A friend on Facebook shared this with me. I was not at Rio Hondo when Gary got elected so I can not verify the claims made in this video by Mr. Mendez. I am interested to hear your response to Gary. Please leave your comments on the blog, so everyone can read them.
Friday, October 28, 2011
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Why does Rio Hondo have the 5th highest paid Administrators in the State of California?
ReplyDeleteGary says he has trimmed the number of Administrators at Rio. I can not verify if this is true. Can any of the veteran Faculty shed a light on this?
ReplyDeleteI disagree about classes being cut and administrators taking on two or three jobs. While we have not made as many cuts as other schools, we have reduced sections and are not offering intersession this school year. Gary states there as been an increase in student enrollment, so wouldn't an increase in offerings be a more desirable goal (and not cut sections)? Instead I believe the faculty and student support staff have taken on the excess load of adding more students in their classes to help the students. It's too bad the administrators do not do this. From what I have seen, there have been more "assistant deans, directors, and coordinators hired than ever before but not an increase faculty hiring. I'd like to have examples of the adminstrators who have taken on more responsibility because there has been a reduction in those postions and also why some programs require a dean, director, and coordinator for one area. I'd also like to ask Gary what his reaction is to the disastrous situation occuring in the finacial aid office and how that is helping students. Has he been informed of the lines of students waiting hours to be served and then having errors be made? Or the working conditions that are occuring under the current leadership in that area and the amount of stress employees are under in dealing with an incompetent director? Gary talked about bringing Rio into the community for meetings, but maybe he should come to Rio during the first week of classes to see what the reality is.
ReplyDeleteSome thoughts on Gary's claim to have built a "lean administrative staff" at Rio:
ReplyDelete1. A better understanding of the burden of administration is to look at the administrative cost per FTES. This is much better than a headcount of administrators. Given that we are a mid-sized college with highly paid administrators, I would guess that our administrative costs are quite high compared to other colleges and certainly much higher than when Gary joined the Board.
2. You also need to add in the cost of consultants, who often do things that administrators could be expected to do as part of their job, but at a much higher cost. Gary and other Board members brought some of these consultants to the table to do little more than political functions.
3. There was never a policy which gave administrators more than one job. Whenever that happened it was only temporary due to a vacancy caused by an administrative opening.
When talking about Admin salaries I hope that there is a realization that those salaries reflect the benefit contribution which in their case has been rolled into their base salary. If you are going to compare apples to apples, we would need to add about $15,000 to our faculty salaries to make a fair comparison. I don't know what other Colleges are doing but that is why the Adminstrators got a big bump a few years back, it really wasn't a straight salary increase. That issue is another of example of the Joyce legacy.
ReplyDeleteDear anonymous who posted at 4:08 PM on 10/29/11,
ReplyDeleteI do not understand. Are you saying that Administration does not receive health benefits?
I know that the college president gets a healthy car allowance that is not part of his salary.
Please explain what you mean.
Administrators get their salaries plus health care like we do. The only thing that is a bit different is that we get lifetime medical benefits if we work at Rio Hondo for 15 years and retire under CalSTRS. However, administrators who have been at Rio Hondo for 6-7 years are grandfathered in, so many get lifetime benefits. Only those administrators who started since that time have to pay into the system at a rate of 10% of their salaries for 5 years.
ReplyDeleteWe have not cut administrators! According to the Chancellor's office data from 2004 (http://employeedata.cccco.edu/avg_salary_04.pdf), there were 29 administrators. On the college website today, there are 32 administrators listed. In addition to those 32, there are a few not listed including John Ramirez who is the director of facilities and the new director of the police academy. There is also Gary Van Voorhis who is a consultant. That would make 35 administrators. I am not a math major but I believe 35 is greater than 29.
ReplyDeleteMore administrators + fewer classes = loss to our students.
Perhaps Gary is referring to the temporary period of time under President Carreon when several administrators were given additional responsibilities because positions were not filled. For example, the responsibility of all of Student Services fell under the VP of Instruction and we were called SAS (Student and Academic Services). P.E. and Health Sciences were combined under one dean and so was Business and Arts. The Dean of Academic Services became the Dean of Academic Services and the Library. When the campus was asked for input on a new organizational structure through PFC, it was clear that divisions wanted their own deans and Student Services especially wanted their own VP. Back then I believe we had approximately 24 managers but now it is closer to 35 including consultants. It was also discussed at many retreats and meetings that some of the managerial positions could be made into promotional opportunities for existing qualified staff. That, however, never happened.
ReplyDeleteAn anonymous commenter notes that he/she counted 32 administrators. If we add those positions being held by consultants, I believe there are 37. At last count, at least 20 of those have left during Ted's stay. Word is thee will soon be one more leaving.
ReplyDeleteSuch a turnover, doesn't say much for Ted's leadership and by extension the leadership of the Board.