Is It September Already?

Welcome back all! These are exciting times with many important changes taking place. Your union representatives have been busy this summer and we have great news. We have reached important milestones toward our goals of providing your all fairness, equity and a strong voice in the way our district progress into the future.

Adjunct Pro Rata: We have made significant gains in our pursuit of full parity for our adjunct colleagues. Last November, 2006 we reached agreement to move our adjunct faculty onto a pro rata amount on the full time faculty pay schedule. As they say, “the devil is in the details” and we have been working since November to ensure that the details were covered. Finally, in early August we were able to reach agreement with the district as to the exact percentage of “pro-rata” that adjunct faculty would receive.

Given the expensive nature of this new process we were able to get 65% pro-rata for lecture and 77% pro rata for lab and that will mean a significant raise for most of our adjunct teachers as well as full time folks who teach overloads.  Without this move to the full time schedule we would have never been able to move towards our goal of full parity. (For more detail please see this newsletter, article “Union Goal-100% Adjunct Parity p. 3”). I want to personally thank everyone at the bargaining table and the payroll offices for their cooperation in making this happen. This is a wonderful example of the cooperative nature of “Progressive Unionism” (Faculty Matters, March 2006).

SJCC Adjunct Faculty Center: We have also made significant progress on the establishment of an Adjunct Faculty Center at San Jose City College. With the cooperative efforts of your union leadership, San Jose City College President Michael Burke and Vice President Tim O’Hare a location was found and an agreement was reached to convert GE-119 into this important facility. (For more detail see Article “SJCC Adjunct Center Under Way p.6”) The center will give our adjunct colleagues a central location that provides lockers, meeting rooms for student conferences as well as computers, work space and a small kitchen area. Keep your eyes open for the announcement and plan to attend.

Community College Initiative: In addition to the above items we have continued to work on the passage of the Community College Initiative (CCI). We are working with other community college faculty organizations and our own parent union, The California Federation of Teachers (CFT) to promote the campaign. We were, as most of you know, successful in qualifying the initiative for the ballot last January but the next phase is the most important and that is getting it passed into law.

The good news is that there is unity in the community college system, including administrators and trustees. All segments of our system see the significant financial impact passage will have for our colleges and students. Each college could see millions of dollars in increased revenues as we would start to receive our fair share of the revenue that the legislature intended when they passed Proposition 98 several years ago.

Our student’s tuition would be lowered to $15.00 a unit and any increases in tuition tied to increases in the cost of living percentages. The bad news is that it appears that CTA may oppose us. Even though CTA was consulted and involved in the early discussion about the initiative and they had no objection then, they now do. CTA may mount a significant opposition because they fear the re-distribution of the monetary pie in state revenue for education. Recent projections show community college enrollment is increasing and the K-12 system is declining. Without some redistribution of the revenue the K-12 system will be getting more money for serving fewer students as we suffer the opposite situation.

We must pass the Community College Initiative! Our district leadership from Chancellor Perez on down is committed to this effort and we all, working together with our statewide community colleagues, can and must make this happen. Much more information is coming so stay tuned and be ready to jump in and help us win by contributing money, volunteering time to phone bank and precinct walk and by educating your family and friends.

In conclusion, let me say again welcome back. If you are like me I miss the classroom if I am away from it too long. We are all engaged in the noble cause of education that demands so much from us but rewards us so magnificently.