Vice President Randy Lawson has approved funding for 10 faculty to attend the Annual Conference of the Faculty Association of Community Colleges. The conference will be held in San Francisco February 25-27. Faculty members who will be attending as voting representatives are Teri Bernstein, Chief Negotiator; Lantz Simpson, Vice President; Mitra Moassessi, Finance Committee Chair; Bill Price, Negotiating Council member and Environmental Committee Chair; Gloria Heller, Hourly Faculty Committee Chair; Carol Beckstead, Negotiating Council member and Benefits Committee Co-Chair; Phil Wall, Executive Committee At-Large member and former president; Audrey Roche, former president and State Faculty Council member; Sal Veas, Senator; and Fran Chandler, President. Janet Kretschmer, FA Office Manager, will also attend.

According to Fran Chandler, “Because of our contract membership arrangement with FACCC, Santa Monica College is actually entitled to send 42 voting delegates to the conference although the College can only send 10 delegates. Therefore, if anyone else would like to attend, let me know by calling ext. 4394. The Association has a little money in the budget that could be used to defray registration expenses for a few people.”

The conference, entitled Partnerships: Bridges for the Future, will include presentations on the California Virtual University and other distance educational and technology issues, private industry-college facilities development projects, education code reform, part-time faculty issues, citizen and commission-driven accountability reform proposals, partnership for excellent, retirement reform, economic development, etc. Delegates will participate in developing and approving an aggressive platform of innovative legislation. A number of legislators and other dignitaries will be receiving awards and making presentations at the conference.