From: Juliet Garcia, President UTB-TSC
Dr. Pedro Reyes, Executive Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs ad interim
March 21, 2012, Spring 2012 No. 4
Dear Colleagues:
This month marks one year since the final decision was made to end the Partnership between the UT System and the TSC Board of Trustees that operated UTB/TSC since 1991.
As progress is made in the transition process toward full separation of UT Brownsville and Texas Southmost College, it is our intent to continually provide timely and candid communication as it becomes available through both the leadership at UT System and UT Brownsville.
Each milestone in the process serves to design a thriving campus that benefits the educational priorities of our students.
As you recall, the work of imagining UTB as a separate entity began first with a new mission statement developed by our campus community, as well as business and civic leaders, which would guide our work.
The UT System Board of Regents adopted the new mission statement for UT Brownsville in August of 2011:
“The University of Texas at Brownsville draws upon the intersection of cultures and languages at the southern border and Gulf Coast of the United States to develop knowledgeable citizens and emerging leaders who are engaged in the civic life of their community. It embraces teaching excellence, active inquiry, lifelong learning, rigorous scholarship, and research in service to the common good. The University promotes the interdisciplinary search for new knowledge that advances social and physical well-being and economic development through commercialization, while honoring the creative and environmental heritage of its region.”
The next order of business was to develop enrollment models that would identify community college programs that will be discontinued or transferred to TSC. The models would also address academic programs that anticipate reduced need for faculty due to projected enrollment decreases as a result of new admissions standards or programmatic changes.
The modeling predicts a new student body of 7,400 UTB students, or 60 percent of the current student body. It also identifies the reduced number of faculty positions needed in the resized UTB. This spring begins the process of resizing UTB’s core faculty, which will follow the guidelines as outlined in the UT System Regents Rules.
Therefore, a reduction in force process set forth in Regents Rule 31003, Sec. 2 began on March 19th to effectuate these decisions.
Review Committees: Review Committees were formed to review academic programs and faculty positions for elimination. Tenured and tenure-track faculty associated with community college programs will be reviewed by a university-wide committee (the University Review Committee). Tenured and tenure-track faculty in academic departments that will lose positions due to decreased enrollment or for other programmatic reasons will be reviewed by committees at the departmental level (Departmental Review Committees).
Also, Program Review Committees will be formed to review certain non-community college programs being considered for abandonment or reduction in scope.
*The University Review Committee is composed of five faculty members from across the university. Departmental Review Committees will have either three or five members, depending on the size of the department. These committee members were recommended by their respective Deans and the Provost and appointed by the President. Program Review Committees will be composed of five members, including representatives of the University Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and the Graduate Committee, appointed by the President.
*The Provost provided each Review Committee with a specific charge to guide the Committee’s work (the Provost’s Charge). The purpose of the Provost’s Charge is to clearly delineate the specific task of each Review Committee and to provide guidance for the process to be used in their deliberations and in formulating their recommendations.
*Each Review Committee will make recommendations for the elimination of faculty positions to the Provost, based on the Provost’s Charge and the committee’s evaluation of the faculty members being reviewed. Departmental Review Committees will have the opportunity to request permission from the Provost to deviate from his instructions in the Provost’s Charge for exceptional cases.
*If the Review Committee informs the Provost that it intends to recommend a tenured faculty member for termination, the Provost will notify the tenured faculty member and allow him/her to submit written statements and documents advocating for his/her continued employment to the Review Committee.
*An attorney from the Office of General Counsel of The University of Texas System will provide legal advice and counsel to each Review Committee as needed. Recommendations: By May 7, 2012, each Review Committee will have completed its work and will have submitted its final recommendations and rationale to the Provost. The Provost will then submit his recommendation to the President, who will in turn submit her request for approval to the Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.
Notification of Results of Decisions: On or about May 14, 2012, tenured and tenure-track faculty members whose positions have been recommended for termination will be notified and provided information about an incentive program that would allow these faculty to voluntarily resign their positions effective May 31, 2013, in exchange for compensation.
By August 1, 2012, UTB will notify tenured and tenure track faculty members who will be terminated as a result of the reduction in force, and who have elected not to participate in the incentive program, that their employment will end as of May 31, 2013.
Appeal Process:
*Tenured and tenure-track faculty who elected not to participate in the incentive program may appeal the termination decision.
*Appeal Hearing Committees will be constituted to hear appeals. These hearings will be conducted in accordance with Sec. 2 of Regents’ Rule 31003 and the procedures provided by the President or the Provost.
*Tenured faculty in abandoned programs may also request reassignment to positions in other academic programs at the University for which they may be qualified, in accordance with Regents’ Rule 31003, Sec. 2.6.
*Appeal hearings will be conducted in the Fall of 2012. Employment in a New Capacity: Dependent on need, tenured and tenure-track faculty whose positions are eliminated in the reduction in force will have priority in the filling of lecturer positions at UTB beginning in September of 2013.
We anticipate the review process for staff positions to begin in January of 2013. The preliminary timeline would include notification of the staff positions that will be eliminated in the reduction in force to take place during the spring semester with employment to end August 31, 2013.
There is no doubt that the changes ahead will be difficult. We are committed to conducting each process in a manner that is transparent and respectful of the many valuable contributions of the faculty and staff who over the years have in good faith dedicated themselves to their students and to the work of the community university.
Ultimately, as Chancellor Cigarroa reminded us in his recent letter to the campus community, this is not merely a transactional separation of two entities, but most important an extraordinary new beginning for generations of students who will earn a high quality University of Texas degree.
Dr. Pedro Reyes, Executive Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs ad interim
March 21, 2012, Spring 2012 No. 4
Dear Colleagues:
This month marks one year since the final decision was made to end the Partnership between the UT System and the TSC Board of Trustees that operated UTB/TSC since 1991.
As progress is made in the transition process toward full separation of UT Brownsville and Texas Southmost College, it is our intent to continually provide timely and candid communication as it becomes available through both the leadership at UT System and UT Brownsville.
Each milestone in the process serves to design a thriving campus that benefits the educational priorities of our students.
As you recall, the work of imagining UTB as a separate entity began first with a new mission statement developed by our campus community, as well as business and civic leaders, which would guide our work.
The UT System Board of Regents adopted the new mission statement for UT Brownsville in August of 2011:
“The University of Texas at Brownsville draws upon the intersection of cultures and languages at the southern border and Gulf Coast of the United States to develop knowledgeable citizens and emerging leaders who are engaged in the civic life of their community. It embraces teaching excellence, active inquiry, lifelong learning, rigorous scholarship, and research in service to the common good. The University promotes the interdisciplinary search for new knowledge that advances social and physical well-being and economic development through commercialization, while honoring the creative and environmental heritage of its region.”
The next order of business was to develop enrollment models that would identify community college programs that will be discontinued or transferred to TSC. The models would also address academic programs that anticipate reduced need for faculty due to projected enrollment decreases as a result of new admissions standards or programmatic changes.
The modeling predicts a new student body of 7,400 UTB students, or 60 percent of the current student body. It also identifies the reduced number of faculty positions needed in the resized UTB. This spring begins the process of resizing UTB’s core faculty, which will follow the guidelines as outlined in the UT System Regents Rules.
Therefore, a reduction in force process set forth in Regents Rule 31003, Sec. 2 began on March 19th to effectuate these decisions.
Review Committees: Review Committees were formed to review academic programs and faculty positions for elimination. Tenured and tenure-track faculty associated with community college programs will be reviewed by a university-wide committee (the University Review Committee). Tenured and tenure-track faculty in academic departments that will lose positions due to decreased enrollment or for other programmatic reasons will be reviewed by committees at the departmental level (Departmental Review Committees).
Also, Program Review Committees will be formed to review certain non-community college programs being considered for abandonment or reduction in scope.
*The University Review Committee is composed of five faculty members from across the university. Departmental Review Committees will have either three or five members, depending on the size of the department. These committee members were recommended by their respective Deans and the Provost and appointed by the President. Program Review Committees will be composed of five members, including representatives of the University Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and the Graduate Committee, appointed by the President.
*The Provost provided each Review Committee with a specific charge to guide the Committee’s work (the Provost’s Charge). The purpose of the Provost’s Charge is to clearly delineate the specific task of each Review Committee and to provide guidance for the process to be used in their deliberations and in formulating their recommendations.
*Each Review Committee will make recommendations for the elimination of faculty positions to the Provost, based on the Provost’s Charge and the committee’s evaluation of the faculty members being reviewed. Departmental Review Committees will have the opportunity to request permission from the Provost to deviate from his instructions in the Provost’s Charge for exceptional cases.
*If the Review Committee informs the Provost that it intends to recommend a tenured faculty member for termination, the Provost will notify the tenured faculty member and allow him/her to submit written statements and documents advocating for his/her continued employment to the Review Committee.
*An attorney from the Office of General Counsel of The University of Texas System will provide legal advice and counsel to each Review Committee as needed. Recommendations: By May 7, 2012, each Review Committee will have completed its work and will have submitted its final recommendations and rationale to the Provost. The Provost will then submit his recommendation to the President, who will in turn submit her request for approval to the Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.
Notification of Results of Decisions: On or about May 14, 2012, tenured and tenure-track faculty members whose positions have been recommended for termination will be notified and provided information about an incentive program that would allow these faculty to voluntarily resign their positions effective May 31, 2013, in exchange for compensation.
By August 1, 2012, UTB will notify tenured and tenure track faculty members who will be terminated as a result of the reduction in force, and who have elected not to participate in the incentive program, that their employment will end as of May 31, 2013.
Appeal Process:
*Tenured and tenure-track faculty who elected not to participate in the incentive program may appeal the termination decision.
*Appeal Hearing Committees will be constituted to hear appeals. These hearings will be conducted in accordance with Sec. 2 of Regents’ Rule 31003 and the procedures provided by the President or the Provost.
*Tenured faculty in abandoned programs may also request reassignment to positions in other academic programs at the University for which they may be qualified, in accordance with Regents’ Rule 31003, Sec. 2.6.
*Appeal hearings will be conducted in the Fall of 2012. Employment in a New Capacity: Dependent on need, tenured and tenure-track faculty whose positions are eliminated in the reduction in force will have priority in the filling of lecturer positions at UTB beginning in September of 2013.
We anticipate the review process for staff positions to begin in January of 2013. The preliminary timeline would include notification of the staff positions that will be eliminated in the reduction in force to take place during the spring semester with employment to end August 31, 2013.
There is no doubt that the changes ahead will be difficult. We are committed to conducting each process in a manner that is transparent and respectful of the many valuable contributions of the faculty and staff who over the years have in good faith dedicated themselves to their students and to the work of the community university.
Ultimately, as Chancellor Cigarroa reminded us in his recent letter to the campus community, this is not merely a transactional separation of two entities, but most important an extraordinary new beginning for generations of students who will earn a high quality University of Texas degree.
9 comments:
While this process is, no doubt, troubling for the faculty and staff at UTB....the POWER is surely put in Juliet "Queen Scorpiana's" hands to decide who stays and who goes. All committees at UTB have always consisted of people selected and controlled by Juliet. No surprise....Juliet is a dictator and will decide who stays and who goes. The Provost is a "flunkie" with no power....just does Juliet's work. This process is purely a "Juliet purge" where she will keep her allies and dismiss anyone who is not loyal or thought to be not loyal. This will surely cause good professors to retire or leave; while leaving those who are more loyal to Juliet than to their students. What a shame that Juliet is such a "sore loser" and will abandon the faculty to support her vanity. Puro Kardenas Klan filosofia.
On Friday just before Spring Break, late in the day, a number of "pink slips" were delivered to faculty members offices on the UTB/TSC campus. Many, if not most, of the unfortunate recipients had already been somewhat traumatized when the University unilaterally abrogated their tenure track contracts last year. Bad faith is the nicest thing that can be said about all of this. The people I refer to held the now defunct "technical rank". Early on they were promised that they should not worry; the institution would come up with a new rank structure to be "fair." This scam is referred to in the letter above as "Employment in a New Capacity." Of course, let us not dwell on the fact that that capacity will not include tenure (no job security), is likely to include no opportunity for career advancement (promotions or raises), and may involve lowering already abysmally low salaries to the new positions much lower level (traditionally, lecturers are "at will" employees with few rights, massive workloads, and minimal salaries). Worse, the people this victimizes are our friends and colleagues; typically, they hold Master's Degrees and have deep roots in the community. They have been teaching five course loads for some time, unlike the expectation for our PhD's (four courses if that). The institution will be a long time recovering from this betrayal. The teaching faculty are being thrown under the bus, often in the most callous of fashions, with little or no acknowledgement of all of their many contributions to the partnership (to the extent that it succeeded at all, it did so on their backs----UTB is a long way from a tier 1 institution)! Talk to your friends who have given their lives to this community and furthering higher education in the Valley, and look deep into their eyes for the pain and outrage they must feel as they are discarded like yesterdays trash by a high-handed and corrupt administration aided and abetted by a silent and ineffectual Academic Senate.
Kiko Rendon and Juliet Garcia might rod in hell when they leave this planet. They worship God with their mouth and deny him everytime they do wrong to the students in community. Que Idiotas!
What did you expect? This is the only way that this mess created by TSC would end. Thank you Kiko. Thank youTrey. Thank you Rene.
Not going to read this post because the first sentence is, I think, not true. Didn't UT's Board of REGENTS vote to terminate the "partnership" in November of 2010? What is this noise about THIS month (March 2012) marking the one year anniversary of ANYTHING?
A close reading of the Pedro and Julieta letter will reveal that the process is set up by the UT System, following "Regent's Rules" and run by Pedro. In the chain of command, the folks to be fired goes from the Committes, to Provost to Julieta and then Pedro has the final word. In effect Julieta answers to Pedro.
Julieta has been placed on the sidelines for fear she will screw things up with her favoritism and generate multiple law suits. This does allow Julieta to watch her sacred cows lead to slaughter and claim it was none of her doing.
On the TSC side, Dr. Third better get off her duff and start talking to faculty about programs and positions. If she does not do that pretty quick, people will go elsewhere that she might wish she had to help her in in a cold start of TSC. The terminations have already begun and folks are not going to continue to sit around hoping the will have a job at TSC in the face of such total silence.
El Pinche Gringto
@ created by TSC
What are you thinking the partnership contract still had 80 years remaining until the Regents decided to teminate it because they were not able to take over TSC. We are here because of the action of the UTB leadership or lack there of.
Your blaming the wrong person... Juliet has to do what she is doing because of the split by the four PENDEJOS on the board, they are to blame bola de babosos!!!!
Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one, so get over it already! Quit encouraging the administration at UTB to wallow in self pity while unfairly blaming the TSC Board for their supposed shortcomings. It is time to move forward and to help make both institutions the successes they deserve to be. For now, let us remember that another, far more substantial, wave of layoffs is rumored to be at hand, and many faculty on campus, including people who have given their entire professional lives to this community, may face termination within the next month or so. I am talking about good people who made fundamental differences in the lives of the people they touched. Many of you were taught by them. The split is a fact, and it has consequences, some unfortunate, most for the good. But please, take a minute to thank the people who gave their lives to TSC and nurtured our community even before the UTB takeover and who now face an ignominious end to their professional lives. They deserve our thanks.
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