By Gloria Heller

[NOTE: Much of the information included in this article was obtained, with permission to reprint, from Margaret Quan, FACCC's Northern Part-time Representative, who is a member of this Task Force and attended all but one of its four meetings this summer.]

     Last spring, Tom Nussbaum, Chancellor of California Community Colleges, invited a diverse group of academic leaders to form a "Part-time Faculty Reemployment Rights Task Force." This task force was specifically charged with: (1) considering issues and options for providing community college part-time (temporary) faculty with rights or priority for reemployment; and, (2) if consensus was reached, to provide those recommended proposals to the Chancellor's Consultation in a timely manner.  Currently, there is no state mandate on part-timers' rights, and districts vary in their understanding of seniority and in its deployment. These decisions can differ from one district to another because of: existing union contracts containing seniority provisions; districts having no union representation for part-timers; full-time load requirements; breaks in service; unavailability of courses; and a plethora of other considerations, including funding, bumping, enrollment, and much more.

    Last May, Linda Collins (the State Academic Senate president), Larry Hardy (the Director of Affirmative Action), Dian Hasson (CTA president), Bill Kester (the Chief Instruction Officers representative), Jack Miyamoto (Association of California Community College Administrator's representative ), Manuel Osorio (the representative for California Student Service Officers), Juanita Price (president-elect of California Students Association of), John Renley (the representative of Association of College Human Resource Officers), Margaret Quan (FACCC's representative), Robert Yoshioka (Communication Workers of America representative), Chris Storer (the chair of California Part-time Faculty Association  Executive Council),and Tom Tyner (California Federation  of Teachers president)  met  for the  first time as the Part-timer's Reemployment Rights Task Force.  The need for a discussion on  establishing a state-wide system of seniority rights for part-time faculty arose out of opposition to AB2434, the Senate bill proposing such a system.  Because of the contentiousness surrounding AB2434, it was hoped that this task force would bring a proposal to the chancellor's consultation process for discussion by the Board of Governors and faculty representatives so that the state of California could adopt a seniority policy for part-time faculty.

     The first meeting appeared to produce results.  At the onset, Quan states, "there was little doubt that those members of the task force representing management were absolutely and resolutely opposed to seniority/rehire rights." Then, by the end of the meeting, there was "a visible change in discussions and a more congenial atmosphere obtained."  Faculty leaders' voices helped soften the rigid, negative stance of management using both anecdotal evidence and hard facts, e.g., employment figures taken from the Chancellor's own published data from 1982 - 1998, to bolster arguments for granting seniority rights to part-timers.  The four-hour meeting ended with an agreement to continue the search for consensus.

     The next three meetings, one each in June, August, and September, were substantially different, however.  True, some were under-attended, but far more devastating for faculty was management's lack of interest in moving away from the status-quo.  Therefore, no suggestions for granting part-timers rehire rights were made to consultation.  Although Quan mentioned in an interview on the topic that she senses "a little more understanding of the situation for part-timers" did come to light through these discussions, she also said, "The Chancellor's study group for seniority rights that met throughout the summer went exactly nowhere; the management groups are still as opposed to this concept as they were when we first sat down together in the spring."