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Part-Time Faculty is a Faculty Concern! - 2002 |
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By Ken Mason
As another academic year comes to a close, again nothing is being done at SMC or statewide to change the continued reliance of the community colleges on part-time instructors. The California Part-time Faculty Association hosted a conference on this issue at SMC from May 31 to June 2. The amazing thing about the conference was that it broached the unspoken truth regarding faculty hiring practices, and how policy makers statewide view the community colleges. And if you think the part-time faculty issue has nothing to do with full-time faculty, you need think again. It does not take a rocket scientist to know that community colleges are not taken seriously, and its full-time faculty are regarded in lesser light. Worse of all, is how part-time faculty are regarded. No one in the K-12 or at the university level would seriously expect to educate its student population with a part-time work force, yet that is exactly what is expected of the community colleges.
No one seriously expects to achieve high levels of academic achievement through the use of part-time workers except when it comes to the community colleges. In spite of state statutes, all of California’s community colleges employ a part-time faculty majority to instruct their students. And SMC is no exception. Half of the classes taught are taught by part-time instructors, and part-time faculty outnumber full-time faculty 2 to 1. Of course districts argue that this can not be helped, that state funding formulas leave them with no other option. At the same time districts save money when they employ a part-time faculty work force. Most districts also assume that they can rely on this dependent group, whose very existence undermines attempts to strengthen shared-governance and faculty commitment to campuswide committees. It is not surprising that districts across the state desire to hire more, not fewer, part-time instructors. Lacking office hours, rushing between colleges just to make ends meet and maintaining a code of silence when it comes
to expressing heart felt opinions, such a work force has a corrosive effect on the caliber of academic instruction. They labor in a world of uncertainty and inadequate support, under the watchful eyes of whimsical chairs and vengeful administrators. In short, a large part-time faculty workforce weakens the charge of the community colleges and the desired goals of all faculty.
No administrator would publicly announce that he/she would strive to massage the budget, manipulate categorical funding, reduce or reconfigure departments/programs without consulting those who would be most immediately effected. Surely to do so without the support of academic departments/programs would undermine the expressed goals of the college, and most certainly hinder the ability of the staff to performed its tasks. The exception to this rule, of course, is at the community college. SMC is a case in point. Some time ago, long before the Governor’s May Budget revise, the administration announced, prematurely we now know and told them so then when they made the announcement, that due to the budget shortfalls the counseling staff would be dramatically effected because Calworks funds would certainly be eliminated, along with Matriculation, Professional Development and Technology Funds. It was all gloom and doom, a fait accompli. We asked what the District was going to do to restore funding. We got no answer. Indeed, the District fell silent when it was suggested that it could assist the faculty in sending instructors to Sacramento during the statewide (CFA not FACCC) Lobby Day to voice their desires to see funding restored. This too was not to be. Rather than approach the budget crisis as a defender of faculty and programs at SMC, the District chose to opt for the worse case scenario which as we all know now was not necessary.
But the damage was done, and fear raced across the counseling faculty. By the way, it goes without saying that most of the faculty in the Counseling Department are part-timers. For all intents and purposes Calworks at SMC has been disbanded despite the fact that the state has proposed to fund the program under a scheme which would require the District to match what the state offers. I leave it up to the reader to guess what the District will do.
The larger question is why? Why do Districts continue to take a negative position against their faculty, and especially their part-time faculty? In short, why the meanness? Does the California Community College system invite such antagonism, such mismanagement? Yes! And to keep their jobs administrators construct convoluted budgets and submit unsubstantiated contradictory reports. At SMC they tell the Faculty Association one thing and do another. Districts across the state “circle their wagons” and play shell games with faculty organizations, administrative regulations, and state statutes while all the time seducing new and naïve faculty who are willing to do anything to secure employment. When inquisitive faculty members get too close, and place a finger on the truth, they are shut down. Character assassination follows, and the conversation abruptly ends. In the past this has led to administrative inspired conflicts between full-time and part-time faculty. (And when this fails it’s tenured versus untenured, or Academic Senate versus Faculty Association, or chairs versus faculty, or faculty versus classified). The point is to create flux. And we know who wins in the “divide and conquer” disputes. At SMC the “delay" and “scapegoating” tactics, peppered with misinformation, are most often used when it comes to enforcing the District’s will. As always, Board members are encouraged not to trust the veteran faculty or its learned staff - the ones who gave the college its long respected reputation. SMC is not alone. Because community colleges are not respected across the state, it has, unfortunately, invited mediocrity at the highest levels. A quick wink and nod acknowledging the previous closed door understanding is all that is required and the charade goes on. Never mind the concerns of faculty, staff or their claims of sexual harassment, mismanagement, or bullying. In any event you’ll never be given more than three minutes to voice your concerns at a Board meeting anyway. Simple, choreographed displays of docile and transparent faculty, staff and students highlight their meetings, as they all sign-off, adding their signatures of approval to budgets, consultants, contracts, new hires and resignations. So there we are.
The point is that the community colleges in the state of California, like their teaching staff, is a part-time endeavor, a sideshow where funds are temporarily stored until such time as needed elsewhere. In the meantime a cloud of suspicion and lack of accountability prevails. This lack of trust between faculty/staff and the respective districts is endemic of the system. Which is made all the worse by the continued reliance on a part-time approach to educating the state’s college student population. This will continue until policy makers are moved to approach community college education seriously. And when will that happen? Well, when the instructional work force, the teaching faculty, are majority full-timers!
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