I am fresh out of Senate and Academic Affairs meetings where a few spicy subjects were discussed, like a proposed modification to AR3730, which would come with a doing away of the “issues” and “personal” listservs, as well as new regulations regarding the use of other college listservs, like “ftf” and “ptf,” which faculty currently use in an entirely unimpeded way. Another issue came up: that all full-time faculty first round interviews would now be held virtually, via Zoom, and not at all in person, even if the pandemic subsides for an extended period of time – or if coronavirus reaches permanent flu-like endemic levels of transmission.
At Senate and Academic Affairs, people were pretty bummed. I mean, not like distraught-bummed, but kind of more “WTH.” Right now, when the college sort of lives in the metaverse of our collective imagination, lots of folks on both committees thought it would only make sense to maintain satellite venues of communication at GCC. At these meetings, a majority, it seemed, expected that full-time interviews with a virtual option would come back into the picture as a hiring modality, and there was surprise that this was/is the new way.
Is living with an occasional provocative or gratuitous thread that pokes this or that wound worth canning two deregulated email spaces? How much and in what way does hiring virtually across the board present an advantage with regard to diversifying hires (which is how the new hiring policy was justified at the Equal Employment Opportunity and College Executive Committee meetings)? And are the advantages of hiring entirely virtually worth letting go of advantages of in-person interviews? As we move forward, collegially developing answers to these questions would appear to be in the offing.
I knew when I became Senate President that there’d be times when I’d feel at fault for something or other. With AR3730, I could’ve gotten more out in front of that discussion and, with the virtual hiring policy, I should’ve asked for that policy change to make the rounds at Senate. I take some but not all responsibility for these narratives transpiring the way they have, and ask you to understand that I will responsibly continue advocacy for the Senate – by advising our administrators that revisions to AR3730 should be withdrawn and that the Senate will likely make recommendations against a totally virtual hiring policy.
In addition to all of that, we are in the process of bringing on a new CEO to GCC, which will no doubt impact these matters and so many others.
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