The CPFA Forum

CPFA Plenary in San Diego

The California Part Time Faculty Association (CPFA) Plenary Conference in San Diego April 22-24 2005 was the kind of success that makes one humble. I'm the director of Public Relations for CPFA, thus hardly unbiased, but for me it was the kind of conference that makes me both proud and grateful -- proud of those who made it happen, in this case David Milroy, a fellow freeway flyer from the San Diego area and Chair of CPFA, and grateful he did all the hard work to do it.

In addition to the intra-organization work done Friday evening and Sunday morning by the Executive Committee, CPFA sponsored a day-long conference on PT issues held at Grossmont College, location of one of David's three part-time teaching jobs. The United Faculty Association sponsored the breakfast, and Zoe Close, president of UFA (and president of CCCI) opened the conference, a healthy sign of that organization's greater involvement in part time issues.

In line with that, we are happy to welcome Kathy Holland as our new LA Regional representative, replacing the irreplaceable Andrew Walzer, recently hired full-time at LA City College, where we are sure he will make his presence known. Kathy was just elected PT Governor of FACCC, and we are delighted to welcome her aboard, where we are sure she will make her presence known in short order.

Our friends at FACCC, in this case Legislative Advocate and all around good person Jennifer Baker, and Deborah Dahl Shanks, FACCC Part-Time Governor, conducted an informative workshop on retirement and general budget issues in Sacramento this year. This was followed by a power-packed panel on part-time legislation, moderated by Milroy and featuring Senator Denise Ducheny and Assemblymember Lori Saldaña, along with the part-timer's best friend in Sacramento, Jennifer Baker. We have allies in Sacramento, and we heard them and they heard us. We are not alone.

Keenan & Associates, who are developing a medical plan for part-timers, hosted the buffet lunch, and Bob Schoenherr spoke after about the difficulties encountered and the progress ahead. For most part-timers even a single candle here is better than the darkness of no medical care whatsoever, and so we hope for their success in developing an affordable and available PT program, especially for major medical.

Later in the afternoon, Therese Gray, CPFA director of communications, moderated a star-studded panel on Community College Coalition building. Our good friend and long-time supporter Marcus Harvey, AAUP regional representative came down from Berkeley, and joined CPFA Chair David Milroy of Grossmont, Mira Costa and Southwestern (sounds like a train line), Deborah Dahl-Shanks of FACCC from Diablo Valley College, Zoe Close of Grossmont and CCCI, Carolyn Inmon, president elect of CCA/ from Mt. San Antonio College, Julie Ivey of CFT and Palomor College, and Stacey Burks from CWA and Butte College.

It was a lively series of talks and discussions, and clearly all those in the room were on the same page in virtually all political and pragmatic concerns. It's a tough time and there's not a lot on the table for education, to say the least, but some things can happen, and one is the elimination of the 60% law that forces PTers to become freeway flyers. Removing this outdated and inappropriate law from the Ed. Code won't cost anybody anything, and a lot of real people will gain immediately.

A majority of our part-time colleagues who presently spend hours on the freeways driving from campus to campus will gain by being able to teach their entire load at one campus -- which is a gain not just for them, but for their students and the campus community as a whole. Academia was, after all, designed for resident scholars not freeway flyers; it simply works better for everyone when teachers are available to students. This issue is winnable, perhaps even this year, with the support of our allied faculty organization, CFT, CCA, CCCI, FACCC, the Academic Senate and CWA.

Dinner was arranged by CPFA at the Boathouse restaurant on Mission Bay, and the setting was stunning, the food was excellent, and the company even better. Mona Field, Trustee of the LACCD, FTer at Glendale, and longtime friend of the SMCFA spoke on the way to set things right in a bad district, starting with a PAC and ending with electing new, faculty-friendly trustees. It worked in LA and it's working here in Santa Monica, as our own Lantz Simpson discussed in his remarks. In fact one of CPFA's own board members, Jackie Simon, was just elected as a Trustee her home district, with Mona as the state-wide role model and mentor.

All in all it was a most excellent conference, combining lots of straight talk and solid information, and in retrospect we might come to see it as a milestone of the part-time movement. We clearly have a seat at the grown-ups table now, now and forever, and not just one. The title of this conference was "Making Part-Timer Dreams Reality," and my dream here has always been for the passion and moral fervor of the part-time movement to infuse all of higher education, to the point where it defines it. We're not there yet, but this was a solid and significant step in that direction.

MMG