjunct faculty and I hope that you have found it as interesting and informative as I have.  I would like to hear what each of you thought about it as well as any ideas that you might have to make it better the next time around (each of the subsequent orientations will be for newly-hired adjunct faculty only).  In order to help us all stay in touch electronically, I've created a distribution list (dl-gc-adjunct@gcmail.maricopa.edu) that any of us can use to easily communicate with all the others (i.e., sending e-mail to this address automatically forwards a copy to everyone on the list).  If you'd like to have your e-mail address added to this list so that you'll be "in-the-loop," please let me know and I'll be happy to take care of it.  Here's to our best semester yet at GCC!
jim.hamilton@gcmail.maricopa.edu (623-845-3518)