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April, 2002 Volume 16, Issue 4 - Part Time Faculty issues that Need to Be Addressed |
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By Andrew Walzer
The Santa Monica College Faculty Association is organizing two open-air forums to discuss issues that part time faculty face, including any and all issues related to our working conditions. We want to hear from you!! These meetings will be held on Monday April 29 at 12:00pm and on Tuesday April 30 at 5:45pm in Business 111. We need to address issues both on a statewide and local level. In terms of statewide issues, as most of you know, we were successful last year in obtaining $57 million dollars in part time equity money which led to a 4% pay raise for part timers. But because of the significant budget shortfall this year, this money is in jeopardy, so we need to organize a letter writing campaign to Governor Davis to save this money. Secondly, there is an important bill in the legislature that would give us more options in terms of how the retirement money that is withheld from our paychecks is invested. Right now the two options that we have (STRS and Met Life) are really bad. Thirdly, we need to talk about how we can participate in the statewide California Part Time Faculty Association (CPFA) that is meeting at Santa Monica College at the end of May.
The second arena of concerns that we need to address is related to our departments and to the college as a whole. We need to make sure that all department chairs are working to ensure that as many part timers as possible achieve associate faculty status (which would give us one year contracts). We need to ensure that department chairs give part timers enough courses on a consistent basis and that they cooperate in the evaluation process, both of which are necessary components in obtaining associate faculty status. Other issues that need to be addressed include having access to office space, phones, boxes in department offices, and computers. In addition, we need to discuss issues that need to be addressed in the next contract negotiations, including the expansion of paid office hours to include all part time faculty. We also need to talk about why part timers are not getting hired into full time faculty positions here at Santa Monica College. At issue may be age discrimination, elitism, as well as other concerns.
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