Why this history strengthens the legislative case for reform By Scott Douglas, Southern California Regional Representative The finding, in plain language California’s community colleges run on part-time faculty. More than 40% of credit teaching has […]
What the gap costs, and why the state cannot yet measure it By Scott Douglas, Southern California Regional Representative What the number is, in plain language California’s community colleges pay part-time faculty less per unit […]
A mechanism for pro-rata parity — and why the litigation makes it urgent By Scott Douglas, Southern California Regional Representative The problem is now a legal liability California’s community colleges pay part-time faculty only for […]
THE METRIC TRAP HOW A 50-YEAR-OLD STRATEGY IS KILLING ACADEMIC FREEDOM By Scott Douglas, CPFA Southern Regional Representative The institution of tenure is, as ever, in the crosshairs. But the latest offensive—tying tenure to workload […]
Join us on Zoom May 16, 2026 for CPFA's Annual Conference, CPFA: Moving Forward. Register now online. It's open and free to all part-time faculty and allies.
By Scott Douglas, CPFA SoCal Regional Representative The movement for a one-tier faculty system in California Community Colleges (CCC) is gaining momentum—and rightly so. Its goal is to eliminate the structural inequities between part-time and […]
By Rick Baum Under the two-tier system in higher education (that has continued for more than 40 years), the pay packages per class taught of two equally qualified and experienced faculty remain extremely unequal. The […]
By Annette Owens, CPFA Greater L.A. Regional Representative This spring, the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) officially joined the alphabet soup of organizations who are on record supporting the United Faculty (aka: One Tier, […]
Keynote Address: The Historic Passage of HR 82—Repealing the Unjust WEP and GPO Susan Dixon, President of the California Retired Teachers Association (CalRTA) Retirement for Part-time Educators Jennifer Helfend Gomez, California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) […]
CPFA is working to achieve a basic democratic principle: Equality. CPFA seeks to eliminate the inequality faced by part-time faculty when compared to their full-time colleagues by establishing a One-Tier System in the California Community Colleges (CCC), in which faculty with the same qualifications, experience, and responsibilities are supported and compensated proportionately according to their workload.
Part-time parity…raising the cap…it seems like every organization and union in California has their own idea about what will make part-time faculty “more equal” to full-time faculty. Legislatively, these movements have been stopped, some by the Governor himself. Now, all of these organizations have started exploring the idea of moving away from or even eliminating the multi-tiered system. But what does it mean to be “One-Tier”?
CPFA: Past, Present & Future Saturday, May 10, 2025: 10:00 a.m. — 4:00 p.m. On Zoom Registration is required, but free and open to all part-time faculty and allies!
By Cynthia Mahabir, Laney College | Originally published in FACCCTS, Fall 2024 The Problem There’s a fundamental weakness in our California Community College system that impairs student success. Fortunately, there’s also a prospective solution. At […]
The Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor (COCAL) is a network of North American union activists who have worked for over 30 years to defend higher education rights and improve work conditions for contingent academic labor by bringing together activists from numerous unions across the United States, Mexico, English Canada, and Quebec that works to promote the sharing of information and strategies to strengthen our capacity for action. COCAL XV conference was held in Gatineau, Quebec on August 8th and 9th, 2024, with a focus on the many issues specific to contingent academic labor and the means faculty can use to mobilize directly against threats to our work conditions and our representation in universities, colleges, and community colleges.