"We do not support any budget proposal for part-time equity. We consider this to be a competitive market situation."
"If part-time instructors don't like the pay, they can go someplace else. After all, we're not running a slave economy here."
Any way you cut it, the community colleges are under-funded. We are some $2300 to $2500 below the national average in per-student funding. While our funding levels began to increase somewhat as California pulled out of the recession beginning in 1996, given the 16% increase in the number of students we're serving (from 1,336,000 in fall of 1995 to 1,548,250 in fall of 1999), the rate of funding per FTES actually declined from $4279 in 1997-98 to $4202 in 1999-00 (Nussbaum, March 2000).
Well, it is never a dull time for library and counseling faculty. But of course, all we do is read books and tell students what classes to take in college. Right!! At present, the Telecommunications and Technology Infrastructure Program (TTIP), possible changes in matriculation, legislative proposals in support of textbook rentals, and the budget are all the issues that keep us busy at the moment-in addition to reading books and counseling our students.
The approach of April 15 seems to be an appropriate time to address questions of integrity. Most of us attempt to file tax returns as favorable to us as possible. within the rules. It is when we stretch or break the rules for personal gain that we must question our own integrity. On the campus and in the classroom, our personal integrity is the foundation of the integrity of our profession. And it is the faculty, through modeling and encouragement, who ought to foster integrity in our students.
On the eve of the 50th anniversary of this landmark decision, educators, legal experts, and authors prepare to celebrate the historical civil rights decision known as Brown v. Board of Education. To this day, efforts continue across the country to realize the dream of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the efforts of the families named in the original Supreme Court case. This article reminds us of that critical decision and suggests why it requires us to continue to enact its principles.
This year the Senate's Curriculum Committee is charged with writing a paper to inform faculty about the issues raised during discussions about AA/AS degree requirements in math and English. For years, the Academic Senate has discussed whether the current levels should be changed. The essential issue is this: are the current allowable levels of math and English appropriate, or should the Academic Senate recommend a change, and if so, what change? Title 5 requirements currently read:
55805.5. Types of Courses Appropriate to the Associate Degree.
Maintaining a high degree of professionalism is critical to the health of the California Community College system. By insisting on high standards for new faculty hires, we assure that our students will have educators well prepared to teach and render other students services necessary for our students' academic success. Fundamental to the various processes that we use to select highly qualified faculty is the Disciplines List for minimum qualifications that defines the academic and experiential preparation for faculty in all of the recognized disciplines.
Let's face it: when we talk about faculty leadership, we are usually speaking about a fairly limited group of people. Though there are dozens around the state, leaders of every local academic senate and leaders of faculty in various statewide organizations, the number is really very small.
Those individuals make an appreciable difference in the way the faculty roles in governance look. However, many of those leaders are now moving on to other phases of their lives or careers; large numbers of faculty have retired or plan retirement imminently.
Every time I visit the hallowed halls of the San Francisco Westin, I take a minute or two to sit in "my" chair. It is not a completely comfortable chair, nor is it especially beautiful, but I think of it as "my" chair because that is where I spent a lot of time during the first plenary session I attended. I sat there to get myself oriented - I hate reading maps on street corners or in corridors, so I would refer to the session schedule while ensconced in "my" chair. I sat there to catch my breath between breakouts. I sat there to read material that I had had no idea even existed.
"Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition." Jacques Barzun