Welcome to The CPFA Blog
We’ve collected a variety of original news stories and analyses for your perusing, which focus on education in California, part-time faculty and/or unions in academia that have broad national appeal. As might be expected, we take special interest in social justice issues that slip under the radar of the mainstream media.
Please see our Submit Content to the CPFA Blog to add your voice to the growing chorus calling for equity for part-time faculty in higher education.
CPFA Sponsors AB 2277: Raising the Part-Time Faculty Workload Cap
AB 2277 will increase the maximum number of instructional hours that a part-time California Community College faculty member may teach at any one community college district and allow students to build stronger relationships with existing faculty. The Problem Currently, part-time faculty at California Community Colleges are classified as temporary employees ...
Let the “Tracks” Merge
By Joseph G. Ramsey, PhD
Faculty Staff Union (FSU/MTA/NEA)
Senior Lecturer, UMass Boston
jgramsey@gmail.com Is there any other profession besides professor @ academia where you can have the same degree, same (or more) teaching experience, same (or better) publications, same (or greater) record of student and community engagement, and, yet, never be allowed ...
Faculty Staff Union (FSU/MTA/NEA)
Senior Lecturer, UMass Boston
jgramsey@gmail.com Is there any other profession besides professor @ academia where you can have the same degree, same (or more) teaching experience, same (or better) publications, same (or greater) record of student and community engagement, and, yet, never be allowed ...
CPFA Celebrates 25 Years: A Founder Reflects
INTRODUCTION This year marks CPFA's 25th anniversary. There are still a few of us who remember those early days, and who are hopeful that the next 25 years will bring even greater changes to the work-scape for roughly 35,000+ highly qualified educators who toil daily to keep the community college ...
On Seeking Broad, Systemic Change
Since 1998, the California Part-time Faculty Association (CPFA) has been a leader in calling out the injustices facing part-time faculty working within California’s community college system: no job security, no due process, scant seniority rights, unequal pay (compared to full- time faculty teaching the same courses), no compensation in most ...
The Campaign for Faculty Equality
Key advocates who would soon become the board of the New Faculty Majority attending the 2010 COCAL Conference at Laval University in Quebec. Standing L- R: Matt Williams, Ross Borden, Bob Samuels UC-AFT, Anne Weigard, Jack Longmate. Front L- R: Peter Brown, Rich Moser, and Frank Cosco. The newly formed ...
Building Our Future: The One-Tier Model is The Answer!
The Campaign for Faculty Equality (CFE) is a new statewide organization that aims to work in conjunction with existing advocacy groups and to serve as a forum of strategic thinking and action among those who work in our different institutions across the state—with legislators, unions, faculty senates, and trustees—to promote ...
Tenured Faculty: Friend or Foe?
by Jack Longmate At the Higher Ed Labor United (HELU) conference of July 20, 2023, a number of the non-tenure-track (NTT) speakers underscored the importance of collaboration with tenure-track (TT) faculty. Not as avidly expressed was the position that TT faculty and the unions they dominate are actually the problem, ...
“One Faculty”: A Shifting Conversation
By Jon Fox Reprinted from FA News, Foothill De-Anza Faculty Association One of my roles in FA is serving on the Board of Governors for the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges, where I have learned a lot about important statewide conversations on a range of issues, so this report, ...
Life as a Contingent Faculty Member
By Carolyn Kuimelis and Mary Ellen Flannery Republished with permission of the National Education Association (NEA). Originally published 05/23/2023 at NEA Today. The higher education system depends on the labor of adjuncts, yet these faculty remain underpaid and undervalued. - Key Takeaways -
- With low pay and little access ...
An injury to one is an injury to all!
Hello everyone, My name is Annahita Mahdavi West. I am a professor at Long Beach City College (LBCC). As many of you know the story, the Board of Trustees at LBCC has fired Dr. Moore last year over allegations that even based on the district report that they provided, were ...
Chair’s Report 2023
A new, two-year legislative cycle in Sacramento began this year, and with it, up to a quarter of California’s Senate and Assembly were newly sworn in. New legislators are usually relatively fresh to the process of authoring bills and represent new opportunities for CPFA to partner with on writing and ...
CPFA Legislative Efforts
By Daniel Thompson, CPFA Legislative Analyst This year the CPFA Legislative Task Force met with over a dozen offices of members of the California State Assembly and State Senate. The Legislative Task Force advocated two main legislative proposals involving: (1) raising the cap on the number of courses that Part-time ...
Pursuing a One-Tier Faculty Workplace
By Jack Longmate The two-tier workplace, with an upper tier of tenured faculty and a lower tier of non-tenured faculty, has been the norm in U.S. higher education for half a century, long enough to have enabled several generations to become acculturated to it. Just as it seems natural and ...
The Annual CPFA Conference 2023
The Annual CPFA Conference "One Tier System: It’s Time" May 6, 2023 from 10am to 4:30pm (On Zoom) Register Now (FREE)! PROGRAM (printable pdf) 10:00 am - Introductions - Welcome! (15 min)
- John Martin, CPFA Chair
- Sue Broxholm, Conference Chair
- Members of the CPFA Executive Council
Executive Council Elections 2023
CPFA Elections 2023 Elected Results Below It is that time of year again! Nominations for the CPFA Executive Council (EC) are now closed. There were no nominations for any of the vacant positions. All of the incumbent EC members ran unopposed. The CPFA Bylaws specify that when a candidate runs ...
