The number of full-time faculty members at Texas State Technical College Harlingen is adequate to support the mission of the institution. Texas State Technical College Harlingen has adequate faculty resources to ensure the quality and integrity of its instructional programs.
The TSTC Harlingen administrator primarily responsible for Core Requirements 2.8 is Pat Hobbs, Vice President for Student Learning [Ref 1]. Other instructional administrative staff reporting to the Vice President for Student Learning also associated with responsibilities for this Principle include the Associate Vice President for Student Learning, Cathy Maples; the instructional support directors; the five division directors; and all department chairs. Working in conjunction with the instructional administrative staff in regard to this requirement is the Vice President for Student Development, Servando Villarreal [Ref 2], who supervises the Director of Support Services, Sandra Rodriguez-Garza. Also working in conunction with instructional administrative staff is the Vice President for Administrative Services, Mike Buck [Ref 3], who supervises the Director of Network and Telecommunication Services, Dawn Quinn; and the Printing Production Supervisor, Arnold Garza. The Human Resources Director, Mary Prepejchal, who supervises the Staff Development Officer, Delia Leal, also works in coordination with Instructional Administration on this requirement.
Texas State Technical College Harlingen faculty supports 32 Associate of Applied Science degree programs, 32 certificate of completion programs, and 4 non-major options [Ref 4]. As of Fall 2003, the College had 5 professors, 17 associate professors, 24 master instructors, 17 senior instructors, and 92 instructors, for a total of 155 full-time faculty members instructing 4,246 students. The average class size in Spring 2004 is 20 students per faculty member [Ref 5].
TSTC Harlingen faculty productivity guidelines [Ref 6], as outlined in COP 3.21, Faculty Productivity [Ref 7], create the expectation that technical faculty will maintain a weekly teaching load of 18-24 hours in classroom or laboratory instructional activities. General education faculty members are expected to maintain a 15-hour load, normally five courses of three semester credit hours each. These standards must be met by a department before overload pay or adjunct faculty are authorized. The published job description for an instructor [Ref 8] details the range of expectations of a faculty member at TSTC Harlingen. These responsibilities include teaching, committee participation, curriculum development, advisement, and other duties as assigned that should approximate the 40-hour work week that is expected of all State of Texas employees.
The Vice President for Student Learning uses an informal management tool referred to as the Program Vitality Study [Ref 9] to generally determine the faculty staffing requirements for each instructional program. Among the calculations included within this planning document is the calculation of "justified" faculty based upon the production of 5,200 (5,600 for academic disciplines) contact hours per full-time faculty member for each department in accordance with Policy 3.21, Faculty Productivity [Ref 7]. This information, when compared to existing budgeted faculty levels, is used by the Vice President as one consideration in making planning decisions regarding faculty staffing increases or reductions for subsequent years.
Discrepancies between justified and budgeted faculty levels are reviewed with Division Directors to determine if the number of faculty requires adjustment. Individual program characteristics, cross-teaching between related departments, external regulatory agency requirements regarding faculty-to-student ratios, and the nature of the instruction, i.e., required clinical/practicum hours in health programs, require faculty hiring level decisions to be made on an individual program basis rather than using the Program Vitality Study as a strict determinate for such decisions.
The percentage of courses taught by adjunct faculty at TSTC Harlingen in Fall 2003 was 10.6%. As stated in COP 3.74, Employing Adjunct Faculty [Ref 10], the college utilizes primarily full-time faculty. Adjunct faculty members are employed when necessary to eliminate teaching overloads or when an adjunct teaching load develops in a curricular area in which currently employed full-time faculty members are not qualified.
Faculty Resources
Clerical Support. To assist in the accomplishment of their entrusted duties, faculty members are provided appropriate secretarial support within the instructional buildings in which they are housed. The Table of Secretarial Support [Ref 11] indicates the placement of secretaries by divisions in all instructional buildings across campus, roughly determined by the number of programs, faculty and students served in those respective locations. This distribution is reviewed annually by the Division Directors and the Vice President for Student Learning when making budget decisions each year and is adjusted as required and as funds are available.
Instructional Media Center. The Instructional Media Center [Ref 12] provides a full range of services to faculty which include the following: instructional video production, including full services of planning, special effects, computer graphics, editing and image acquisition; instructional multimedia production, which includes development, planning, scriptwriting, authoring, three-dimensional graphics, audio production; college-wide delivery of video, overhead, data projectors, laptops, slide, audio recording and playback equipment; public address and digital photographic services; PowerPoint presentation production; transparency production for overhead projection, including color and black and white; audio/video cassette duplication; lamination services; instructional video library, including over 350 videotapes for general instructional usage and videotapes produced on campus; satellite downlink services; computer-based instructional artwork; sign and banner production; instructional equipment maintenance; and faculty training and support of linear presentations and computer-assisted instruction. The Media Center also provides college support for such activities as recruitment, faculty and staff development programs, industry training, and public information productions. On the 2003 Instructional Media Center Survey, 100% of faculty and staff responded that the overall effectiveness of Media Center operations was above average to superior [Ref 13]. The Media Center also provides faculty and staff training in the production of effective instructional materials and in the use of audio/visual equipment, such as overhead projectors, data projectors, and Smart Boards. Faculty members are invited to use faculty workrooms in the Media Center equipped with computers.
Printing Production Services. Printing services for TSTC Harlingen are housed at the Service Support Center. The Print Shop [Ref 14] provides duplicating, collating, folding, stapling, punching, binding and paper cutting services. The Print Shop prepares handouts and examinations for faculty members, as well as brochures, newsletters, booklets, envelopes, stationery, and business cards for college-wide use.
Learning Resource Center (LRC). The LRC [Ref 15] offers a full compliment of support services for faculty. The facility is open seven days a week. A member of the professional library staff is on-site at all times during its 72 hours of operation. An orientation to the library's resources and services is provided to all new instructors and new Department Chairs by the Library Director as part of the Instructor Level Certification and Department Chair training programs. Faculty members are encouraged to bring their students to a tailor-made library orientation. Additionally, all employees have remote access to online databases provided by the library's proxy server. The expanding multimedia collection is available to the faculty as a supplement to their instruction. All non-print materials are listed in the on-line catalog. A microfilm/fiche reader/printer, color printer/copier and color fax machine are available for their use. TexShare cards are provided on request so that faculty can check books out from participating academic libraries throughout the state. Interlibrary loans are provided free of charge.
Instructional Development Services (IDS). This department is responsible for coordinating all faculty training in the effective delivery of instruction and for assisting faculty in the development of instructional planning, execution, evaluation and classroom management instruments. IDS is also responsible for administering the Program Assessment and Improvement Team (PAIT) process [Ref 16], TSTC Harlingen's internal program review process. IDS provides the Instructor Level Certification Program [Ref 17] for all new faculty members and serves as liaison for all adjunct faculty members.
Staff Development. Faculty members are encouraged to attend all workshops coordinated and/or provided by the Staff Development Officer through the Human Resources Department. These are advertised monthly on the Staff Development Calendar [Ref 18]. All of the workshops coordinated through Staff Development are described in the Faculty and Staff Course Offerings on the HR web page [Ref 19]. Also, faculty are encouraged to take any of over 1200 online courses, sponsored by Xtreme Learning; these Internet-based programs range in topics from computer training to improving interpersonal skills.
Instructional Technology. Faculty are encouraged to attend training workshops in instructional technology offered by the Director of Distance Learning [Ref 20], the instructional technology specialists, and Media Center staff. Training programs include the use of WebCT for supplemental course instruction, development of webpages, PowerPoint presentation development and delivery, use of the Smart Board, scanning images into PowerPoint presentations, online course development, use of the college administrative software, Colleague, and an introduction to interactive videoconferencing technology. This instruction takes place in the Training Resource Center [Ref 21], a state-of-the-art sixteen-station computer lab for faculty and staff technology training and usage conveniently located in the Science and Technology Building.
Collaborative Projects. This department [Ref 22] serves a crucial faculty resource to instructional programs participating in dual and concurrent enrollment programs, such as College Connections and Tech Prep. Instructional support services include recruiting, registering, and tracking students in programs offered. In addition, the department provides in-service training and essential liaison duties with participating secondary schools, colleges and universities. The department is also responsible for developing, reviewing, maintaining, and renewing all articulation agreements between TSTC Harlingen and other educational entities.
Placement Services. While this department is primarily responsible for providing placement services to students, the department assists technical programs by tracking graduate employment for state statistical reporting, by providing technical programs with statistical data related to program placement rates, by conducting graduate follow-up and employer satisfaction surveys, and by performing follow-up and tracking activities needed to obtain survey responses. The Director also offers training sessions for faculty related to understanding statistical data and to providing effective in-house placement services. An annual job fair is scheduled during which interviews with participating employers are scheduled. The Director is also responsible for assisting individual programs or divisions with job placement services including mini-job fairs directed at particular job clusters, interviewing skills seminars, and job search workshops offered at the department level and for the general student population. The Director maintains a database of potential employers for graduates in the technical programs and encourages faculty to send students to the office where they can post their resumes on the Placement Services web page [Ref 23].
Student Success Office. This department is responsible for assisting faculty in the improvement of retention rates within programs. The director provides relevant training workshops for faculty related to improving student/instructor relationships, effective advisement techniques, and innovative teaching methodologies designed to improve retention.
Support Services. While the Support Services department is primarily concerned with providing a wide variety of student academic support services, the department sponsors awareness and sensitivity trainings for faculty and staff in regards to Special Populations. The department also provides faculty with invaluable support in the development of accommodation strategies in their classrooms for the students served through the Support Services department.
Information Systems and Technology [Ref 24] provides infrastructure and support services for all campus electronic communication. IS&T plans, installs and maintains appropriate network infrastructure. Every faculty member has a private telephone extension with voice mail capability and an office personal computer with access to the Internet, Groupwise (the TSTC System e-mail system), and a network or local printer. Additionally, IS&T manages the general campus computer labs which are open to all TSTC Harlingen students, staff, and faculty. Installation, connection, and maintenance services are provided to over 2500 network computer systems and 67 computer labs.
