Practical Matters: The FA's Community Outreach Program

by Sarah Kain Gutowski, Chair, New Member Mentoring Program

Did you know that the A-form (our application for promotion) specifically asks about your involvement in our community? (To wit: "Professionally related community activities in cultural, educational, and benevolent organizations")

While promotion shouldn't be your primary reason for contributing to your community, it probably helps to know that the college cares about and values your service to our community outside the college. So if you were hesitant to do community service, and wondering about whether or not you could or should sacrifice any of your hard-earned down-time, consider that you will benefit from donating that time -- although I'm pretty sure our community partners will benefit more. And yes, union-organized community service events count.

Finally, some beautiful spring weather.

What kind of union-organized community service events am I talking about? I'm glad you asked. (Okay, I'm pretending you asked.) They include:

• Suffolk AHRC (Association for the Help of Retarded Children) plant sales on the Ammerman and Grant campuses during the spring and fall semesters.
• Participation in the American Cancer Society's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walks in October of each year.
• Professors on Wheels, our home-grown community outreach program that provides mini-lectures, classes and workshops on a variety of topics to local nursing homes, rehabilitation centers and libraries.

Obviously, the first two options are very specific in terms of date and time and content. If you're interested in volunteering for a future AHRC plant sale, email anita [at] fascc.org and she'll make sure you're on the list for next semester. If you'd like to walk to support breast cancer research on behalf of the FA, make sure you read The Word when we return in the fall to be informed about where and when the FA will be participating in the Jones Beach walk, as well as how to donate money towards this important cause.

Professors on Wheels, however, offers you a little more flexibility in terms of time and subject. When you participate in Professors on Wheels, you pick the topic, presentation-type (i.e. lecture or workshop), and length of your "course" offering -- most faculty play to their strengths and choose topics that are related to their field or discipline but appeal to a general audience. A 100-word description of the course, along with a brief biography, is required as an application -- this write up is then passed to our community partners, and they decide, based on their participants' interests, which workshops or lectures they'd like to bring to their location.

Professors on Wheels has received a lot of praise and won some well-deserved attention from local news outlets -- it's a high-profile, highly-engaging and rewarding way to donate your time and expertise to the surrounding community.

If you'd like to become part of Professors on Wheels, visit fassc.org and click the link under "Community Outreach" to download the application. Send it to Ray DiSanza (disanzr [at] sunysuffolk.edu) or Anita, and they'll make sure you're added to the roster of participating faculty.

Practical Matters: Grievance, Arbitration, and Mediation

by Sarah Kain Gutowski, Chair, New Member Mentoring Program

I'd like to think that your first academic year here at SCCC has gone smoothly and that you've found your working conditions here optimal. Also, I'd hope that if you've run into anything problematic, you've addressed your concerns with your mentor first and they've provided you with some sound and useful advice for tackling the problem.

If you ever run into a problem that seems larger than your mentor, academic chair, or department supervisor can handle -- specifically, one that includes a violation of our contract -- OR, if your academic chair or department supervisor is part of the problem (fingers crossed, that won't be the case) -- that's an appropriate time to ask the FA's Grievance Officer, Dante Morelli, about filing a grievance.
  

Any member of the bargaining unit -- even those who aren't voting union members -- may be represented by the union when he or she files a grievance. Just remember that timeliness is a real and pressing issue; if you're going to file a grievance, you need to do so within 30 days of when you noticed the violation (or should have noticed the violation).

Once the grievance has been filed, the FA will work to settle the matter satisfactorily through arbitration. But if you're someone who'd like to avoid the grievance and arbitration process, the FA has a brand new Conflict Mediation Program (CMP) to help you do just that.  

The CMP assists its members in addressing conflict proactively and confidentially before problems become bigger problems. Several FA members, all of whom undergo intensive training, are available to provide neutral, judgment-free, confidential mediation between members, or between members and administration or staff, in a confidential, safe space. Did I mention that it's confidential? Everyone involved must sign a confidentiality agreement. Additionally, it's important to remember that all parties must approach mediation willingly and in good faith. It doesn't work -- in fact, it's not a true mediation -- if one of the parties feels like he or she has been coerced or forced to participate.

For more information about the CMP, contact Dante Morelli at 451-4963.

Note that most grievances don't approach arbitration because they can be resolved beforehand -- sometimes through the CMP and sometimes less formally -- but if they do go to arbitration (and the FA decides which grievances go to arbitration and which do not), your union will be there for you.

Practical Matters: Mid-Semester Mania and Withdrawal from Courses

by Sarah Kain Gutowski, Chair, New Member Program

Congratulations to our new members for reaching the mid-semester mark in your first or second semester as full time faculty at SCCC. This is no small feat; by now, particularly if you're teaching faculty and deeply entrenched in mid-term exams or paper grading, you're beginning to feel the weight of your tasks, big and small. You may even be able to see that weight quite literally, as all of the grading begins to stack up on your desk or fill your briefcase or backpack.

This is also the point in the semester where I find I'm most frequently reminded of all the burdens our students are carrying, too. I issue mid-term academic alerts and watch a line of anxious faces form at the front of the classroom, attempting to speak with me before class about missing assignments and less-than-acceptable grades. I'm met in my office hours with students who wish to let me know that because of their 1) caregiver schedule 2) employer demands 3) change in career plans, they're considering withdrawing from my course.

As you may have noticed, Wednesday was the deadline for students to withdraw from courses on their own -- they could have done so at the registrar or through their MYSCCC accounts. Usually, I put this deadline into my course outlines and remind students via announcements in class and/or class emails and posts in Blackboard, as a courtesy and a facet of my role as a faculty advisor (new students simply aren't aware of most college policies at this point).

My spring break was spent "finding" my writing desk again. Yours?

Many students, however, don't realize their grade is in jeopardy before this deadline: in fact, as I've been finding this week, many students realize it the day AFTER the deadline has passed. I don't know why they ignore repeated warnings to check their grades before the deadline: they just do. And when they realize their grade is less-than-satisfactory, they show up at your office door, panicked and contrite or angry and defensive or ambiguous and ambivalent (or a messy combination of all three).

Of course the first thing we should do, as responsible faculty and caring advisors, is see where our students might improve their study or work habits to increase their grade point average over the remaining weeks. Some students will respond admirably to this approach and do whatever they need to do to pass the course by May. Others, however, will be less sure of themselves and wish to abandon the endeavor completely. Those students will ask you for a withdrawal. Or, more commonly, they'll simply disappear -- that is, they won't return to class, although you may see them slinking by you on campus, trying to remain unnoticed.

As new teaching faculty (if you're new teaching faculty) it's important that you know the reach of the withdrawal or "W" grade. First, know that we do not -- yet -- have an official withdrawal policy (which is ridiculous, and entrenched in campus politics, but nevertheless, a sad fact). So the following is advice from a faculty member who believes that we should know the implications of each and every grade we assign.

Students may not withdraw from a class after the mid-semester deadline of their own volition. At this point, they must go to the registrar's office, find withdrawal slips, fill them out, and have you sign them. Second, before you sign a withdrawal (or assign it as a final grade at the end of the semester), you and your students should understand how the W grade will affect them if they are receiving financial aid.

If a student is taking the minimum number of credits to be considered full-time (12), and then they take or are assigned a "W" grade -- even at the end of the semester -- their credit load for the semester is reduced. The student's financial aid, calculated based on the number of courses the student takes each semester, is also adjusted accordingly.

This means that students who take the minimum number of courses may be reduced to part-time status once they receive a grade of "W," and their part-time status will reduce the amount of financial aide for which they are eligible in future semesters. Most students in their first semester here are unaware of this consequence; in fact, most students -- even those in third or fourth semesters -- are unaware of the potential problems created for them by the "W" grade.

Ideally, any "W" assigned after the mid-semester point should be done because of extenuating circumstances. As teaching faculty and advisors to our students, we need to be discrete in our assignment of the "W" grade and assign it only when a student as requested the "W" and understands -- fully and unequivocally -- the potential effects if he or she is receiving financial aid. While we may wish to be kind and assign a "W" to those students who disappear from our classes a day or two after the withdrawal deadline, it's unwise to use the "W" if you haven't had a frank conversation with the student about what it means.

In May, if you have students who have disappeared mysteriously from your classroom but remained on your roster, and if you are adverse to assigning them the failing grades that they mostly likely deserve (you old softie!), I recommend emailing them and asking if they wish to receive a "W," and if they're aware of the implications and (very real, sometimes very devastating) effects of a "W" grade. Some of these students will be paying out of pocket for their classes and will be surprisingly cavalier about their grade(s). Others, particularly those receiving aid, will be grateful for the consideration and advisement and may prefer to take the "F" so that they may retain their full-time status and continue receiving their aid.

Even if you elect not to email "ghost" students at the end of the semester, at least you can assign failing grades knowing that, in the long run, it is usually the wiser, kinder course of action -- and that the "W"grade, when assigned without discretion, can be more of a burden than a gift to the student who couldn't get his or her act together this semester.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go get my act together -- at this time of the year, our students aren't the only ones in the weeds.

Plan for the Future: Purposeful Service and Your Career at Suffolk

by Sarah Kain Gutowski, Chair, New Member Mentoring Program 

Happy Spring Break, New Members. I hope everyone withstood the snow and rain yesterday and that your recess has been peaceful, productive and restful.

This week I received a significant letter from the college, one that we spend much of our academic career working toward at SCCC: a letter from the president of the college informing me that he'd approved my "promotion in academic rank from Associate to Professor," effective at the beginning of our next academic year.

Yay! Finally!

This was a joyful moment, and also a kind of underwhelming one. Underwhelming simply because not much is going to change in my academic/work life after this point -- there will be no magical shift or transformation that signals the end of an era or a dramatic end to my involvement at the college. For the most part (with one or two exceptions), my career post-promotion is going to look very similar to my career over the past few years. This is because for the second half of my career here, I've been trying to practice deliberation, and be much for mindful, before accepting service opportunities.

Service to the college comprises a large part of our responsibilities as faculty, and -- sometimes practically, sometimes theoretically -- also helps the college function. You're probably already familiar with some aspect of service through conversations with your mentor or departmental meetings; however, your first year as a faculty member is not supposed to be one that's heavy in committee work or meetings. Your eligibility for your first promotion, though, is going to arrive much faster than you expect -- so it's good to begin, particularly when you have some down time during spring recess, to plan your career and what that might look like.

I spoke about this kind of thing last semester at our FA Discussion Series event titled "What You Need to Know In Your First Year (and Beyond)," but if you missed it, and if you were to search The Undercurrent's archive of previous New Member Discussion Series events, you'd find many posts on this topic -- most notably, "The Longview: Anticipating and Planning Your Career at SCCC" and "On Purpose." Reading through those posts might help -- hopefully will help -- you create a long-term plan that will guide you through the next few years. 

I write "the next few years" because we need to allow flexibility in our planning. We need to know that aspects of the college are going to change, committees will come and go, opportunities to be on those committees will come and go, and you'll have to revise your perspective, both short-term and long-term, accordingly. But being aware of what is possible at this point in your career, and being mindful of your interests and values, your level of expertise, your available time, and your goals for the future can help you avoid dedicating time and effort to committees that aren't the right fit (for you or them). 

Granted, sometimes you don't know that a committee isn't a good fit until you've served on it for a semester. If this happens to you, don't be afraid to gracefully and expediently excuse yourself from the group. There are always new service opportunities that will arise. There will always be faculty members who can take your place while you find a better way to serve your department, your campus, and the college.

So to that end, as I am happily, officially, and finally at the end of the oft-dreaded promotion cycle, I am pleased to share with you these highlights from "What You Need to Know In Your First Year (and Beyond)":

Create a Plan from a Vision or Desire 

1. Answer this question: Where you see yourself in ten years? (OR, What do you want to do with your next decade?)

• At Suffolk County Community College
• As a professional in your field or discipline
• Personally 

2.  Consider (i.e. write down) your various areas of responsibility at the college:

• Teaching and Other Duties (Other duties = the daily lives of non-classroom faculty)

• Service to the College and Community
• Department/Area
• Campus
•  College
• Community

• Personal and Professional Growth 
• Research and Scholarship

 3. Break down your 10-year plan by aligning it with:

• Daily Duties (Teaching/Non-Teaching) 
• Departmental Service
• Campus Service
• College Service
• Community Service
• Professional Development

 4.  Now that you've taken your "Future Self" and divided him or her six different ways, consider: Which area holds the most challenging or ambitious "future self"?

5. Next, consider: Where do I stand now in each of the following areas?

• Daily Duties (Teaching/Non-Teaching)
• Departmental Service 
• Campus Service 
• College Service 
• Community Service 
• Professional Development

6. Make rules for yourself, follow them, and try again if you mess up.

• Example: I must take a week to consider before beginning any new projects or commitments
• Take stock of your other commitments
• Consider whether or not, realistically, you could handle the additional responsibility
• If you can, great
•  If not, do not fret 

7. Make a conscious effort to think about your main goals as an educator (this comes from faculty member Jill Malik, Social Science)

• What are your main goals in the classroom?
• What are your obligations to students?
• What are their obligations as students in your classroom? 

8. Practice and Hone the Fine Art of Saying No

• It’s okay, and advisable, to reject responsibilities that don’t reflect your plan, vision, or interests
• They will find someone else
• You will be offered other opportunities

9. Make realistic expectations for yourself and your students and your colleagues (also from Jill Malik, except I added the part about colleagues)

• Slow start with committee work is the best start
• Talk to colleagues about your plans – bounce ideas off them to realize and/or prevent unrealistic expectations
• Adjust assignments according to your new number of students and/or courses

10. Meet the students halfway (this comes from Misty Curreli, Sociology)

• Commit to the idea of being transparent about the policies and procedures and why they are the way they are
• Explain to the students how to use the textbook, what purposes the assignments serve (what it evaluates and how it adds to their skill sets
• Watch for and reflect on your assumptions of student behavior and then ground yourself not in ego but in what’s pedagogically best for the students

11. Surround yourself with mentors (this comes from Jared Dowd, Counselor)

• FA New Member Program Mentor
• Academic Chairs and Deans
• Colleagues

12. Reach across departments and divisions for mentoring, expertise, and collaboration (this comes from Jason Ramirez, Communication and Art)

13. Remember the importance of networking (this comes from Teri Morales, Counselor and Adjunct Faculty) 

• Within the college
• Outside the college

14. Take advantage of what Suffolk has to offer (also from Jared Dowd, Counselor)

• Professional Development Workshops
• Monday Morning Mentor emails 
• Assisting Student Activities, and/or becoming a club advisor

 15. “Start small, end BIG” (also from Jason Ramirez, Communication and Art)

• Effective teaching flourishes with a concentration on clear goals and objectives
• Allow for new technologies of instruction whenever possible
• Allow your students to bring their classroom to the rest of the campus
• Ask yourself, “What can I share, based on my expertise, with the classroom, campus, and college-wide community?”
• Reach out to the larger community whenever possible

16. Maintain your passion(s) (also from Teri Morales, Counselor and Adjunct Faculty)

• Surround yourself with positive people and feed off their enthusiasm

17. Have compassion for yourself (also from Misty Curreli, Sociology)

• It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, unsure, and/or exhausted. 
• You should acknowledge ON A DAILY BASIS what you’ve accomplished despite any feelings to the contrary

18. Don’t neglect your own scholarly development (also from Jason Ramirez, Communication and Art)

• Keep an eye out for conference calls for papers and scholarly opportunitiesUtilize any and all grant opportunities you come across throughout the year
• Don’t forget to investigate possible publication opportunities, both in your field of expertise and your pedagogical development
• Reach out to the union if you need to (It is always important to know what is contractually expected of you)

 19. Protect your time (also from Misty Curreli, Sociology) 

• You deserve some personal, non-working time to give your mind a break 
• This takes discipline and it also requires that you be alright with keeping some uncompleted things on the to-do list until the next workday

20. Maybe You Have Two Careers, Not One. Plan Accordingly.

• Example: A teaching artist teaches students, and she exhibits, publishes, and promotes her work
• Reserve/block out time (weekly, monthly, by semester) in your schedule for duties in all areas of both careers:
• Grading   
• Committee Work
• Email
• Office Hours
• Research & Writing
• Presentations & Conference Attendance

 

Practical Matters: The FA's Executive Council

by Sarah Kain Gutowski, Chair, New Member Program

If you would like a particular issue brought to the attention of the FA (separate from a grievance) your Executive Council Representative is the person you should contact.

An EC Representative's primary charge is to serve as a liaison between the union's membership and its officers. You may have noticed, however, that our officers are pretty approachable and easy to speak to, so the other significant function of the Executive Council is that it occasionally acts as a decision-making, or governing, body within the union.

 

Because that's a fairly important charge, EC Representatives are elected by members within their academic areas (although some academic areas are grouped together). This is one of the reasons it's so important to become a voting member of the union. (If you haven't yet, please do!) You'll find the following list of EC Representatives available also on the FA's web site under Contact information: 

The Executive Council 

Ammerman Campus Representatives
Area	Representative
Nursing, Health & Human Services	Lisa Aymong
Music, Art, Theater, Philosophy, Women Studies	Alex Nohai-Seaman
Library, Central	Krista Gruber
Social & Behavioral Studies, Legal Studies	Christina Bosco
English	Kim Ng-Southard
Business Admin, Business Information Systems, Accounting	Kevin McNamara
Biology & Physical Science	Matt Pappas
Counseling	Matt Zisel
Engineering, Computer Science, Industrial Technology	Mike Simon
Math	Jane-Marie Wright
Communications	Melanie Weinstein-Zeolla

Grant Campus Representatives
Area	Representative
Business Programs	Ali Laderian
Nursing, Health Science, PE, Veterinary	Alice Tobin
Social Science	Andrea Macari
Library, Counseling, Liberal Arts	Bruce Seger
Natural Science & Math	Davorin Dujmovic
Humanities	Janet Simpson

Eastern Campus Representatives
Area	Representative
Science, Math, Social Science, Business, Nursing, Culinary, PE	Nic Pestieau
Library, Humanities, Counseling	Nina Acquavita
PA / Specialist Representatives
Area	Representative
Programmatic	Lisa Behnke
Instructional Labs	Deb Kiesel
Technical Areas and Instructional Centers	Andrew Stone

Practical Matters: How to Stay Current in Your Field Without Breaking the Bank, Part II: Faculty Retraining and Development Fund

by Sarah Kain Gutowski, Chair, New Member Program

Greetings, new members! I hope you managed to survive the snowfall of last week without any traffic accidents or lack of electricity, and that this week your classes and meetings and daily tasks are comfortably back on schedule. 

Remember our last blog post, when I wrote about Conference Reimbursement? I just want to emphasize how fortunate we are to have a faculty union that negotiated, and continues to protect, our right to funding for professional development. $1700 per person, particularly when multiplied by our membership, seems like a lot of money, doesn't it? And, of course, it is -- but we have to remember that $1700 is intended to stretch across two years. If you're familiar with the rising cost of airfare -- and/or the astronomical costs of staying in "the" conference hotel for the duration of a conference -- you'll know that this $1700 is not going to last beyond, well, one or two conferences (depending, of course, on how long you stay and how far away the conference is located). 

Conferences (and the books you purchase at them) are expensive.

In your first years as a tenure-track faculty member, you'll be expected to stay current in your field by attending relevant local and/or regional conferences. There's no magic number -- although I'd suggest that a minimum of one per year demonstrates a comfortable commitment to one's professional development. With each subsequent promotion, however, and as with most aspects of your career, the stakes are raised the higher you climb toward full Professor or PA 2 or Specialist 2. You'll be expected to attend -- and eventually present at -- larger, more widely-recognized events on a national scale.

This, of course, will take money. My trip to LA in March of last year, for instance, to attend the annual conference of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP), cost well over $1700. Such is life -- it's the premier conference in my field and I was presenting on a panel, so I said "bye-bye" pretty swiftly to my conference allowance.

SO. When I attended AWP last week in Washington, D.C., I had to pay out of pocket with no chance of reimbursement for my expenses, right?

Not necessarily. Because, well, I'm a planner by nature, I knew I'd want to attend the conference this year. Additionally, I knew that the Faculty Association has ALSO negotiated with the college and county for additional funds for faculty development and retraining: $30,000 per year, to be exact. Assistance for the next academic period is awarded to faculty who apply by April 15 of each year. The committee that oversees these applications awards funds first and foremost to faculty who require retraining. Then, after retraining needs have been met, those faculty who have applied for assistance for faculty development (like my attendance at the summer writers' conference) are awarded based on the strength of a faculty member's application and the amount of money still available in the fund.

So if you anticipate attending a conference or two next year -- and if you suspect you'll use your entire $1800 conference allowance pretty early, like yours truly (remember, the amount increases in September) -- you should consider applying for Faculty Retraining and Development assistance this spring. One way to make sure you understand the process and follow it correctly is to attend a Faculty Retraining and Development workshop one of our three campuses this semester, held by new FA Secretary Cynthia Eaton.

The Ammerman Campus workshop was last week -- but that doesn't mean you can't attend on a different campus if you're interested in learning more. The dates for the remaining workshops, held during common hour (11:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m.) are as follows:

Wednesday, February 15 (tomorrow!) on the Grant Campus in Captree 104.

Wednesday, February 22 (next week!) on the Eastern Campus in Corchaug 18.

Of course, if you can't make either of these workshops, simply email Cynthia Eaton with your concerns at cynthia [at] fascc.org. She'll be happy to help. Or ask your mentor, who may be able to answer your questions after having gone through the process him or herself. 

(And if you are interested in attending one of these workshops, give Cynthia a heads up by registering here.)

Practical Matters: How to Stay Current in Your Field Without Breaking the Bank, Part I: Conference Attendance & Reimbursement

by Sarah Kain Gutowski, Chair, New Member Mentoring Program

By now, hopefully you've settled into your second semester as a full-time faculty member quite nicely. You're fully prepped for classes or you resumed your duties shortly after the holiday -- and now you feel comfortable enough with your regular job duties to venture out to some conferences or seminars for a little professional development.

Maybe you feel like engaging in some pretty major professional development. In fact, maybe the  professional development opportunity takes place in another state. Maybe that state is far away, like, say, California. Maybe the city in California is a fairly expensive city, like, oh, Los Angeles. Maybe you need to stay for three or four days just to attend all of the panel discussions and workshops and poster sessions that would make a trip like that worth the trouble and expense. 

And maybe your bank account will be flat-out busted by the time you're done paying for expenses like registration fees, air fare, lodging, and meals.

Or wait -- maybe it won't be! 

One of the most beneficial parts of the contract negotiated by our Faculty Association is the part that provides for 1) "T" days that you make take (instead of sick days or personal leave days) for conference attendance and 2) reimbursement for expenses such as the ones listed above. According to our most recent Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), each faculty member is allotted a total of $1700 to attend conferences over the next two years -- from September 2015 to September 2017. In September 2017, the amount allotted increases to $1800. 

The annual conference I'll attend tomorrow! Yay!

How do I access this money? you ask. Great question! The answer is, like at most institutions, slowly and sometimes painfully and through the careful application to the college's administration via forms -- a necessary evil, and one that shouldn't prove too cumbersome or unwieldy provided that you download the right forms and follow the proper steps. 

1. First, you need to submit a request at least six weeks prior to the date of the conference or professional obligation. The request form requires you to estimate the cost of travel, hotel, registration, meals, etc. and support it with documents that prove your intention to attend the event (like a conference registration receipt, or the letter that confirms your participation as a reader or panelist). You can find this form here, as well as the Travel Expense Voucher (see below) on the front page of the college's governance web site. (Wait -- you didn't know we even had a college governance web site? This post is chock full of information, isn't it? More on college governance later -- that's a story for a later blog!)
2. You'll need to have this form signed by your academic chair -- he or she must approve your attendance first -- and then you (or the chair) needs to give the form to your department's administrative assistant. He or she will forward this on to the Executive Dean's office for your campus. 
• Note: Why can't you just forward it to the Executive Dean's office yourself? Well, the administrative assistant for your department needs to know about (i.e. actually see; become familiar with) the request because eventually, after the Executive Dean approves the request and forwards the appropriate material to the Business Office, he or she will need to enter a requisition into Banner for you, which will generate a Purchase Order Number, which will result in you being reimbursed the requested funds. If these steps aren't followed, you won't receive a payment. So long story short is: fill out the paperwork, have it signed, give it to the department administrative assistant.
3. Once the Executive Dean's office and the Central Business Office have finished doing their thing, they'll send you a nice letter in the mail notifying you that your conference attendance has been approved. Also, they'll provide you with copies of the College Business/Contractual Travel Payment Request Form & Instructions, as well as the Travel Expense Voucher. Hold on to these items until you return from your conference.
4. When you attend your conference, you have to note your absence from your campus in your faculty leave report. There's no option for "conference attendance" in that screen, so instead you should type a note to your supervisor (reminding him or her about the approved conference attendance) in the notes section of your monthly leave report.
5. Once home from your conference, you need to fill out the Travel Expense Voucher as well as the Payment Request Form. Once again your academic chair will be asked for his or her signature the Travel Expense Voucher and the Payment Request Form, and then you'll forward those forms, as well as everything listed below to the Executive Dean's office:
• The Payment Request Form
• The Travel Expense Voucher
• Your conference badge
• Your conference brochure (hang on to all of the handouts, people)
• The conference daily agenda or program
• A conference report (an account and evaluation of the meetings you attended along with comments about its usefulness to you as a faculty member)
• Relevant receipts, including those for payment of the conference fee, payment for hotel accommodations, payment for an auto rental, payment for tolls, payment for parking, payment for cab fare if a shuttle isn't available, and payment for airfare or train tickets, etc. If you drive to the conference, you can submit a mileage request form, also available on the college web site.

It's important to note two things: The first is that Remyou should submit your travel vouchers and supporting documentation and mileage requests within two and a half months of attending the conference -- otherwise reimbursement may be denied. The second is that it generally takes a campus Executive Dean's office two weeks to process the paperwork, and sometimes longer. So while you shouldn't expect to be reimbursed instantly, if you follow the guidelines and fill out everything correctly, you'll receive a reimbursement check before too long.

Practical Matters: Advising Student Clubs and Activities

by Sarah Kain Gutowski, Chair, New Member Mentoring Program
 

Later this morning, during common hour, faculty and students here at the Eastern campus will gather inside the Peconic building for Student Activities Day, a kind of open house for student clubs and organizations -- and the second of this academic year. Each semester, club officers and advisors make themselves available for an hour to answer questions from students seeking to participate in extracurricular campus activities, and to gain new members in the process. You may have seen something similar occurring on your own campus.

For years now, I've been a faculty advisor to a student organization. For several years while I worked on the Ammerman Campus, I co-advised a student writing group that workshopped their poetry, short stories, and plays outside of a classroom setting on a weekly basis. Then, when I transferred to the Eastern Campus, I began advising the campus literary magazine. From my time as an adjunct to the present, I've always been involved with student activities, and this involvement has kept me engaged and invested in a way that's much different from my experience in the classroom. In fact, I'd say that if anything, it's enhanced my ability to connect with students in a meaningful and productive manner.

The Summer 2016 issue of East End Elements.

I encourage all of you to consider being a student activities advisor as well, and if you’re presented with the opportunity to do so – well, jump at it. All three of our campuses offer our student body a richer, more diverse college experience by providing numerous activities throughout the semester – and by facilitating and supporting a number of different student clubs and organizations. Being an advisor can help you learn so much more about our students than time in the classroom can – and I say this after receiving lots of really personal personal essays in Freshman Comp.

PAs, Specialists, Counselors, Librarians and faculty can become more involved with student life by being an advisor to a student club or organization. Not only is this a wonderful way to mentor students, it’s also a good way to garner some campus-wide service you can cite on your application for promotion.

As an advisor, you’ll need to assist the club officers when necessary (you aren’t required to attend all the meetings, although the presence of an advisor is necessary for any off-campus excursions the club may make). Depending on the campus, you might attend an Officer and Advisor meeting during Common Hour once a month or once a semester. You’ll sign some forms. You’ll be invited to a lovely, catered Student Awards Ceremony at the end of the year. And that’s about all the heavy-lifting that’s involved, unless you’d like to be more active. 

The Ammerman Campus in particular has a large number of student clubs, and new ones are always cropping up in need of faculty advisors, so if you’re located on the Ammerman campus and you’re interested in becoming involved, contact Frank Vino at x4814. If you are located on the Eastern campus and would like to become involved, call x2531 and let Denny Teason know you’re available to advise; likewise, if you’re on Grant, call Lisa Hamilton at x6260.

Lastly, I’ll say this: Because the college is changing constantly to accommodate the needs of our students and community, our roles and requirements as faculty and staff are changing constantly, too. You may find that you’ll join some committees your first year or second year and that by your seventh year, you’ll either be chairing those committees or you’ll find yourself on entirely different committees.

Well, I began co-advising The Society of Writers back when I was an adjunct faculty member. Over the years – after being hired as full time faculty and going through the process of two promotion cycles – the one item that’s never changed on my promotion applications is my role as an advisor. I love mentoring students, and I’ve found the experience extremely rewarding, particularly with clubs that are educational in focus, like the honors societies or STEM clubs. It’s a fantastic way for us -- new and “senior” members alike – to connect with our students, and remind ourselves that while academics are (and should be) the primary focus of our energies, student activities further solidify a feeling of solidarity between faculty and students at our school.

Practical Matters: The FA's Prescription Copay Benefit

by Sarah Kain Gutowski, Chair, New Member Mentoring Program

Welcome back, new faculty, to a new semester! I hope you're all having a relatively smooth introduction to the new year, too, and that your holidays were merry and peaceful.

This is the time of year when many of us try to restore order to our lives after the chaos of the holidays. We do this also because it's the beginning of tax season -- W2s are coming in, 1098s, all of those various forms and pieces of paper that we need in order to figure out how much we've paid to the government over the past year and whether or not we still owe money or whether we'll be receiving money instead.

It's always more enjoyable to be the latter, of course, and to have more cash in hand. To that end, I want to make you aware of a way to recoup some of last year's expenses via a benefit the Faculty Association provides. And since this is the season of paper-and-form gathering, it makes sense to do this alongside or maybe even before you get to doing those taxes. 

The Prescription Copay Benefit allows you to receive up to $500 back for prescription copays you shelled out for medications prescribed during the previous year (to you, and to eligible dependents). That's money worth doing some extra work for -- and really, the work is not intense.

You'll find this at fascc.org under Benefit Fund forms.

First, go to your local pharmacy and ask for printouts of all of the prescriptions you and your eligible dependents received over the past year (usually for the emergency drugs, like penicillin). Also go to the Welldyne Rx web site for any maintenance drugs you may be receiving and print out a list of your prescriptions and copays there, too.

Then add everything up. Write the amount you spent on copays on the claim form (which can be found here on the FA's web site), make sure the rest of the necessary information is filled out, and then mail your form and documentation to the address at the top of the form, which I'll repost here just so it's clear -- the Fund Office is a different location than the FA Office:

Faculty Association Suffolk Community College Benefit Fund

253 West 35th

Street – 12th Floor

New York, NY 10001-1907

Like your taxes, this form is due in April. The good news is that the deadline for your claim is April 30, well after the tax deadline. So you have some time -- but I always think it's better to get that stuff out of the way before the semester gets into full swing, don't you? One less item on your to-do list to worry about.