5. Chair Compensation and Duties

Two major changes occurred that affects department and faculty chairs, along with an agreement to continue discussing how to increase the reassigned time that chairs receive when they are overseeing multiple campuses or overseeing a major relocation of their department. The first major change relates to the part of the chair compensation which has thus far been called a stipend, and which was paid in two installments, one in January and one in July . CalSTRS rules have changed and no longer consider certain stipends as creditable compensation for retirement purposes. We dispute the categorization of these stipends as non-creditable (and are challenging an audit ruling brought against SMC).

However, after consultation with various CalSTRS personnel, we have come up with a reconfigured chair salary schedule that continues to pay the chairs as much or more than their previous compensation, by changing the steps in the chair salary schedule so that they receive higher pay each month rather than the two stipend payments.

Additionally, the duties and responsibilities for the chairs of Health Sciences and the Library were agreed to and will be added to Appendix Q.

Finally, the District has agreed to continue negotiating to attempt to find common ground on providing additional reassigned time to cover the expanded responsibilities that have fallen on chairs (including work related to overseeing multiple locations and the work involved in moving into new or majorly renovated buildings). We hope to reach an agreement on additional reassigned time soon.