At its second annual meeting in June, the California Part-time Faculty Association began its campaign for nationwide coalition-building with plans for a national contigent academic labor conference to be held in San Jose on January 12-14, 2001.

The two-and-a-half day CPFA plenary was held in El Chorro Regional Park, outside San Luis Obispo, where CPFA was founded just two years ago. Chris Storer, CPFA Executive Council Chair, is looking forward to CPFA's increasing its effectiveness through expanding its reach during its third year. Chris explains: "This past year we solidified our coalition with the other faculty organizations at the state level and convinced the system, including administrative leaders, the Chancellor's Office, and the Board of Governors, that it was in the interest of California's community colleges to recognize the problems created by the current use of temporary faculty assignments. Part-time faculty equity has been placed on a high priority, and a system budget proposal to address part-time compensation equity gained strong support in both sides of the legislature." Now, Chris states, is the time "to move ahead with coalition-building in the broader . . . arenas."

The three guest speakers at the plenary, Rich Moser, (from the Washington, D.C., office of the American Association of University Professors), David Kruchta (UC-CFT Lecturers), and Greg Tropea (Lecturers Council, CFA), supported CPFA's desire to become involved in the national scene. In their presentations, all three emphasized how the supplanting of full-time tenure-track positions with temporary faculty workers encroaches on academic freedom and leads to further "corporatization" of academic institutions. Therefore, at the plenary, recognizing full-well that part-time faculty at community colleges in California are only one small part of a much larger national trend to utilize temporary employees in academia, CPFA membership set up a task-force to plan a the contingent-labor conference. Formal discussions are now being held with AAUP, the Boston-based Conference on Contingent Academic Labor (COCAL), the CSU-CFA Lecturers, the UC-CFT Lecturers, and other faculty groups to co-sponsor a National Contingent Academic Labor Conference.

In addition to deciding to push forward into national alliances (e.g.,joining NAFFE, the National Alliance for Fair Employment), CPFA also conducted the organization's internal business at the plenary. The Constitution and By-laws were revisited (and can be viewed on the organization's website www.cpfa.org), and two positions on the Executive Council were created, bringing the total to eleven officers. Of these, four members continue in their two-year terms: Chris Storer, Chair; Debbie Brasket, Director of Publications; MaryAnne Ifft, Northern California Representative; and Dave Bush, Central California Representative. Four other officers are new to the Council: Mary Ellen Goodwin, Director of Administration; John Martin, Director of Finance; Martin Goldstein, Director of Public Relations (one of the new positions); and Sandy Baringer, Director of Communications, (the other new position). The two officers re-elected to their positions are Lantz Simpson, Legislative Analyst, and Gloria Heller, Director of Membership.

The week after the meeting at El Chorro, Sandy Baringer, who can be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , communicated to the membership that "this plenary marked a significant step . . . for CPFA" and invites questions from those who were unable to attend it. She also urges people to be a part of the development of a national Part-time Faculty Equity Week next year based on the model implemented by the Action 2000 Coalition in California this past April. Detailed minutes of the Business Meetings, Updates, Resolutions, and Elections held Saturday and Sunday, June 24 and 25, can be found on the web at www.cpfa.org/plenary2000.html. CPFA welcomes all faculty to become members, and at SMC, faculty can join easily via payroll deduction for as little as $2/month. Please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or leave a voice-mail for her at (310)434-8615 requesting an enrollment form, or download a form now.