DCCCD Was Great, But The Change to Dallas College Is Terrible
Pros
Working full-time at DCCCD was my dream job. While the pay could be better and the benefits are not stellar, the local campus community, the staff, the Deans, and the other faculty were all enormously supportive, helpful, and truly cared about their colleagues of any level. Above all, every person on staff cares about the students we serve. Unfortunately, this past year, this has all changed.
Cons
The Chancellor's move this year to fundamentally re-organize the entire institution under his One College initiative as the new Dallas College has been so mismanaged and slap-dash that a once great institution of seven colleges is falling apart, for employees and the students they serve. By banging the drum of "equity," the Chancellor and newly installed upper management are fundamentally making it harder for students to succeed. Programs at specific campuses are unable to offer classes that students need to transfer or pursue their degrees due to an attempt to do away with each independent college and move faculty and staff around. Add to that the fact that there are still huge inequities across the entire District, with some faculty being offered overloaded courses and extra service this semester while others are being told absolutely no overloads or extra service are allowed. Although these changes have been in the works for a year or longer, the Chancellor has deemed it necessary to make fundamental changes during a pandemic and recession when staff are all scared about their health, layoffs are announced, and everyone has enough to contend with on a day-to-day basis. The coup-de-grace of all of this is that we started a new academic year with still an incomplete org chart. This all reveals that the Chancellor and upper administration could care less about anyone beneath them (since the new org chart stops at their level and goes no further). Sure, they say the full org chart will be finalized by the end of October, but at the moment everyone on each campus is flying blind as no one knows to whom they report or what their specific roles are.
