A committee at City College has saved over $100,000 towards the budget, potentially avoiding additional layoffs in the process.
President Raeanne Napoleon announced that the Non-Teaching Compensation Committee found $111,360.53 in reductions to stipends awarded to employees at the Academic Senate meeting on Wednesday.
“In this effort, the Non-Teaching Compensation Committee has worked with faculty receiving leadership stipends to see if their work has changed since their stipend has been created,” the committee wrote in the proposal.
The savings mostly come from positions that no longer need the stipends. Approximately $70,000 are permanent, but the rest depends on stipends for faculty chairs, which change as departments expand or contract each semester.
Following Superintendent-President Utpal Goswami’s announced budget cuts last semester, the committee was tasked with finding $125,000 in savings—which amounts to approximately an annual full-time faculty salary including benefits.
If the committee hadn’t made the reductions itself, where it knew they could be made with fewer consequences, Goswami would have made the reductions himself—or found them elsewhere.
The committee sent the proposed reductions to Goswami and Executive Vice President Pamela Ralston for approval.
The senate also unanimously approved recommended changes to the structure of the Non-Teaching Compensation Committee after three meetings of discussions.
Senator Patricia Stark said they are “really long-overdue changes,” including changes to the membership of the committee, and the methods used to determine who is eligible to receive a stipend.
Ralston oversees the committee, and will use the recommendations in her ultimate decision on how the future committee will look.
The senate didn’t just talk about committees; student equity was at the center of discussion about a policy that could save many students’ GPAs.
Administrative Procedure 4240, an academic renewal policy, is being revised to cater to the needs of a wide range of students, including returning students who might’ve gotten poor grades in the past.
“The senate can suggest changes to any AP,” Napoleon said, “and that is all that we are doing here.”
On Feb. 24, counselors Ana Garcia and Camila Acosta proposed a change to the existing AP where students could petition to “disregard” up to 30 units of certain classes where they had a C or lower.
“There is broad support for it in our division,” librarian and senator Ellen Carey said.
Many senators supported the change but discussed specifics, like if 30 units was too many and if students should wait six or 12 months before they can petition to renew a class they just took.
Napoleon emphasized that this is a chance for the senate to come together and compromise on a policy that addresses most of the faculty’s concerns.
“Let’s empower faculty voice,” said Napoleon. “What do we want to recommend as a governing body that represents the faculty body?”
The senate didn’t approve a draft at the meeting, but Garcia and Acosta will take the senators’ comments and fine-tune the draft over the next two weeks.
