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June, 2003 Volume 17, Issue 6 - CPFA Conference in Sacramento |
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By Martin Goldstein
The California Part-Time Faculty Association, a statewide advocacy group working specifically for part-timers in the community college system, held its annual Plenary meeting in Sacramento June 6-8, and we attended as part of a large and significant SMC delegation. Lantz Simpson, our FA President, is a founder and past Chair of CPFA; Martin Goldstein, our very own Advocate editor, is head of Public Relations for CPFA; Robin Young and Andrew Walzer, co-chairs of our Hourly Committee are heavily involved, and Andrew was just elected as rep of the LA Region, a process greatly facilitated by the fact that he left before the vote was taken. Further, Ken Mason, our FA VP and newly elected VP of FACCC, and Kym McBride of Counseling, recently elected southern rep of FACCC, both graced us with their presence.
The connection between SMC and CPFA is not, of course, coincidental. Our long, and much admired history of part-time equality, going back to the initial leadership of Jim Prickett in the mid-80’s, has given us a lot of experience most other colleges in the system (and nationally) are still striving for. We don’t have equal pay, but we do have equal respect, and with the current events at the College forging an unprecedented unity among all facets of the school, we have moved closer still to at least conceptual equality.
This sense of self-respect was a participant in the Conference, and led to a kind of joy that made even the obligatory STRS presentation almost palatable. There are tons of problems out there, but we’re not part of them. We’re part of the solution -- whether they like it or not. Part-time pride, so to speak.
The bulk of the Conference involved intra-organizational details, and those interested are referred to the CPFA website, “cpfa.org”, an excellent source of information and analysis on virtually all current part-time issues.
Members of CPFA also have access to the El Chorro listserve, which has become the CNN of the part-time struggle. Check with the FA office here, and they can hook you up on payroll deduction ($3 a month) and you, too, can be connected.
Two highlights of the meeting both involved FACCC, which now has, besides Ken and Kym, our own Dennis Frisch on the Board, all of whom were endorsed and publicized here at SMC by our FA and won (thank-you, Andrew; excellent job), indicating the growing influence of SMC on the organization. The faculty head of FACCC, Rich Hansen of DeAnza, is someone we hung out with in Atlanta during the AFT Conference on Higher Ed earlier this year, and he is one of the good guys. Further, both the Legislative Aide, Jennifer Baker, and the Exec Director, Jonathan Lightman, spoke at the Conference. We sense an alliance forming that will strengthen both parties, and contribute significantly to solving problems properly in the future. Good for us.
The Conference closed with a session of COCAL-CA, which is the statewide branch of COCAL, the Conference on Contingent Academic Labor, whose Conference in Montreal last year we reported on earlier. COCAL-CA was specifically designed to bridge the gap between the systems, UC, CSU and CC. There has traditionally been a class barrier between them, which served the purposes of management in keeping academic labor in its place, especially contingent labor such as we part-timers.
But no more. COCAL-CA, with active reps from the UC’s, the CSU’s, and the CC’s, is planning for Campus Equity Week in October, a national part-time/contingent consciousness raising event, with events that join all three systems in a way that is literally unprecedented. But we’re teachers, and creative, and we’re doing it.
So all in all it was an uplifting meeting, even in a dark and dismal time for education in general, and the CC’s in particular. It is becoming more and more clear who our friends are, and who they are not, and this knowledge allows us to allocate our resources more wisely, which is crucial in times such as these.
But it should not go without saying that one of our greatest resources are the people here at SMC who have contributed so much to the part-time faculty movement statewide. So let us end this semester’s editions of the Advocate with a thanks and appreciation to Lantz and Robin and Andrew and Kym and Martin and all of the faculty, full and part-time, who have helped try to right this wrong.
These troubles, and our current ones at SMC, are all connected, and we are solving them globally as we will solve them locally -- by the hard work of good people. It is unfortunate and unnecessary that we have some of these current troubles; it is truly fortunate that we have so many excellent people here to fix them. And we will.
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