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Community College Association leaders (from left) Judith Mandel, CCA Vice President Rachel Maldonado Aziminia, Chaumonde Porterfield-Pyatt. |
Part-time faculty members at community colleges were the first to be hit by midyear budget cuts.
Seventy percent of community college instructors are part-timers, says Dee Wood, who teaches at College of the Desert in Riverside County. "We've become cannon fodder." At her college alone, 100 classes from this year's schedule and 200 classes on next year's schedule have been cut, and summer school has been eliminated.
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Dee Wood, along with other CCA leaders, went to Sacramento recently to explain to legislators how budget cuts are affecting faculty and students. |
Recognizing the hit on part-time faculty, Community College Association chapters are urging full-time faculty to volunteer, when appropriate, to give up their overloads so that part-time faculty can teach those classes, says CCA President Dián Hasson.
Community college districts around the state have canceled classes, reduced or eliminated summer session, and in some places changed the number of hours adult education classes meet.
In response, some CCA chapters have filed demand-to-bargain notices, maintaining that districts cannot change working conditions unilaterally. Other chapters are putting pressure on districts to reschedule classes to meet student needs.
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Butte College faculty member Tom Masterson and student Lacey Symons participate in a college rally at the state Capitol. |
When San Joaquin Delta College eliminated the advanced classes for the Electron Microscopy Program, leaving students in that program high and dry, the faculty and students protested and successfully got the classes reinstated.
Such efforts would be unnecessary, says Hasson, if districts would access their reserves and make budget cuts in such areas as consultants, travel, supplies, lawyer fees and other areas that are far removed from instruction and services to students.
"This has huge implications for society," says Wood. Community colleges service more students than any other college system in the state. In many cases the students are adults retooling their skills in order to get back into the job market or single mothers trying to get a fresh start. Community college also offers a second chance for students who didn't go to college straight out of high school. "We're pulling the rug out from under them."