TMCC-NFA urges the TMCC Faculty Senate to revise its bylaws to ensure that its work and recommendations to the TMCC administration reflect the independent voice of faculty—not that of administrators. Article III.3.1 of the bylaws establishes that “All College Professional staff (as defined by the Board of Regents) and Part-Time Faculty will have representation in the Faculty Senate.”
At issue is the nebulous definition of Professional Staff in the Board of Regents Code, which states, "[t]he professional staff shall consist of all persons holding professional positions as defined and authorized by the Board of Regents." Title 4 in the BOR Handbook subsequently splits Professional Staff into two broad categories: academic faculty and administrative faculty. Academic faculty is subdivided into instructional faculty, counseling faculty, and library faculty. Administrative faculty includes virtually all other full-time employees, with the exception of Classified Staff.
This means that all administrators—including the President and even the Chancellor—are technically considered Professional Staff. The bylaws do restrict anyone who is directly supervised by the President to ex-officio roles in matters relating to the Faculty Senate, but do not explicitly prohibit the President or other administrators from serving on the Senate or its committees. Admittedly, other procedures in the bylaws, primarily apportionment and the election of senators, effectively limit the ability of administrators to be chosen as senators and/or faculty representatives, but it does not totally prevent it.
In recent years, TMCC administrators have taken advantage of the vague language in the bylaws to deprive the rank-and-file faculty of full representation or independent deliberations on impactful issues. For example, the Faculty Senate was allowed to select five participants on the presidential search committee. In the end, two of the positions were taken by Executive Directors from the Student Services administrative unit.
According to Faculty Senate Chair Jinger Doe, NSHE administrators confirmed that the two individuals met the definition of administrative faculty when she sought guidance on giving the positions to administrators whose rank is functionally equivalent to academic deans. One of them was subsequently named by then-President Karin Hilgersom as the incoming interim Vice President of Student Services on April 28, 2025; just weeks before the ad hoc presidential search committee met to interview finalists.
Administrative overreach continues. The other executive director from Student Services--who previously held a faculty-designated seat on the search committee—is now part of the administration’s bargaining team in ongoing contract negotiations. Simultaneously, this individual chairs the Faculty Senate’s Professional Standards Committee. In both roles, they are advocating for a mandatory faculty training program that instructional faculty oppose. As committee chair, this individual also sits on the Senate Executive Board, amplifying administrative influence in faculty governance.
This is a Faculty Senate—not a Professional Staff Senate. TMCC faculty should revise the bylaws to prohibit individuals paid under the Executive Salary Schedule or Grade E of the Administrative Salary Schedule (as defined in the NSHE Procedures and Guidelines Manual) from serving in any Senate role.
Of course, faculty rights in shared governance come with faculty obligations. As Kevin Osorio Hernandez reminded us last March in his powerful final address to the Board of Regents as the outgoing president of the Nevada Student Association, “leadership, at its core, is about showing up.” As faculty, we all must rise to meet the demands of leadership in shared governance, in service to our profession and our colleagues. If the administration truly embraces shared governance, they will understand why it is necessary for us to draw this line.
