Board Report from Chuck Mueller
Good afternoon trustees. I am Chuck Mueller and I teach engineering and physics here at Edmonds college. I am also the president of the faculty union. I am looking forward to working with all of you this year.
I was pleased to hear from Dr. Singh at Convocation that enrollment was up again last year and has now reached pre-COVID levels.
What concerns the faculty of this college though, is how we can help this increasing number of students be academically successful. The staff, advisors, and faculty of this college make that happen. Staff labor is student success. Faculty labor is student success.
What I believe, and what I heard from our union members at our Federation Lunch on Tuesday, is that we need more full time faculty at this college. Edmonds College has one of the lowest full-time faculty ratios by headcount of any community college in the state. By our last count, full-time faculty only taught 33% of all the FTEs at this college. This means that our students have less contact with our full-time faculty, and that has a huge impact on their academic success.
But you do not have to take my word for that. You can read Leaving College by Vincent Tinto. The research in that text is clear that substantive academic interactions with full-time faculty, especially outside of the classroom, lead to better student retention and completion. Our associate faculty, as hard as they work, are not compensated for that extracurricular work. They aren't paid for office hours, they aren't paid to advise students, and they aren't paid to be club advisors.
It also turns out that the state legislature of Washington agrees that hiring more full-time faculty leads to academic success for our students. In the text of Senate bill 5194, they state that…
"The legislature recognizes that student outcomes and success, especially for first generation, underserved students, may be significantly improved by increasing the number of full-time faculty at community and technical colleges."
The faculty collective bargaining team currently has a proposal on the table to create a floor for the number of full-time faculty at this college and over time increase the number of full-time faculty. We're doing that because it is what our members are asking for. They are asking for it because we know that this is how we promote academic success for our students.
What I'm asking from all of you today is to listen to the research, listen to the state legislature, and listen to the faculty of this college who know what our students need. Approve our proposal to increase the number of full-time faculty. To borrow a metaphor from both Lia Andrews and Dr. Singh, faculty are the roots of our college, and we need to strengthen those roots with higher pay, job security, and all the other benefits of tenure.
Public Comment from Mary Whitfield
Good evening, President, PLT and members of the Board.
First, I want to welcome everyone to a new academic year.
I also want to thank the President for his remarks at convocation. There was a lot of exciting news to celebrate, including the new capital projects and, particularly, the enrollment milestones that he shared with us.
Those enrollment numbers are very encouraging. We should recognize that those numbers don't happen by themselves. They reflect the hard work and commitment of people across this campus—faculty, staff, administrators, and everyone who contributes to the student experience. Being number two among our peer colleges is an impressive accomplishment, and I think the college deserves to celebrate it.
I'm also glad that we're looking at and tracking this kind of data. As some of you know, I like to spend time with the numbers myself. I tend to look particularly at the faculty and staff data.
And on that point, I'd like to point out another milestone.
When it comes to full-time faculty, Edmonds is also number two among the peer colleges the President shared with us. But in this case, we're number two from the bottom.
In other words, many colleges with lower enrollments than Edmonds that have more full-time faculty. I think that is an important metric for us to pay attention to.
We should absolutely celebrate the data that tells inspiring stories about our college. But I also hope that we can have equally open conversations about the data that tells us where we have opportunities to improve..
We know that the President cares deeply about student success. That's why I was pleased to hear him say at convocation that he wants to bring more classes back in person. On that point, we are in agreement. We want students to have a strong experience on campus, and having classes available in person is an important part of that experience.
But we also need enough full-time faculty to teach our growing student population.
As we begin a new hiring season, I'm speaking on behalf of the faculty when I say that we hope to see meaningful progress toward increasing the number of full-time faculty at Edmonds.
I hope this can be part of our ongoing conversation about the data, about our priorities, and about what we need to do to continue building a strong Edmonds College.