Kaua‘i community college

MAPS Faculty and Staff Reports 2002, 2003

An analysis of the campus data for FY 2006 reveals further growth in staffing. The FY 2006 official position count is 144.5. Thirty-five lecturers were hired in FY 2006. Approximately seven faculty positions are vacant because of enrollment declines in particular areas, e.g., carpentry and office administration. Lecturers have been hired to teach required courses in those areas. Average class size has held steady at 15 or 16 for the past five years while overall enrollment rose in 2001 (1,185) and 2002 (1,224) but has declined in each year since, to 1,059 in Fall 2005. Program review data such as SSH per faculty, student majors per faculty and other measures demonstrate that there are sufficient FTE faculty to effectively deliver courses and services. The ratio of professional staff to clerical staff in the instructional units is 10.8:1 and the overall ratio of professional staff (including faculty, APT and administrators) to clerical staff is 3.48:1.

Self Evaluation

The Program Review and Annual Program Review Update processes provide opportunities for the college to assess efficient use of faculty resources. Although not all units have gone through the full program review process, our faculty and staff recognize the importance of the program review and how it will guide and inform the planning of human resources. In addition, the college has a system of regular peer evaluations, student evaluations, contract renewal, tenure, and promotion review processes in place to provide the opportunity for student, faculty, and administrative input on the use of faculty resources. Since we are a community college, faculty resources also must be assessed in terms of how they best serve the community. To this end, the college has several community advisory committees that provide input to the chancellor, administrators, faculty, and staff. These advisory groups offer important input about how well the college is meeting industry and other community needs.

Another planning tool which the college uses to review staffing requirements regularly is the Multi-Year Plan of Offerings (MYPO). The Rolling Plan of Offerings, compiled each fall semester, establishes the majority of courses to be offered during the following two-year period. Programs analyze factors such as course enrollment histories and community input to determine which courses should be included. The second part of the MYPO examines faculty resources, curriculum, facilities, and other factors affecting program delivery. The two parts of the MYPO help to inform the development of the program-level APRU. Besides past enrollment, we also should survey high school students to anticipate and determine the courses desired.
Kaua‘i Community College is classified as a “comprehensive community college”; yet with diminishing resources and comparatively low enrollment, it often is a challenge for the college to truly be comprehensive in the range of services it provides. The need for a strong liberal arts program must be balanced with the need for vigorous vocational/technical programs. Limited financial resources must be equitably divided. This often leads to hard choices, and limited offerings in some divisions and programs are the inevitable result. For example, due to enrollment issues, the college has had to limit the offerings of 200-level foreign language and art classes. One answer is distance learning. At Kaua‘i Community College, an active distance learning division helps to coordinate online, cable, and HITS (Hawai‘i Interactive Television System) course delivery. The college’s distance-learning division helps students to access all the resources of the UH System, from UH community college class offerings on other islands to upper-division university courses and degree programs.
The number of lecturers has increased significantly over the last five years, as has the number of courses they teach. Yet hiring more full-time faculty is not necessarily the answer. For a variety of reasons, it’s often difficult to retain full-time faculty. For example, in Fall 2003, a full-time math instructor was hired six weeks before school started. This instructor resigned at the end of the year. A lecturer took over a full load of courses for the next academic year. In Fall 2005, another full-time math instructor was hired; this person also resigned at the end of the year. A lecturer may end up teaching more courses if we cannot fill the position by the end of summer. In this case, we have tried, but thus far failed, to maintain the full-time position. Most frequently, resigning faculty cite the high cost of living on Kaua‘i and difficulty adapting to the island culture as prominent factors in their decision to leave. Similar incidents might be avoided in the future if candidates who have been recruited from a distance are more thoroughly informed about the unique challenges of island life.
Another issue regarding staffing hinges upon the college’s relatively low student population. Because of this, it’s often difficult to justify hiring full-time faculty for highly specialized, historically low-enrollment, and elective courses. In addition, faculty must be able to teach multiple courses within each discipline, and occasionally across disciplines. For example, the college currently uses lecturers only to teach art courses, since it would be difficult to recruit an art generalist qualified to teach multiple media. A similar situation exists in the social science division. This department consists of a sociologist and a psychologist. While some faculty members would like to see the addition of an anthropologist, our enrollment records do not justify it. As a small college, Kaua‘i Community College is challenged to rely upon lecturers and to use their services effectively. Lecturers who are actively employed in the field of expertise, such as a lawyer to teach business law, are also used to bring particular skills to the classroom.
An additional human resources challenge will occur when the college – along with colleges nationwide – begins to feel the impact of the large number of faculty who soon will be reaching retirement age. The college needs to plan for this wave of retiring baby boomers and adopt new recruitment strategies.