Volume 46, Number 4
CCA Council to make recommendation
An historic merger between two major faculty associations is set to go to a vote this fall, when the CCA Council makes a recommendation to support or not support a merger with the Community College Council.
The two organizations currently represent approximately 90 percent of the community college faculty statewide, with the remaining represented by independent associations. The Community College Association (CCA) is affiliated with the California Teachers Association and the National Education Association. The Community College Council (CCC) is an affiliate of the California Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of Teachers. Representatives from both organizations have engaged in merger discussions for the past three years. All told, the merged organization would represent instructors on 95 of California’s community colleges.
Dual members
As dual members, each faculty member would be as active within any or all of the organizations they wish. Such a merger would allow faculty to have one voice when speaking before the Community College Chancellor’s Office, legislators, and other outside organizations.
“The power that our organization would have more than doubles,” said CCA President Ron Norton Reel. “Our community college system is already the largest higher education system in the United States. A merger with the Community College Council would make us the largest higher education association in the United States.”
Largest affiliate
Along with that, Reel says CCA would also become the largest higher education affiliate of both CTA and NEA as well, a move that would likely increase their influence in their parent organizations.
The major reason for this action would be the ability to better represent community college faculty statewide and to promote the promise of California’s community colleges, which educates more than 2.5 million students. In September the CCA Board will make a recommendation to either support or not-support the merger. That recommendation will be taken to the CCA Council in October. At the CCA Fall Conference weekend, the CCA Council will make a recommendation to support or not-support the merger. Such recommendation will be placed in the ratification ballot that will be sent to all CCA members by regular mail during the last part of October.
CCA chapter presidents are encouraged to invite Reel to come to their campus and discuss details of the merger before the expected vote at the CCA Council meeting at the fall conference in October.