By Nick Hagan
Tension has been building among FRCC faculty and staff about the pending college-wide reorganization.
The “One-College” model is intended to unify and standardize administration and curriculum across all three FRCC campuses and their online programming.
Despite the reorganization announcement months ago, many faculty and staff still feel unsure about the overall justification for such a major restructuring. Many are saying they feel they have been left out of the conversation.
“[Dr. Simpson] came in like a bulldozer,” said one faculty member who wishes to remain anonymous. “She hasn’t given us any good data to justify this [reorganization] and she hasn’t given us any guidance either.”
Other faculty have voiced similar concerns.
“What’s the plan?” asked another faculty member. “We’re not really being involved in the process.”
Although stronger student support has been cited as a main driver of the reorganization initiative, many faculty don’t understand how students will benefit.
Some faculty have called the One-College reorganization a solution looking for a problem.
“They say they want to make all the campuses the same across the board,” said another FRCC instructor. “But only 1.7% of students ever enroll in multiple campuses.” This was confirmed in an email recently shared with the FRCC Reporter.
Faculty have expressed concerns over the administrative aspects of the reorganization as well. Many are skeptical of a centralized system.
Under the One-College model, department chairs currently serving specific campuses would be replaced by what FRCC is referring to as “point people” and the chairs would be moved off the campuses to oversee their departments college-wide.
Some faculty feel as though removing campus-specific department chairs would not only complicate communication between administration and faculty and staff, but also increase faculty workloads.
Other faculty are averse to the added layers of administration.