The one-tier movement seeks to eliminate the legally mandated two-tier faculty system in California community colleges, which separates faculty into full-time (tenured) and part-time (contingent) classifications.
One-tier replaces classification with workload. Faculty are faculty—the only distinction is load, not status.
What would a one-tier system look like?
- Compensation: All faculty paid from a single salary schedule, proportional to workload
- Tenure: All faculty eligible for tenure under the same standards, with clear and reliable time-to-tenure protections
- Benefits: Full access to health, retirement, and institutional benefits for all faculty under the same standard— not a secondary or fractional system
- Workload: Assigned based on institutional need, with adjustments governed by transparent, seniority-based rules
- Assignments: Based on qualifications and seniority under transparent, collectively bargained rules
Why it matters
- For students: Stability, continuity, and faculty who are present and invested
- For districts: Stronger retention, reduced hiring churn, and simpler systems
- For faculty: Equity, security, dignity, and unity
- For the profession: Teaching becomes a sustainable career—not contingent labor
Challenges to address
- Protection: Transition must not displace current part-time faculty
- Cost: Achieving equal pay for equal work requires significant investment
- Structure: Education Code, Labor Code, Title 5, and CalSTRS are built around the two-tier system and must be revised
How to get there
- Legislative reform: Remove statutory barriers that enforce two-tier classification
- Collective bargaining: Advance one-tier provisions wherever possible at the district level
- Coalition building: Align unions, academic senates, students, and trustees
- Phased implementation:
- Equal pay for equal work
- Full benefits access
- Universal tenure eligibility
- Full one-tier system
Community colleges rely on faculty. That reliance must come with a system worthy of the profession it depends on.
For more information on the One-Tier Movement and the One-Tier Model, see the below articles and presentations CPFA has published on this topic:
Grid
The Metric Trap
THE METRIC TRAP HOW A 50-YEAR-OLD STRATEGY IS KILLING ACADEMIC FREEDOM By Scott Douglas, CPFA Southern Regional Representative The institution …
Conference 2026 — CPFA: Moving Forward
Join us on Zoom May 16, 2026 for CPFA’s Annual Conference, CPFA: Moving Forward. Register now online. It’s open and …
The Move to a One-tier System Needs Safeguards for Legacy Adjuncts
By Scott Douglas, CPFA SoCal Regional Representative The movement for a one-tier faculty system in California Community Colleges (CCC) is …
My Effort to Get My Union to Support a Demand in Negotiations for Equal Pay for Equal Work
By Rick Baum Under the two-tier system in higher education (that has continued for more than 40 years), the pay …
ASCCC Passed Resolution for a United Faculty (One-tier Model)
By Annette Owens, CPFA Greater L.A. Regional Representative This spring, the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) officially joined the …
Recorded Presentations from the CPFA 2025 Conference
Keynote Address: The Historic Passage of HR 82—Repealing the Unjust WEP and GPO Susan Dixon, President of the California Retired …
CPFA Endorses a One-Tier System in the California Community Colleges
CPFA is working to achieve a basic democratic principle: Equality. CPFA seeks to eliminate the inequality faced by part-time faculty …
Tackling Opposition to the One-tier Vision
Part-time parity…raising the cap…it seems like every organization and union in California has their own idea about what will make …
2025 Virtual CPFA Conference Program
CPFA: Past, Present & Future Saturday, May 10, 2025: 10:00 a.m. — 4:00 p.m. On Zoom Registration is required, but …
The One-Tier Concept for Advancing Student Success and Achieving Faculty Equality
By Cynthia Mahabir, Laney College | Originally published in FACCCTS, Fall 2024 The Problem There’s a fundamental weakness in our …
COCAL XV Examines the Issues Confronting Contingent Faculty
The Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor (COCAL) is a network of North American union activists who have worked for over …
CFT Pushes Forward on a Vision of a One-Tier/Unified Faculty Model
By Geoff Johnson, Originally published on July 30, 2024 at CFT.org CFT’s One-Tier Task force and CFT members, after over …
