The entire Pierce College faculty received a 4.6 percent salary increase recently, but part-time faculty teaching 12- and 15-hour disciplines will be receiving an extra differential.The American Federation of Teachers (AFT), an affiliated international union representing more than 1.4 million teachers, negotiated a $2 million increase from the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) to adjunct (or part-time) salaries for 2007-2008, effective July 1, 2007.Part-time faculty members that teach 12- and 15-hour loads will receive an estimated $3.20 extra per hour, in an effort to bring these teachers closer to the pay that both full-time and 18- and 21-hour adjunct teachers receive.
The announcement was made at the Pierce Faculty Guild Luncheon Meeting Sept. 20, when over sixty faculty members were gathered in the Faculty Café at 12:45 p.m. to hear and discuss the salary changes and the details of the California Community College Initiative, a three-part proposition slated for the ballot in February 2008.
While the AFT represents all school faculties, membership is optional. The Pierce College Faculty Guild Chapter is one of ten faculty chapters comprising the AFT College Guild, Local 1521.Affected faculty members that taught in the summer after July 1 will receive the differential they would have earned had it been honored at the time. Full-time faculty and certain departments such as agriculture and nursing will not receive the differential.Certain other faculty members such as counselors and librarians will not receive the differential, either.
Professor Kathy Daruty, a full-time instructor of business administration, commented on the adjunct increase.”On the whole I support the union, but I must tell you that I come in and I teach a night class and my husband teaches the same hours I do and because he’s ad junct, he gets paid a lot more than I do,” stated Daruty. “Throughout the state of California, your adjuncts are the people who are really keeping higher education afloat, but they are underpaid and don’t get benefits. It allows for more flexibility across the board.”Bill de Rubertis, president of the Pierce College Faculty Guild Chapter, stressed the importance of the faculty’s pay equality.”We negotiated the extra $2 million to provide a greater degree of equity for those teaching 12- and 15-hour disciplines because, when you think about it objectively, you can see that the people teaching 12- and 15-hour disciplines are not able to make as much money as people teaching 18- and 21-hour disciplines,” explained de Rubertis. “It was an attempt to provide a greater degree of equality amongst the adjuncts.” As part of the same agreement, the LACCD also agreed to pay the full cost of the Health Benefits Program for all active and retired employees, as well as their dependents and survivors.The cost is around $4.6 million.
Another issue discussed was the California Community College Initiative, on the ballot February 5, 2008. This is a three-pronged initiative that would benefit the entire community college system in California, and the students enrolled at these colleges.
If the initiative is passed, the cost per unit would be reduced to $15, and future fee increases would be more difficult to pass.”The only reason fees went down from $26 to $20 was because we filed the initiative,” stated Carl Friedlander, president of the AFT Local 1521.
The California community colleges would be separated from the K-12 system, so that funding for the colleges would not be determined by the same growth factors as the K-12 system as outlined in Proposition 98, which passed in 1988. Presently, if K-12 enrollment falters, funding for both K-12 and the community colleges decreases.
“We want to be able to determine our own fate,” declared de Rubertis. “Elementary schools shouldn’t be determining whether or not you guys receive the classes you need to graduate.” Lastly, the percentage of revenues from the state to the colleges would be stabilized at around 10.5 percent.
The California community colleges were originally supposed to receive 11 percent of the money from Proposition 98, but the number so far has been anywhere from 9 percent to a little over 10 percent.
“We knew it would be way too controversial if we tried to insist on what was promised when Prop. 98 was passed, so we just decided, ‘let’s just go from where we are right now,'” explained de Rubertis.
“We’re not asking for the original share, we just want it to be stabilized from this point. Presently we’re at 10.5 percent — that’s what we want. We want to lock it in, and be done with it,” he said.
The small percentage of funding that hasn’t been honored would amount to about $40 million for the community colleges, and around $4 million for Pierce.
“We’ve had a couple years of good funding,” stated Friedlander. “Growth is up about 4 percent, but the state budget only provided us enough for 2 percent growth. If we don’t pass the initiative, we won’t have funding for growth over the next couple of years.”
The initiative will not raise taxes if passed.Marshall “Mark” Drummond, chancellor of the LACCD, was unable to attend the luncheon meeting. He has tentatively accepted an invitation to the luncheon meeting oc curring Feb. 15.
President of the LA College Faculty Guild Carl Friedlander explains the situation about faculties’ salary at the Pierce faculty cafeteria. ()