Classified Staff Professional Development

by Michael Hickman
Assistant Vice Chancellor for Human Resource Services and Affirmative Action

from Inquiry, Volume 1, Number 1, Spring 1997, 78-79

© Copyright 1997 Virginia Community College System

I believe that our classified staff form the backbone of our system infrastructure and serve many vital functions so that we can accomplish our mission: student learning.  Each campus is viewed as the primary source of professional development support for classified staff, given the individual nature of training needs and the responsibility assumed by the Commonwealth’s Department of Personnel and Training.

— Chancellor Oliver  in a memorandum to VCCS Presidents, spring 1996

 

In showing his continued commitment to classified staff professional development

Dr. Oliver has proposed the following.

• To provide funding to support selected peer group meetings, including computer repair, electronic technician, and building and grounds supervisors, as I have already done in the areas of human resources, admissions and records, financial aid, audio-visual technicians, and library and laboratory assistants.
• To finance VCCA activities with at least $20,000 per year to promote their professional development grants and annual conference.
• To provide training for classified staff to address job-related, mandated issues such as sexual harassment, ADA, blood-borne pathogens, and others as suggested by DPT, other state agencies, and federal agencies.
• To enhance opportunities for classified staff through strengthening college professional development plans that address both faculty and staff needs.
• To use individual development plans for classified staff with the VCCS model or a college model.
• To fund at least two Chancellor’s fellowships for classified staff and encourage all colleges to invest in advanced education for classified staff.
• To encourage ongoing collaboration among faculty and staff and through professional development research grant awards.  Classified staff are invited to serve as co-applicants and collaborators on these established VCCS grants.

To keep this initiative ongoing, Chancellor Oliver named a statewide committee to serve the needs of classified professional development and implement professional development for classified staff.  Dr. Oliver designated Mr. G. Michael Hickman, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Human Resources Services and Affirmative Action as staff member to the committee and as the primary facilitator for classified professional development in our system.  The Classified Professional Development Committee is to be closely linked to the VCCS Professional Development Committee.

The fourteen member committee is made up of administrative faculty and classified staff and chaired by Dr. John J. Cavan, President, Southside Virginia Community College.  The committee has met twice and has identified several groups of classified employees within our system as peer groups, and peer group meetings are currently being planned.  The first conference is scheduled for April of 1997, and the committee under Dr. Cavan’s leadership expects to sponsor at least four peer group meetings during this fiscal year.  It is also the intent of the committee to develop a three-year plan addressing possible peer group activities and meetings for our classified staff.  This item will be addressed as the committee convenes again in February 1997.

The Classified Staff Professional Development Initiative packet was provided to all classified staff employees about a year ago.  The packet addresses the program and its activities, responsibility, goals of professional development, program philosophy; and it includes a definition of professional development.  Professional development is defined as an institutionally sponsored (funded) program of training, education, and personal development.  The definition is intended to afford staff and management employees an opportunity to increase vocational and avocational skills, identify career alternatives, diagnose strengths and weaknesses, identify specific goal and learning plans, and to practice new behavior patterns.

The plan applies to all classified employees.  Classified staff include all full- and part-time (P-3) non-faculty personnel employed in support activities.  In addition, the philosophy of this plan and the current practices of VCCS colleges strongly support the inclusion of wage (hourly or P-14) and grant-funded employees.  Colleges are encouraged to develop guidelines for eligibility for all groups.  For wage and grant-funded employees, such guidelines might address¾based on workload¾a college’s need for specific skills and/or participation to the extent that funding permits.

For additional information related to the Classified Staff Professional Development Initiative, please contact any one of the VCCS Classified Professional Development committee members or Michael Hickman at the VCCS office in Richmond.