CPFA News & Forum
We’ve curated 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. Submit Content to the CPFA Blog and add your voice to the growing chorus calling for equity for part-time faculty in higher education.
Nobody Ever Voted for This — Synthesis
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 been done by instructors classified as “temporary” — and has been for over two decades ...
Nobody Ever Voted for This
The Judicial Error and Legislative Inaction That Created California’s Two-Tier Faculty System By Scott Douglas, Southern California Regional Representative
- The Pre-1967 Framework
- The Temporary Classification Framework
- The Recodification (1976)
- The Courts (1974–1983)
- AB 1725 (1988)
- The Observable Consequence
- The Band-Aids
- Conclusion
Pro Rata Cost Analysis — Synthesis
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 of instruction than full-time faculty for the identical teaching. Pricing that gap starts from one ...
Pro Rata Cost Analysis
Equal Pay for Equal Work in California Community Colleges By Scott Douglas, Southern California Regional Representative
A Compensation-Conditioned Exemption — Synthesis
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 classroom hours, while requiring the preparation, grading, and student contact that teaching those classes demands ...
A Compensation-Conditioned Exemption for California Community College Faculty
Restoring Pro-Rata Parity and a Path Out of Permanent Contingency By Scott Douglas, Southern California Regional Representative
A third of California community college districts sued by part-time faculty
By Tarini Mehta, originally published in the Sacramento Bee on June 26, 2026 After four years of battling in court, part-time faculty members reached an $18 million settlement with the Long Beach Community College District earlier this year over what they called a failure to compensate them for work done ...
Invisible No More
Invisible No More PART-TIME FACULTY, UNPAID LABOR, AND THE PUSH FOR EQUITY AFTER ROBERTS V. LBCCD By Crystal Huckabee, Ed.D. (c) Part-time faculty are the backbone of California’s community college system. We teach the same courses as full-time faculty, outnumber them, support the most vulnerable student populations, and carry out ...
2026 Chair’s Report
By John Martin, CPFA Chair Over the past several months, CPFA has worked to identify a legislative author for a proposal aimed at strengthening seniority protections for part-time faculty in California’s community colleges. While we were not able to secure an author during this stage of the current legislative cycle, ...
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 of tenure is, as ever, in the crosshairs. But the latest offensive—tying tenure to workload and performance metrics—is not a new strategy. It is the second, more pernicious phase of ...
Conference 2026 — CPFA: Moving Forward
CPFA: Moving Forward Saturday, May 16, 2026: 10:00 a.m. — 4:00 p.m. On Zoom Registration is required, but free and open to all part-time faculty and allies! Featuring the following topics:
- Negotiating for PT Faculty: A Case Study at Mt. SAC
- One‑Tier Model: What It Is and What It ...
WARNING! Districts Skirt Lawsuits With New Collective Bargaining Agreements
By John Martin, CPFA Chair As many of you may know, several lawsuits have been ongoing since October 2022. At that time, a total of 20 community college districts were put on notice by individual part-time (precarious) faculty who filed lawsuits against their employers. These faculty members are challenging ...
Adjunct, A Feature-Length Film
By Rick Baum, Part-time instructor at City College of San Francisco Adjunct, a feature-length film written, directed by, and starring Ron Najor, realistically covers much of what happens in the life of a higher education teacher without tenure who could be labeled an adjunct, a part-timer, a contingent faculty ...
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 gaining momentum—and rightly so. Its goal is to eliminate the structural inequities between part-time and full-time faculty by creating a unified employment model. All faculty, regardless of hiring classification, ...
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 packages per class taught of two equally qualified and experienced faculty remain extremely unequal. The key difference is that the much higher compensated faculty member works full-time and is likely ...
