Volume 15, Issue 1 February 2000

By Lantz Simpson

Part-time English and ESL faculty should have fully paid office hours, according to the recommendation of the recently released factfinding

panel. This recommendation from a neutral third party supports what the Faculty Association and other faculty groups have been saying for decades: that part-time faculty should be required to hold and be compensated for office hours.

The factfinders' report was the result of a PERB (Public Employment Relations Board) impasse procedure that began in November, 1998, when the District and Association negotiators agreed that all progress on new contract talks had broken down. Impasse mediation also failed so that factfinding hearings were held last September. The District argued to the factfinders, as it has argued to the Association for nearly twenty years, that it had neither the money nor the interest in requiring part-time faculty to hold and be compensated for office hours.

By Gloria Heller

On January 12, 2000, for the first time in its history, the California Legislature focused exclusively on the abusive practices surrounding the use of temporary part-time instructors in the California Community College system. Yes, CCC's "dirty little secret" is out: about 30,000 faculty— roughly 2/3 of all instructors in the system!-are temporary and part-time.

Assemblymember Scott Wildman (D-Los Angeles), Chair of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, is outraged by the fact that the CCC is a publicly funded system with a majority of its teachers being temporary part-timers, and wants the public to know about the inequities of part-timers' wages and benefits.

The JLAC hearing, videotaped and televised to all legislators for over four hours, revealed the unprofessional working conditions that we professional educators are forced to live with and the ways in which the CCC's over-reliance on temporary part-time faculty, so often justified as "needed for flexibility," impacts students' equal access to educational opportunity. Topics addressed during the afternoon's testimony were part-timers' office hours, seniority rights, and health benefits and equal pay for equal work.

Panels representing faculty, student, administrative, the Chancellor were heard. The faculty panel gave a spectacular presentation, combining the anecdotal and the personal with some hard facts and figures. Margaret Quan (FACCC), Scott Suneson (CFT), Tim Dave (CPFA), Robert Yoshioka (CWA), Ron Real (CTA), and Linda Collins (State Academic Senate) each made a strong case for part-timers' equity, stressing that the ripple-effects of part-timers' working conditions on the learning conditions of all students in the CCC's can no longer be ignored.

Sergio Carrillo, President of CalSACC, gave strong support to the faculty position by explaining how students are educationally disenfranchised by a system employing temporary part-timers to the extent the CCC does. He told how he personally had benefitted from taking courses taught by full-timers, not because they are better teachers, but because they are required and paid to hold office hours. To make his case even more vivid, he used the person sitting next to him—the Vice-Chancellor, Christopher Cabaldon—as his hypothetical example of a student in a part-timer's section; poor Chris, Sergio said, would not be able to benefit from a one-on-one session with his instructor because the CCC system does not pay for nor require part-timers to hold office hours.

"FACTFINDER RECOMMENDS OFFICE HOURS AT SMC"

office hours, the Association argued that the District indeed had the money. The Association pointed out that the District found the money to spend millions in the last four years on doubling the size of the administration and on acquiring and renovating some rather dubious facilities. Furthermore, the Association cited legal criteria that required the factfinders to also consider the public interest in their recommendations. The Association argued that the public interest

demanded greater student access through office hours.

The factfinders' recommendations are only one more step in the effort to bring paid office hours to part-time faculty at SMC. Unfortunately, these recommendations are only to establish a small program and are not binding on the parties. However, the report urges the District to find a way to use the state matching funds and expand the office hours program.

The Faculty Association remains committed to implementing fully paid office hours for all part-time faculty at SMC.

Opposition testimony was given by Vice Chancellor Christopher Cabaldon, whose major contribution was a tape loop that robotically repeated that the Chancellor's Office does not believe in interfering in local administrative issues. Cabaldon argued that the current system has been in place for over a decade, as if the length of time makes any injustice "just". For his part, Mr. Wildman was relentless and merciless in questioning Mr. Cabaldon about the intentions of the Chancellor's Office. Mr. Cabaldon was questioned about abiding by AB1725, underscoring that eleven years have gone by since the law was passed requiring 75% of all WCSH to be taught by full-time faculty. Noting that the percentage of WCSH taught by part-timers has actually increased since the passage of AB 1725, Mr. Wildman asked why the Chancellor's Office was not providing leadership.

Administrators were unwavering in their opposition to improving the conditions under which temporary part-timers work, couching their arguments mainly in terms of "don't mess with the status quo because it's working for us" or "an investigation to look into these alleged improprieties will cost us money that we don't have."

Expressing this regressive view included Diane Van Hook (President, College of the Canyons), Arnold Bray (CCLC), and members of CPEC, which is the commission mandated by AB 420 (Wildman) to study part-time faculty compensation around the state. The irony was not lost on many attendees when CPEC's Mr. Chisolm and Mr. Ratliff bleated that they had not been given any funds to conduct the CPEC study, which is supposed to be completed by the end of March.

Mr. Wildman gave extra time for open testimony. Everything we as frustrated professionals ever wanted to say about the inequities throughout the CCC was said. It was thrilling to present ourselves to the legislature as professional educators, and to explain how the current part-time temporary structures in the CCC system get in the way of our professionalism. I am happy to have been able to thank Assemblymember Wildman personally. Both part-time and full-time faculty have urged CCC administrators and the Chancellor's Office to get on board with them to make a long-term commitment to budget reallocations that empower and restore the professional dignity of all faculty in the system.

PART-TIMERS MAKE HISTORY IN

TESTIMONY BEFORE THE LEGISLATURE

Board Ignores Factfinder

The Board of Trustees ignored the factfinders recommendations on office hours when on January 31, the Board imposed contract provisions without any part-time office hours.

General Faculty

Meeting

Thursday, February 17

11:00 am

Art 214

The Association tried a new approach with the factfinders. Citing the recently passed AB 420 which provides state matching funds for