CPFA'S Visionary Plenary

By Gloria Heller
The California Part-time Faculty Association is holding its Annual Plenary Meeting in Sacramento at the Arden West Hilton Hotel, June 16-17. This year's meeting highlights British Columbia's system of "Equal Pay For Equal Work." Featured on Saturday are two guest speakers from BC: Linda Sperling, College Institute Educators' Association (CIEA), and Frank Cosco, Vancouver Community College District. Sperling and Cosco will explain how all BC's public post-secondary institutions enjoy: a single pay scale for regular and term faculty; 12-month contracts for all faculty; benefits for part-time faculty that are either equal or proportional to those of full-time faculty; and rehiring rights, including accrual of seniority. Also on the weekend agenda are elections for CPFA's officers.
Logistical details for the Plenary are on the registration form on the back page. For further information contact: Mary Ellen Goodwin, CPFA Director of Administration, (408) 378-7888 megsplace@earthlink.net

By Gloria Heller

For several years running, there has been a paucity of entries to the "What-Shall-We-Call-Ourselves" Contest run by the SMC Faculty Association in the pages of this newsletter. Some neologisms were found on various listservs such as "the drones," "the permanent underclass," "the pretend professors who are under the misapprehension that they are equals," "MacTeachers [sic]." The judges felt that these coinages, however, disparage the instructors themselves, casting them in the light of "less-than." In fact, the judges found themselves railing against the role of victim for so-called part-timers (even if victim of only silly semantic shenanigans such as these). And so, the judges have validated the sole entry that describes the category not the occupant of it. The winner, because it accurately and succinctly captures the essence of the two-tiered system, is:
"COMPENSATED-ONLY-IN-PART-TIMERS."

Remember, there is nothing "part-time" about us.