Vol. XXXIII, No. 07

October 4, 2004

This Week at Valencia.

Tuesday, October 5,
-8:30 a.m. - District Board of Trustees, East Campus, 5-112 (RESCHEDULED)
-5:30 p.m. - Alumni Board of Directors, Winter Park Campus
-6:30 p.m. - College Night, West Campus

Wednesday, October 6 - Design & Operations w/ Deans only, East Campus 3-108E

Thursday, October 7,
-2:30 p.m. - College Learning Council, Winter Park Campus, Rm. 123
-6:30 p.m. - College Night, East Campus

Friday, October 8,
-9:15 a.m. - Lumina Achieve the Dream Core Team, East Campus 5-217D
-2:00 p.m. - Registration Summit, East Campus, 5-112

October 8 and 9 at 8 p.m.; October 10 at 2 p.m., "Night of January 16" by Ayn Rand, East Campus, Black Box Theater; Tickets- $6 general admission; $5 students, seniors, and Valencia staff and alumni

Ongoing through Oct. 30 - Printmaking by Robert Skelley, East Campus, Anita S. Wooten Gallery, 3-112

Professional Development Opportunity

The Management Team of Connections, funded by the East Campus Title III grant, is beginning the process of forming a Design Team for Spring Term 2005. All full-time faculty and Student Affairs staff from any campus are eligible for this exciting opportunity. At the conclusion of the project, a $2,052 stipend will be paid for a total time commitment of 80 hours spread over Spring and Summer Terms 2005.

The work of this Title III grant will concentrate on the integration and assessment of student mastery of the Core Competencies into the Co-Curriculum. Focus will be placed on strategies to assist the Associate of Arts students as they prepare to transition to four year institutions, using the web-based My LifeMap suite of applications. If you are interested in applying for one of these Design Team positions, are able to devote 80 hours during the Spring and Summer Terms, and are willing to commit to pilot test your project design in Fall Term 2005, please contact Anjela Lewis at ext. 2025 or alewis@valenciacc.edu for an application. Application Deadline: October 15, 2004.

PSI Groundbreaking slated - all are welcome!

Join Dr. Shugart, Mayor Buddy Dyer, representatives from local law enforcement and your colleagues as Valencia celebrates the groundbreaking for its new Public Safety Institute (formerly known as the Criminal Justice Institute). The ceremony will be held on October 14, with a continental breakfast at 8:30 a.m. and program starting at 9:30 a.m. The event will take place on the grounds of the Criminal Justice Institute on Valencia College Lane, near East Campus. All faculty and staff are welcome.

Hiring Freeze

A hiring freeze for new employees will soon be in effect. To hire an employee before the freeze becomes effective, the employee must begin work on or before November 8, 2004. After that date, recruitment activities may be conducted through the Human Resources department and offers of employment may be extended. However, the employee may not begin work until January 10, 2005. The President and/or Vice President, Human Resources and Diversity, will consider exceptions to this policy if an emergency or critical need arises.

News from Procurement

Purchase Limits: Competitive bids and or quotations from suppliers are always a good business practice when shopping for goods or services used at the College regardless of the cost. Quotes provide information such as proposal numbers, company contact information, additional costs such as freight or handling, and an itemized list of what is being ordered. This is good back up when a billing issue could arise after the item has already been delivered. Quotes from 3 suppliers are required when spending between $3,500-$24,999 regardless of the funding. If you need help finding suppliers, please contact us at ext. 5532 or e-mail ValenciaProcurement@valenciacc.edu with your specifications.

When spending $25,000+, a formal bid or RFP including advertising is required. Instructions including time frames for submitting a formal Invitation to Bid can be found on our website: http://valenciacc.edu/procurement/facultystaff.asp.

The Procurement Office advertises approximately 25-35 Bids or Requests for Proposals on a yearly basis. This allows us to competitively bid items/services such as copy paper, toilet tissue, light bulbs, smart classrooms, printing of college catalogs/brochures, construction of new buildings, etc., and obtain the best price with regards to the needs of the college.

Exemptions of the 3 bid rule or formal bid include educational tests, textbooks, software, items/services already bid by the State and have a current State Contract, and sole source items (Apple Computers only make Apple computers). A list of current State Contracts can be found at: http://www.state.fl.us/st_contracts/

Atlas Is Getting Even Better!

At 12:01 a.m. on October 8, OIT will begin installation of an Atlas upgrade that will make Atlas even better and easier to use. This upgrade will mean that all functions of Atlas will be unavailable from 12:01 a.m. on October 8 until 8 a.m. on October 11 as the new system is installed and tested. Faculty, please make sure your students are aware of alternative ways to communicate with you while Atlas is being upgraded.

This upgrade will make Atlas even better. The new Atlas will look similar to the one you're used to, but it will be more efficient and flexible, allowing faculty, staff and students greater ability to customize the information they receive. Groups will be more useful, e-mail easier to use and announcements more targeted.

This upgrade only affects Atlas, and not the Valencia main Web site, Web CT or Groupwise. Also, none of your previous work or emails in Atlas will be lost and student records will not be jeopardized in any way.

For more info, including an FAQ, please refer to the upgrade site at valenciacc.edu/atlasupgrade. Also look for future Leadership Valencia classes on how to get the most out of the new version of Atlas.

Reminder for Supervisors, Managers, and Administrators

Please be sure to notify Human Resources when a student or part-time hourly employee working for you resigns. If HR is not notified and doesn't terminate their employment, the student or part-time hourly employee will remain "active" in the Oracle HR/Payroll system until no pay has been processed for them for 6 consecutive months. When the employee is also a student, this delay in terminating employment causes a conflict between Oracle and the Banner system.

The Oracle and Banner systems "communicate" each night, and employee information in Oracle overwrites similar information in Banner. When a person has a record in both systems, it is critical to update information in both places, or end the employment relationship so Oracle will not reverse information entered in Banner.

Home address information is a good example. If a student, who is or was also an employee, enters an address change in Banner, they must also notify HR of the change so the Oracle system can be similarly updated. If they are no longer employed at the college, they need to be terminated so the old home address in Oracle won't overwrite the new address in Banner.

Please contact Human Resources at extension 1333 if you have any questions about terminating student or part-time hourly employees.

Submissions to the Bulletin are encouraged, so please e-mail your achievements, awards, recognitions, and relevant information for the college community to Mary Jane Jones, Staff Assistant in Marketing and Media Relations. Deadline for submission is 5 p.m. on the Tuesday preceding each Friday's distribution. Mary Jane can be reached at ext.1017, or mjjones@valenciacc.edu.