As Chair of the California Part-time Faculty Association (CPFA), I want to express our sincere gratitude for your proposed legislation. Your bill represents a commendable effort to support California community college faculty and increase tenure density. However, I am writing to bring to your attention a critical issue: the proposal to advance part-time faculty into tenure-track positions may conflict with existing laws and could result in significant unintended consequences.
By Susan Dixon, President California Retired Teachers Association (CalRTA) The journey to repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) has been arduous and fraught with challenges. Yet, the dedication and perseverance […]
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”?
By John Martin, CPFA Chair Since Governor Newsom’s veto on our bill, AB 2277 last September, CPFA fell into a bit of a funk—at least I did. But we’re pushing forward now with a renewed […]
Judges recently issued positive rulings in two class action lawsuits, one against Long Beach Community College District and the other against 20 Community College Districts and the California Community Colleges Board of Governors. The cases allege that part-time faculty are illegally required to do unpaid work outside the classroom such as grading, class preparation, and communicating with students.
The much-maligned plight of adjuncts is a story of lies and exploitation... and a story adjuncts insist they must believe. This first installment of my experience as an adjunct for almost 20 years introduces OUR problem - the adjuncts' problem. It may be 'their' fault, but the lie is one we want to be true.
In September 2024, Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed Assembly Bill 2277, which proposed increasing part-time faculty workloads in California Community Colleges from 67% to up to 85% of the full-time faculty load. Newsom’s veto was based on concerns about "potentially significant costs," which seem to be grounded in speculative rather than substantive analysis.
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.
By John Martin On September 15, 2024, Governor Newsom vetoed – yet again – a popular bill that easily passed out of both the Assembly and Senate: AB 2277, which would have raised the current […]
By Caleb Castaneda Many CalSTRS Retirees who were career adjunct instructors in California’s Community College system continue to report that their pension benefits are insufficient to even pay for rent in their area. It is […]
by Curtis Williams As a part-time member enrolled in the California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS), what happens to my sick leave balance when I retire? Most of us have heard it can add to […]
By Geoff Johnson, Originally published on July 30, 2024 at CFT.org CFT’s One-Tier Task force and CFT members, after over eight months of discussion, has created a definitive list of basic components deemed essential for […]
The California Community Colleges (CCC) system plays a pivotal role as an engine for economic and social mobility in California and as a driver for the fifth largest economy in the world. In the past two decades, the CCC system has undergone significant “reform,” narrowing students’ educational opportunities and shrinking the student body by over one million students. During this period, the CCC system’s student outcomes have declined, stagnated, or only slightly improved despite decades of “reform” efforts. This paper illustrates that transitioning from a two-tiered to a nontiered—unified faculty—model will better serve students, colleges, and the state of California. The concept of a unified faculty emphasizes the elimination of the two employment tiers—part-and full-time faculty—to create a nontiered structure. This model is based on faculty and collegewide unity as opposed to the current structure that has produced a divided faculty, inequitable service to students, and stagnant or diminishing student outcomes. Presently, the K-12 system and Vancouver model are structured around a unified, nontiered faculty model. It is time for the California Community Colleges to address the hypocrisy at the heart of its institutions: decades of disinvestment from the faculty and thus, students. Investing in a nontiered, unified faculty model will remedy the CCC system that is currently struggling to bring back the millions of students who have been pushed out of their colleges.
