By Lantz Simpson

    After months of needless delay, the District has finally agreed to how the equity funds for part-time faculty will be distributed this year.  The funds will be distributed across the board on all part-time teaching salary schedules at a rate of an additional 9.67%.  The percentage is about two points higher than last year because of the huge numbers of section cuts for this year.  Non-teaching part-time faculty do not receive any equity funds because their hourly pay rate is already more than pro rata.

    Since there have been three pay periods already this fall, the equity funds will be paid to eligible part-time faculty by (1) supplemental checks to cover previous pay periods that had not included equity funds and (2) regular pay checks in the future that will include the equity funds.

    In the meantime, the Faculty Association has filed a grievance over the distribution of last year’s equity funds.  When the District cut 300 part-time sections last spring, a surplus of $117,000 in equity funds was created.  The FA demanded to bargain for a redistribution of the surplus to the remaining part-time faculty from last spring, but the District claimed that the equity fund had been used up by payroll taxes!

    The FA believes that such a claim by the District is a violation of both the collective bargaining agreement and state law.  Article 8 of the collective bargaining agreement clearly states that all of the equity money must be applied to the salary schedules.  In addition, the budget language passed by the legislature clearly states that all equity funds must go towards closing the pay gap between full-time and part-time faculty.

    Districts all over the state have been playing games with the equity fund and now Santa Monica College has joined the list.

Equity Money Set For This Year

Filing A Grievance Over Last Year

Volume 18, Issue 2                                               December 2003

    My name is Melissa Michelson, and my future (career) is bleak. With a graduate degree in a highly specialized field, I consider myself a professional, but for some reason college-level instruction is not treated as a profession in this country. Now that I’m in this “career” I realize I have no future in it, and I ask myself, should I get out now while I’m still young?

    You see,  I’m an adjunct faculty, which means I have to work at several colleges to patch together a full-time job.  You’re probably thinking, “Hmm. Three schools, three salaries = three times as much money! What’s the problem?” The problem is called “the 60% law” –  I can only work a certain number of hours at any one college, which  means shuttling back and forth between campuses daily in order to make a full-time load.  In addition, I’m never guaranteed work – either I may not be offered employment or my classes may not make enrollment. I can be cancelled at any time. Every semester (or quarter, depending on where I am teaching) I have to go through the stress of wondering if ends will meet. Juggling employers and lack of job security (and don’t forget lack of comprehensive health benefits) do not a profession make.

    So why don’t I just apply for a full-time job?

    The fact is I will most likely always remain a part-timer instructor because seniority rights either are not adhered to or don’t exist, colleges are following the corporate business model of not hiring full-time employees (despite the legal mandates that community colleges hire a certain number of full-time faculty every academic year), and if by miracle there is a full-time opening, most schools tend not to hire from within.  My chances of improving my occupational status are very slim.

    I’d like to close by saying I am frustrated and tired of being treated as a non-professional, but I’m not quite ready to give up the fight. That’s why I am writing this today.

A Testimonial at CEW