Perspective, May 2007

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Volume 38, Number 3 n May 2007

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Berkeley City College California's biggest, newest communitycollege building opens its doors page 7

Teacher, preacherThe president of AFT Local 6286 in Victor Valley says that “faith is a journey.”

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Don’t look now……but for the first time ever, the new president andsecretary treasurer of the California Federation ofTeachers are community college instructors.

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New health care task forceState Senator Sheila Kuehl has reintroduced her Cali-fornia Universal Healthcare Act, SB 840, and the CFT’snew health care task force wants it to become law.

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Community College Council of the California Federation of TeachersAmerican Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO

The California Federation of Teachers is an affiliate of the American Federation ofTeachers, AFL-CIO.

The CFT represents over 120,000 educationalemployees working at every level of educationin California. The CFT is committed to raisingthe standards of the profession and to securing the conditions essential to providethe best service to California’s students.

President Marty Hittelman

Secretary-Treasurer Dennis Smith

Perspective is published three times during theacademic year by CFT’s Community CollegeCouncil.

COMMUNITY COLLEGE COUNCIL

President Carl FriedlanderLos Angeles College Guild, Local 1521 3356 Barham Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90068Email [email protected] inquiries regarding the Community College Council to Carl Friedlander

Southern Vice President Mona FieldGlendale College Guild, Local 22761500 N. Verdugo RoadGlendale, CA 95020

Northern Vice President Dean MurakamiLos Rios College Federation of TeachersAFT Local 22791127 - 11th Street, #806Sacramento, CA 95814

Secretary Donna NaceyLos Rios College Federation of Teachers,Local 22791127 - 11th Street, #806Sacramento, CA 95814

Editor Fred GlassLayout Design Action Collective

EDITORIAL SUBMISSIONSDirect editorial submissions to: Editor, Community College Perspective.California Federation of Teachers1201 Marina Village Parkway, Suite 115Alameda, CA 94501Telephone 510-523-5238Fax 510-523-5262Email [email protected] Web www.cft.org

TO ADVERTISEContact the CFT Secretary-Treasurer for a current rate card and advertising policies.

Dennis Smith, Secretary-TreasurerCalifornia Federation of Teachers2550 North Hollywood Way, Ste. 400Burbank, CA 91505 Telephone 818-843-8226 Fax 818-843-4662 Email [email protected] advertisements are screened as carefully as possible, acceptance of an advertisement does not imply CFT endorsementof the product or service.

Perspective is a member of the InternationalLabor Communications Association and AFT Communications Association.Perspective is printed and mailed by the all-union,environmentally friendly Alonzo Printing in Hayward, California. It is printed on 20% post-consumer content recycled paper using soy-based inks.

2 n PERSPECTIVE May 2007

EDITORIAL

MARK YOUR 2007 CALENDAR

June 25 – 27 CFT Leadership Institute, UCLA, Los Angeles

July 1 Deadline for continuing college students to submit CFT scholarship applications

July 12 – 15 AFT QuEST Conference, Hilton Washington, Washington D.C.

July 29 – August 3 AFT Union Leadership Institute West, Asilomar, Pacific Grove

September 14 – 15 CFT Executive Council, CFT office, Burbank

September 28 Community College Council, Oakland Airport Hilton

September 29 CFT State Council, Oakland Airport Hilton

law, supporters argue, districtswould run amok (amoker?) hir-ing lower paid, unbenefitedadjunct faculty without loadlimits.Tenured faculty positionswould disappear.

If the 60% limit were eliminat-ed, would full-time nontenuretrack faculty in the Californiacommunity colleges displacetenured faculty? Or could thetenured core be preserved whilethe this new class of nontenuretrack faculty provided anupgrade in status for our currentclass of part-timers? Is our sys-tem’s current two-tiered facultyemployment model inherently

superior to the two-tiered ormulti-tiered models of CSU, UCand other systems across thecountry or could we benefitfrom borrowing the full-timenontenure track classificationcommon to those other systems?

In 2006 the CFT Conventionvoted (around 60-40) to opposeincreasing the 60% limit to 80%,a proposal that tinkered with themagnitude of the limit butsidestepped the larger question ofwhether the system should createa new class of full-time non-tenure track faculty. In 2007 theCCC and Convention voted,with virtually no discussion, to“oppose unless amended”AB591 (Dymally).The “Dymallybill,” authored by the legislatorwho created the 60% limit andfor whom it is named, proposedto eliminate the 60% limit alto-gether and provide full pro ratapay and benefits to a new class offull-time nontenure track faculty.

While there were flaws in thebill unrelated to the eliminationof the 60% limit, it’s clear fromthe controversy generated byCFT’s position that the time fora full airing of and debate on theissue has arrived. Most of theproblems with AB 591 unrelatedto 60% elimination have beenfixed, and the bill is now a two-year bill. So the question ofwhether we support the elimina-tion of the 60% rule tied to prorata pay and benefits is nowsquarely before us.

It’s a debate we’ve never reallyhad.We’ll start the discussion atour May 11 Community CollegeCouncil meeting.You’ll be readingand hearing a lot about thisimportant issue over the next year.Please let us hear your point ofview, at Council meetings, throughletters, listserv posts or emails [email protected].

The so-called “60% law” pre-vents college districts from hiringcontingent faculty whose work-load exceeds 60% of a full-timer’s. Faculty who work theequivalent of full-time in a Cali-fornia community college districtfor more than a year must beplaced on tenure track. Districtsmonitor assignments carefully toprevent these “accidental tenure”situations from occurring.

Faculty can and do disagreeabout the benefits of the 60%law for our system.There arepowerful arguments to be madeon both sides of the issue.

Part-timers who desire addi-tional teaching opportunities atcommunity colleges chafe underthe 60% law, frustrated by the sig-nificant obstacles it poses to theirefforts to stitch together a livableincome. From the perspective ofthese part-timers, there’s nothinggood about a law that forces youto drive to multiple districts tocircumvent its limitations andpiece together the equivalent of afull-time assignment, althoughfor a fraction of the pay of full-timers. In effect the system is say-ing to part-time faculty,“We pay

you less but must protect the sys-tem by limiting your employ-ment opportunities and thuspreventing employers fromoverusing you.”Talk aboutadding insult to injury.

The arguments in favor of the60% law are rooted in concernover tenure, in the belief that thepreservation of tenure requiresthe continued existence andenforcement of the 60% law.Does the 60% law protect tenureand the full-time faculty core bylimiting the ability of districts tomisuse and overuse our system’sonly class of contingent faculty,part-timers? Without the 60%

The California Community Colleges are, as far as I know, the only system of higher education inthe United States where all full-time faculty (except for long term substitutes and those hired towork in specially funded programs) are tenured or tenure track. Unlike University of California

and California State University, we have no full-time “contingent faculty,” faculty who may berespectably paid and benefited but who are hired on one year or multi-year contracts without eligibilityfor tenure. In the California Community Colleges, all contingent faculty are part-timers.

If the 60% limit were eliminated, would full-time

nontenure track faculty in the California community

colleges displace tenured faculty? Or could the tenured

core be preserved while the new class of nontenure

track faculty provided an upgrade in status for our

current class of part-timers?

Taking the LeadCarl Friedlander, CFT Community College Council President

Print is nice. Electrons are faster.

The Perspective brings you information you need to know on a quarterly basis. For themost current union news, recent media coverage of education issues, and key informationabout the California Federation of Teachers and its activities, visit the CFT website regularly.

www.cft.orgIt’s not an either/or. Come see us online.

On front cover: Chuck Wollenberg, historian and long-time instructorat Vista College, now Berkeley City College, in front of the newcampus in downtown Berkeley. The “V” shape above the doorway ismeant to suggest an open book. FRED GLASS PHOTO

Time for a discussion

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Before the start of this academic year, the AFT conductedresearch to determine the relative strength of two important fac-ulty contract provisions in all California community college dis-tricts. The items were binding arbitration and part-time facultyrehire rights.

The survey and subsequent analysis showed that AFT commu-nity college faculty locals had the best contracts by far in thesetwo areas. In fact, 82% of all AFT local unions had negotiatedrehire rights, while only 4% of CTA locals and 30% of indepen-dent unions had obtained them. The results showed that 73% ofall AFT local unions had negotiated binding arbitration, whilejust over 50% of CTA locals and 39% of independent unions hadwon that protection.

“I’m trying to unite theacademy with the real world,”Peavy says. “Philosophy, forinstance, can become an academicexercise with little utility in theday to day life of our students. I’mlooking for the practicalapplication of ideas in theireveryday lives. Instead of askingquestions with no answers, I’mseeking a way of living in theworld.” To this end,he even showshis students first-run movies,“sothey can see people strugglingwith the issues we discuss in class.”

Peavy has been teachingreligious studies at Victor Valleysince 2001, and spent two yearsteaching at the University ofPhoenix before that. But teachingand religious studies are one arc ofa long circle that has taken himthrough other careers and places.

Religious callingHe was born in Fort Worth,

Texas. As a teenager during therace riots following theassassination of Dr. MartinLuther King, Jr., he went toDetroit to help protect his sister.That took him into a job in anauto assembly plant,“anexperience that quickly taughtme that I wanted to go tocollege.”

Even then he had a religiouscalling, and received hisbachelor’s degree from TexasChristian University after

attending community college inFortWorth. He beganpreaching, while also going on tothe University of Texas in Austin,where he received a law degree.Peavy pursued higher educationwith energy and persistence,returning to Texas ChristianUniversity for religious studies,and then going on to get a Ph.D.from Hamilton University inWyoming. Today he’s still inschool, working on anotherPh.D. at Claremont College intheology, ethics and culture.

“I’m pursuing the answers toburning questions that rage deepwithin me, yet all I seem to beachieving is more questions,” helaughs.

Another journeyIn 1977 he left the ministry.

For the next two decades heworked as a successful attorneyin Texas. In the mid-90s’ how-ever, a set of profound experi-ences changed his life. “First, Iheard a friend preach a sermonthat made me feel there wassomething wrong with my life,”he recalls. Then a judge sen-tenced him to jail for 24 hoursfor contempt of court. “WhenI went into the cell, I felt it wasgiving me a break from a lifethat seemed increasinglyinsane.” Finally, a tornado torethrough Ft.Worth, and wreckedhalf of the office building inwhich he worked. “It demol-ished my office, while the oneacross the hall was leftuntouched. The day after that, Iput my clothes in my IsuzuTrooper and drove off to theseminary.”

Becoming active in the unionat Victor Valley was anotherjourney. Peavy interprets hisrole as a teacher as a responsi-bility to students, and “to mak-ing the academy a better place.”He quotes Socrates’ exhortationthat teaching should create abetter person. “So that’s myrole as an activist—to make thisa better place, and particularlyto be responsible to the part-time instructors.” Peavy himselfis a part-timer, and the union at

Victor Valley consists of part-time faculty.

Nevertheless, he says, hisexperience in the auto plantmade him suspicious of unions,especially since he was obligatedto join without understandingthe union’s purpose. Then helived many years in Texas, aright-to-work state wheremandatory union membershipis prohibited.

“At Victor Valley I discoveredthat although I could go some-where else, this would not beconsistent with my responsibili-ty towards others. So I becamea union member, and then anactivist.” Two years ago, to hisgreat surprise, Jack Robinson,an instructor who headed theoriginal faculty organizingcommittee, asked him to run forPresident.

Temporary Insanity“In a moment of temporary

insanity, I accepted,” Peavyremembers. “Actually, I wres-tled with the decision, and at

first said I didn’t want to do it.Now, after two years, I’m glad Ifinally accepted. I believe I’vemade a difference, and it’s cer-tainly made me a different per-son. And I’ve met manyremarkable people. I’ve attend-ed my first political rally, whenour state convention marchedto the Capitol building inSacramento. It rained thatday—par for the course.”

Five years ago, part-time fac-ulty at the Victor Valley Com-munity College District decidedto join the California Federa-tion of Teachers, and formedPart-time Faculty United—AFT Local 6286. Their boardof trustees, however, would notrespect their decision, andinsisted that they had to be rep-resented by the full-time facultyunion (CTA) that had neveracted on their behalf.

In the darkest days of the statebudget crisis, the district toldpart-timers that it faced a possible

May 2007 PERSPECTIVE n 3

“People often refer to ‘faculty

and part-timers’ as though

we had two faculties,” Peavy

explains. “We want people

to understand that at Victor

Valley there’s only one

faculty, which includes both

full and part-timers.”

MEMBER PROFILE

Don Peavy is a preacher. He is also a teacher. And he’s not only been elected president of his local faculty union at Victor Valley College, but was recently appointed to the HigherEducation Program and Policy Council of the American Federation of Teachers.

Pursuing the answers to burning questions.

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Faith continued on page 7

Faith is a journeyDon Peavy: teacher, preacher, union leader

Survey ResultsAFT community college contract provisions the best

LOCALS WITH BINDING ARBITRATION

AFT = 73% CTA = 54% IND = 39%

LOCALS WITH PT REHIRE RIGHTS

AFT = 82% CTA = 4% IND = 30%ccc


STATEWIDE

It’s not that far a stretch forMarty Hittelman, newly-electedCFT president, to represent thevoices of all CFT members.True, it was as leader of theCFT’s Community CollegeCouncil that the Valley Collegemath instructor became one ofthe most respected advocacyvoices for community colleges inCalifornia. But he is quick topoint out he began his teachingcareer in high school, and hasserved as the Senior Vice Presi-dent of the CFT for the past six-teen years. In that capacity heoften found himself defendingK-12 programs, helping classifiedemployees organize and bargain,

and speaking on behalf of highereducation employees, not just thecommunity college segment.

Hittelman has been a socialactivist all his life—so much sothat it’s hard to disentangle thepersonal and political dimensionsof his existence.As a high schoolstudent, he traveled to UCBerkeley to attend the foundingmeeting of SLATE, a studentpolitical group that eventually ledto the Free Speech Movement.His wife, Sandra Lepore, is theExecutive Secretary of the classi-fied employees local in the L.A.Community College District. Hecherishes his decades-longfriendship with Jackie Goldberg,

former Compton teacher andunion leader, Los Angeles CityCouncil member, and Assembly-woman.

In his local,AFT 1521 in LosAngeles, he served in every officerposition from grievance rep topresident.He has been a delegateto the labor council, and is amember of the national AFTHigher Education Program andPolicy Council. He has represent-ed the CFT on various politicalcoalition leadership bodies, andserved as campus academic senatepresident as well as in statewideAcademic Senate leadership.

He admits that he has catch-upwork to do on K-12 policy, andintends to rely on close consulta-tion with Sue Westbrook, therecently elected President of theEC/K-12 Council, and LauraRico, the ABC Federation ofTeachers leader who becameCFT Senior Vice-President at theMarch convention, for adviceand work in that area.

Since taking office as CFTPresident, Hittelman, a prodi-gious reader, has immersed him-self in No Child LeftBehind-related literature. Hesays,“Even if NCLB was betterfunded, it would still be a failedapproach to producing qualityeducational outcomes.” Herejects the NCLB premise that “a

large number of teachers andother educational employees arenot doing their best to educateour students.” He is critical,often in a colorful fashion, of theNCLB premise that standardizedtesting, by itself, improves educa-tion. In response, he quotes theproverb,“You can weigh the pigas many times as you want, butthat won’t make it any fatter.”

Not surprisingly, that saying isa familiar one to Dennis Smith,too, since the former president ofthe Los Rios College Federationof Teachers ran a successfulaccounting business and hastaught accounting for manyyears. Indeed, he based his cam-paign for the office of CFT Sec-retary Treasurer on his financialacumen and promise to improveCFT’s budgetary situation.

Like Hittelman, Smith is nostranger to union office andbrings leadership skills from othersources too. He agreed whenasked by the local president at LosRios to “just write a few checks amonth” when the treasurerresigned. He went on to serve onthe local’s bargaining team, soonas chief negotiator, and was thenelected union president. Becom-ing active in statewide unionaffairs, he was chosen to serve asSecretary by the CFT Commu-nity College Council.

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Hittelman and Smithelected to lead CFT

Good news for community college faculty,students and staff: California Secretary ofState Debra Bowen announced on April 24

that the “Community College Governance,Funding Stabilization, and Student Fee ReductionAct” has qualified for the February 2008 ballot.

The ballot measure qualification effort receivedmajor support from the California Federation ofTeachers,AFT Local 1521, the Faculty Associationof California Community Colleges, and numerousCFT locals. Backers had been a little nervous,because a simple random sample count, used todetermine if a full count was needed to pass thelegal threshold for qualification, had fallen just shorta couple months earlier.

But it was all smiles from the coalition leadershipat a press conference following the officialverification. “I’m proud to belong to a union, theCFT, that contributed so wholeheartedly to thiscampaign,” said CFT Secretary-Treasurer Dennis

Smith. “We don’t have a lot of resources comparedwith some organizations. But we put in a true unioneffort to make it happen.” Smith pointed out that itwasn’t just the community college locals that gavemoney and volunteer time for signature gathering,but every constituency in the organization.

The ballot measure, if passed by the electorate,willlower student fees to $15 per unit,untie the communitycollege funding formula from K-12 enrollments,andestablish a bilateral governance structure for communitycolleges (locally elected boards and the statewide Boardof Governors) in the state constitution similar to thestructures in place for UC and CSU.

Smith says there are three things supporters cando to help get the initiative passed: contributemoney, educate the public by writing letters to theeditor of local newspapers and speaking up atcommunity events, and help register family andfriends to vote. For more information and tools foraction, go to www.cft.org.

For the past year he has beenwearing another hat: Presidentof the Faculty Association ofCalifornia Community Colleges.And now, chief financial officerof the CFT. This is an interestingturn of events for someone who,as a former businessman andbusiness instructor, was not surehe wanted to join a union whenhe began teaching.

But Smith explains that his for-mative years as one of seven kidsin a working class family (and theonly one to go to college) helpedhim to quickly understand thesignificance of a union in work-ing people’s lives. At his first AFTconvention he had an epiphanywhen the delegates marched tosupport shipyard and hotel work-ers in New Orleans. “I thoughtto myself, if my own parents hadhad a union, our family wouldhave been much better off for it. That really increased my commitment.”

Smith has already had his bap-tism of fire speaking on behalf ofthe broader constituency in theCFT. In mid-April he was inter-viewed on a Sacramento publicradio show about a recent spate ofreports on K-12 issues. SaidSmith,“Afterwards I heard fromfriends who had listened, and theytold me I made sense. I took that asa sign I was learning the ropes.”

On Sunday, March 20, Marty Hittelman and Dennis Smith made California Federation of Teachers history when they were elected President and Secretary Treasurer, respectively, of the statewide union, at the CFT’s annual convention. What made things interesting was that

each unseated a long time incumbent. What made it historic was this is the first time since the 1940sthat a higher education member was elected CFT president, and the first time ever that the top two officer positions are filled by community college faculty.

Dennis Smith, accounting instructor, is the newly-elected CFTSecretary Treasurer.

Marty Hittelman, math instructor and lifetime activist, was electedCFT president at the March Convention.

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Community College Initiative qualifies for ballot

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POLITICS

Also in February, State SenatorSheila Kuehl reintroduced SB840, the CFT-backed “CaliforniaUniversal Healthcare Act,”her leg-islative effort to address the state’shealth care woes. Working on thecampaign for SB 840 is a centralfocus of the CFT task force.

“All you have to do is lookacross the border in Canada, or toany other advanced industrialnation,” says Mike Weimer, a CFTlegislative advocate and chair ofthe new task force. “For fewerdollars than we spend on healthcare in the United States, theycover everyone with quality healthcare. We have nearly fifty millionpeople in this country withoutcoverage, the number of peoplecovered at the workplace is steadi-ly decreasing, and the quality ofmedical care is deterioratingbefore our eyes for those of uswho still have it, because we arethe only country without someform of universal coverage.”

Collective bargaining problemsIn district after district

throughout the state, collectivebargaining has stumbled overgrowing costs of health insur-ance. Negotiations are escalatingto impasse at a higher rate thanseen in many years, usually trig-gered by the health care issue.

Indeed, recent estimates show

that over 14% of school andcommunity college payroll isnow devoted to covering healthinsurance, and the costs are rising.

Because of these problems,CFT representatives are partici-pating in a growing tangle ofcommittees, coalitions, and stud-ies, each attempting to deal withdifferent aspects of the crisis. Tocoordinate this work, and syn-thesize union policy in a rapidlychanging environment, formerCFT president Mary Berganconvened the health care taskforce.

“We were involved in moreand more labor, legislative andcollective bargaining initiatives,”says Bergan, who remains amember of the task force. “Itwas time to have all of us talkingwith one another in a morestructured way.We also neededto make sure we broadened theparticipation of our members.”

In some respects GovernorSchwarzenegger’s announcementof a health care proposal precipi-tated formation of the task force.“When the governor came outfor the first time in support ofuniversal health coverage, itbegan a discussion that we wel-comed, and into which legisla-tive leaders entered,” notes CFTpresident Marty Hittelman, alsoa task force member.

Schwarzenegger’s proposal relieson an “individual mandate” torequire all California residents topurchase health care insurance.But it contains no similarrequirements for adequacy ofcoverage or affordability. Hittel-man says,“So far CFT finds onlySB 840 meets our standards forhealth care reform. We hope thegovernor’s initiative and legisla-tive responses will move Califor-nia in the direction of a singlepayer program.”

A number of frontsSince its formation in Febru-

ary, the CFT task force has heldseveral meetings, and is workingon a number of fronts. Besidessharing information from theevolving work in different coali-tions, it has created a postcard tosend to Governor Schwarzeneg-ger urging him to sign StateSenator Sheila Kuehl’s SB 840when it reaches his desk. Thetask force has sent bundles of thepostcard to the locals.

It has also created a slideshowon a CD, providing an overviewof the health care crisis—its ori-gins, the role of private healthinsurance, a comparison of Unit-ed States’ and other countries’systems, and how SenatorKuehl’s bill offers a way forward.The slideshow has likewise been

sent to every CFT local, and thestate federation is offering speak-er training for members whowould like to help out in theeffort to educate the publicabout single payer health care.

“Single payer” refers to howhealth care is paid for. In theUnited States, employers (andincreasingly their employees)have traditionally paid the costsof premiums to insurance com-panies, which then siphon offadministrative costs and profitsbefore paying the health careprovider for services. There arehundreds of “payers” in theUnited States through privateinsurance. A single payer systemlike Canada’s leaves the choice ofprovider to the patient, andeliminates all but one “payer,”which is the government.

In Canada, where everyonehas health coverage, the adminis-trative costs of their single payer

system is about 3%, compared toover 20% for private insurers inthe United States. Medicare,which is a single payer systemfor seniors, has a similar lowadministrative overhead.

Single payer achieves otherenormous cost savings throughbulk purchases of medical goods,including pharmaceuticals,which is why Canadian prescrip-tion drugs are cheaper than inthe United States.

“One of the hurdles we face isthat people think that it’s naturalfor coverage to come throughtheir employer, and can’t imag-ine another system,” says CarlFriedlander, president of theCFT Community CollegeCouncil. “But the United Statesis an anomaly, not the norm,among advanced industrialeconomies, and it isn’t workingvery well anymore to do thingsthis way.”

State Senator Sheila Kuehl announces her reintroduction of SB 840,the California Universal Health Care Act, at a spirited rally inSacramento February 27.

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health care taskforce, campaign for single payer

WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR HEALTH CARE REFORM

TALK TO FAMILY, FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS and register themto vote

SIGN DEAR GOVERNOR CARDS in support of SB 840 and singlepayer health care for California. Phone 510-523-5238 for cards.

HAVE YOUR LOCAL COMMUNITY COLLEGE BOARD OFTRUSTEES PASS A RESOLUTION in support of SB 840.

WATCH THE CFT SLIDESHOW called Health Care Reform andYou to learn about the history and politics of the competingmeasures, and show it to your colleagues, friends and community groups.

Go to www.cft.org to find these and other resources.

DESCRIBE YOUR HEALTH CARE DIFFICULTIES to the CaliforniaLabor Federation, which is collecting stories.

Go to www.calaborfed.org, and click on health care.

CONTACT YOUR STATE LEGISLATORS to tell them we needhealth care reform that makes sense and is affordable.

DEMONSTRATE The coalition supporting SB 840 is holding ademonstration every day in a different location around thestate between now and the fall.

Go to www.onecarenow.org/index.html for schedule and locations

In February the California Federation of Teachers convened a health care task force, drawing eighteenmembers from locals across the state. The group includes elected leaders, staff, and rank and file membersof the union, charged with developing policy recommendations regarding the escalating, multi-faceted

health care crisis, and coordinating the areas of health policy work in which the union is involved.

“All you have to do is look across the border in Canada, or to any other advanced

industrial nation. For fewer dollars than we spend on health care in the United States,

they cover everyone with quality health care. We have nearly fifty million people in

this country without coverage, the number of people covered at the workplace is

steadily decreasing, and the quality of medical care is deteriorating before our eyes

for those of us who still have it, because we are the only country without some form

of universal coverage.”

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LEGISLATION

The Faculty and CollegeExcellence campaign, a multi-faceted effort involving legisla-tive initiatives, collectivebargaining efforts and organiz-ing, aims at building the powerof all faculty. Bills introducedinto state legislatures under theauspices of this campaign rangefrom the purely ideological tothe pragmatic, fueled by thecommitment of organizationsand activists willing to continuethis effort over time in as manystates as possible. In addition toour effort,AFT affiliates in four-teen other states—joined insome cases by other facultyorganizations—have committedto join the FACE campaign.

In California, we've partneredwith the California FacultyAssociation, the CaliforniaTeachers Association, and theFaculty Association for Califor-

nia Community Colleges. Oureffort is a serious one, aimed notonly at codifying clear policy,but also at securing the funds, inboth the state budget and atlocal bargaining tables, to makeFACE a reality.

To succeed on the transfer ortechnical path, students need theexpertise and time of faculty tohelp them progress. But part-time and non-tenured contin-gent faculty teach an increasingpercentage of courses offered inCalifornia's colleges and univer-sities. Colleges hire faculty towork part-time because tempo-rary part-time employees can beeconomically exploited.Adjunct faculty do not havecontracts or tenure. Even facultywho have worked in districts foryears are considered “tempo-rary” employees, with no guar-antee of continued employment.

This precarious status is bad forstudents and bad for communitycolleges, since it limits teacher

time with students, impacts anadjunct's academic freedom, andmakes many teachers fearobjecting to unfair conditions.

Although community collegeshave experienced budget increasesduring the past few years, manycolleges have not added full-timefaculty slots, and only a few havemade real progress toward payequity.The Academic Senate forthe California Community Col-leges finds in its recent report,"Part-time Faculty,A PrincipledPerspective" that "Maintaining acorps of full-time, tenured facultyis central to academic excellence,academic integrity, and academicfreedom; it is key to serving ourstudents well." National research

validates the importance of a suf-ficient complement of full-timefaculty—especially for the popu-lation served by the Californiacommunity colleges.

California's legislature leadsthe nation in addressing theoveruse of part-time faculty,most notably AB 1725 (Vascon-cellos), which in 1988, requiredcommunity college districtsbelow a 75/25 standard to use aportion of their programimprovement money to hiremore full-time faculty. Effortsduring the next decade createdmatching funds in the state bud-get as incentives for districts tofund office hours and healthbenefits for part-time faculty. In1999,AB 420 (Wildman)addressed office hours andhealth benefits again, and creat-ed a third fund, targeted at payequity. Some districts achievedgreat progress, but others wererecalcitrant, sometimes refusingto even talk about disparities.

So CFT sponsored and suc-ceeded in passing two other billsto bring districts to the table:AB 1245 (Alquist) 2001,required the issue of earningand retaining annual reappoint-ment rights by any personemployed as temporary or part-time faculty to be a mandatorysubject of bargaining in anycontract between communitycollege districts and temporaryor part-time faculty; and AB 654(Goldberg) 2003, expressed theintent of the Legislature con-cerning basic rights and privi-leges that part-time facultyshould have.

The CFT Community CollegeCouncil began California's efforton FACE last December. We metwith other organizations to gainsupport, talked to members of theSenate and the Assembly, and

Working the FloorJudith Michaels, CFT Legislative Director

California needs the Faculty and College Excellence Act (AB1343, Mendoza) to improve student learning and address theacademic staffing crisis in higher education. FACE is a

nationwide effort by state and local affiliates of the American Federa-tion of Teachers focused on achieving two goals: ensuring that allfaculty members will receive the financial and professional supportthey need to do their best work, and establishing a better balancebetween the numbers of full-time tenured faculty and part- and full-time non-tenure-track faculty. Assemblyman Tony Mendoza explains (second from right) why AB 1343, the Faculty and College

Excellence Act, is necessary at an April 17 press conference. Also speaking were, from left, DennisSmith, (in his role as FACCC President), Ron Reel, Treasurer, Community College Association/CTA, MartyHittelman, CFT President, and Susan Meisenhelder, Political Action Chair and former President,California Faculty Association.

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FACE campaign moves forward

Our effort is a serious one,

aimed not only at codifying

clear policy, but also at

securing the funds, in both

the state budget and at

local bargaining tables, to

make FACE a reality.

Why FACE is necessary:

The Palomar exampleOne of the standing arguments against overuse of part-time

instructors is that an administrator can use an instructor’s lack of jobsecurity to smother academic freedom. This is the flip side of theargument for tenure: that professors need it to protect their abilityto speak out honestly and to do what they feel is right,whether itbe in the classroom,off campus or assigning grades to their students.

This brings us to Palomar College, where last summer a newinstructor filed her grades and went on with her life. Until thefall, when she found out that an administrator had unilaterally,without informing her, changed the grades of several studentswho had attended her class and decided they deserved highergrades.

The instructor protested. As if by magic, her class offeringsdisappeared at Palomar and another college nearby. Accordingto Julie Ivey, co-president of the Palomar Faculty Federation,AFT Local 6161, at the time of this writing the districtAcademic Senate is wrapping up an informal investigation and isexpected to move to a formal one. Meanwhile, the union hasfiled a grievance, and the District administration has “clarified”that only the instructor of record can sign grade change forms.

Ivey notes that while this instructor’s response was “gutsy,” givenher contingent employment status,“Involuntary grade changesinvolving part-time college faculty are, sadly, not uncommon,” andthat “Society pays when grades change from an honest measure ofachievement into a customer service.” Face campaign moves forward

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budget shortfall, and was cuttingtheir salaries unilaterally by 10%.Since there was no contract, thedistrict said it was under no obli-gation to negotiate over thechange, or even to justify it.Under Robinson’s leadership, theCFT organizing committee tookthe decision head on, and in theend, mobilized enough pressureon administration to get the cutrescinded.

An election took place finallyin May 2004. By that time,instructors were fed up withtheir inability to bargain overthe most basic changes in theirjobs and conditions. The 540-person unit voted decisively infavor of Part-time Faculty Unit-ed. The district still delayed,and had to be dragged into bar-gaining. Its negotiators wouldsign off on items, only to seetrustees then rescind agreementsreached at the table. Finally amediator, and even the district’sown consultant, convinced thedistrict to honor the process.

One facultyThat fight reached its culmi-

nation in January, with Part-

time Faculty United’s first col-lective bargaining agreement.Under Peavy’s leadership,VictorValley part-time faculty wonbinding arbitration, a prioritylist to protect assignments, a22.5% pay increase, parity withfull-time faculty in leaves andstipends, and a good grievanceprocedure. “I take pride inthis,” he says.

Some union efforts go furtherthan wages and conditions. Thelocal started a “one faculty cam-paign” to win more respect forpart-timers. “People often referto ‘faculty and part-timers’ asthough we had two faculties,”Peavy explains. “We want peo-ple to understand that at VictorValley there’s only one faculty,which includes both full andpart-timers. We’re going to getthe Academic Senate and Boardof Trustees to adopt resolutionsthat say so.”

Peavy sees his role on theAFT’s Higher Education Pro-gram and Policy Council asworking on two issues, academ-ic freedom and diversity. Hepoints to the attacks by DavidHorowitz on academic free-dom, and the reactionary effort

to get districts to adopt the so-called “Student Bill of Rights.”“The intent here is to say thatinstructors can’t talk aboutsomething not related to thesubject matter of the class ormatters of public discourse. Wehave to fulfill our responsibilityto students to teach our sub-jects, but we also have an obli-gation to speak to them onissues in the public arena. Asteachers, we have experienceand a broader view of theworld, which we should use tohelp them.”

Peavy is also deeply con-cerned about an increasing lackof respect for racial and nationaldiversity. “Look at the com-ments of Don Imus, Mel Gib-son, and others. People arevoicing deep seated hatred, andthe academy should addressthis.”

In the midst of all this activi-ty, Peavy has also found thetime to write a series of bookson ethics and spirituality,including What Must I do? –Bridging the Gap between Beingand Doing, and Play it Where itLays – Using the Rules of Golf toPlay the Game of Life.

“These are all related to myteaching too,” he says. “I usethe same technique of tellingstories of real people that I tryto use in my teaching. In mylast book I try to deal with thedifficulty that so many peopleexperience—that they wishtheir lives were different, andthen wait for something else to

come. Simply dreaming andhoping doesn’t work. You can’tcheat your way out of your sit-uation.”

Peavy still preaches at theMcCarthy Memorial Church inLos Angeles. “Faith is a journey,”he smiles.

By David Bacon


introduced the bill on February23, kicking off the campaign witha press conference April 17.AB1343 cleared the Assembly High-er Education Committee thatsame day and quickly moved tothe Appropriations Committee.AMay 2 hearing sent the bill to theAppropriations Suspense File, and

Assemblyman Mendoza pledgedto work with Appropriations staffas well as Budget staff to gain allthat we can this year in AB 1343.

If the bill moves off the sus-pense file, the vote on theAssembly floor will comequickly. CFT members shouldcontact their local Assembly

member to ask them to help inthis effort to move the bill offthe suspense file. Visit yourAssembly representative now toalert the member about the crit-ical need for this bill, along withsome support in the budget. Ifan Assembly member commitsto voting for AB 1343, inform

us right away so that we canbegin our lists, and follow upwith any additional informationyour representative might need.

Assembly rules allow theAppropriations Committee toconfer until June 1 beforedeciding which bills it willrelease to the floor, and June 8

will be the last day for Assemblybills to pass the Assembly andmove to the Senate for action.Then the fun in the Senate willbegin. We have an opportunityto make history here; but only ifwe treat it with the seriousnessof purpose it will take to moveforward.

NEWS

Faith is a journeycontinued from page 3

Face campaign moves forwardcontinued from page 6

The Victor Valley Part-time Faculty United bargaining team, from leftto right: Dr. Lori Kildal, Mike Mello, Dr. Don E. Peavy, Mary Millet,Dr. Marianne Tortorici, Neal Kelsey, and Marion Boenheim.

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“Throughout the 90s andeven back in the 80s there weremoves by the District adminis-tration to close down Vista Col-lege,” recalls Wollenberg, authorof several books on Bay Areahistory. Vista was the smallest offour colleges in the PeraltaCommunity College District.“It would have been easy to do,because Vista was in rented facil-ities,” says Wollenberg. “As adefense strategy, we began to saywe needed a permanent facility”in the early 90s.

Unfortunately the District

continued to resist a permanentcampus or even adequateresources and staffing to runVista. As a result, in the mid-90sWollenberg, along with otherVista faculty, students, and com-munity members got involvedwith lawsuits and an effort toform a separate community col-lege district, or “de-annexation.”The Peralta Federation ofTeachers (PFT),AFT Local1603, while sympathetic to Vistafaculty’s predicament, opposedthe secession movement.

Ultimately the parties reached

a compromise. Vista facultyagreed not to go ahead withlegal cases and the de-annexationeffort, and Peralta administra-tion, prodded by the union,agreed to build a permanentfacility.

That took a bond measure inAlameda County, stronglybacked by the PFT.The bondincluded $65 million for whatwas to become Berkeley CityCollege (BCC). It needed atwo thirds vote from the elec-torate, and got it.According toPFT secretary Mark Greenside,

“The union worked very closelywith the board of trustees, espe-cially Amy Stone, to get boardapproval and then passage in theelection.”Adds Wollenberg,“The voters of Alameda Countyhave been good about passingbond issues.”

Delays, issues and overrunsLocated in the heart of

downtown Berkeley, the newBCC was originally supposed toopen in Fall 2005. But therewere long delays in construc-tion and cost overruns. Thebuilding wasn’t finished (“moreor less” says Wollenberg) untilJanuary 2007. A complicating

factor was that the district’slease was running out in the oldVista building. “So our firstseveral months, beginning inAugust 2006, we were in abuilding under construction,”says Wollenberg.

Greenside argues that “Theyopened it at least six months toosoon. It was a disaster.” He toldThe Perspective that from theunion’s standpoint the health andsafety issues were paramount; forexample,“The fire alarmsweren’t functioning properly formonths.” PFT President DebraWeintraub describes how shewent to BCC for a meeting “andI found all the students, faculty,and staff out on the sidewalk fora fire alarm. Two hours later, mymeeting ended when the alarmwent off again.”

One of the PFT buildingreps,Val Djukich, a computerinformation science instructor,

“What a college for this community should be”

Berkeley City Collegecontinued on page 8

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There were times when history instructor Chuck Wollenberg thought he might be stuck in thecrumbling Vista College building in Berkeley until he retired. But when he and others first begantalking about the need for change,Wollenberg had no idea just how long it was going to take.

Berkeley City College opens


Compton/El CaminoCompton and El Caminogetting adjusted to each other

The faculty and students at ComptonCommunity College are settling in for along period in which the college will beadministered by the El Camino Commu-nity College District, following years ofturmoil. The state’s Fiscal Crisis and Man-agement Assistance Team—the agencycharged with helping schools and collegesin California in financial difficulty—hasfinally completed and issued its report.This forms the basis of the trusteeship andestablishes 186 performance measures fora process that may eventually allow theCompton district to regain its autonomy.

The state doesn’t envision this happen-ing quickly. According to ChancellorMarshall Drummond,“It took many yearsfor Compton College to get into thecondition it is in now, and it will takemany years to fully recover.”

Lending accreditationLast summer El Camino signed a

memorandum of understanding takingover administration of the troubled dis-trict under a temporary contract for thenext year. The relationship, however,seems destined to last longer than that.Rodney Murray, President of the facultyunion at Compton, says “we’re togetherfor the next five or six years.” In signingthe MOU, El Camino essentially lent itsaccreditation to Compton, along withtaking over administration of the Comp-ton campus, now called the “ComptonCenter of El Camino College.”

Murray says he appreciates that ElCamino stepped in, but the changeovertook place just days before fall semesterregistration.

“We used to have a walk-in registra-tion process,” he explains,“which wastaken away, and in its place was a systemof registration by telephone and Internet.Many of our students weren’t familiarwith that. Then some classes were can-celled even before students had time toregister for them.” As a result, enrollmentis about half what it used to be.

The college serves Compton,Lynwood,Carson and the surrounding communitiesof south Los Angeles, some of the mosteconomically depressed in the state. Mostresidents are African American and Latino.“Most students can’t afford a 4-yearschool. Our function at Compton Col-lege is to bring people up to where theyneed to be to enter one,”Murray says.

The state chancellor promised Comptonfaculty that there would be no layoffs in thefirst year of the new regime, so teacherswho suffered cancelled classes supposedlydidn’t have to fear that they would losetheir jobs as a result. But 15 faculty mem-bers did get laid off. After union protests,four terminations were rescinded.

Compton administrators also lost theirjobs, and El Camino assigned its ownadministrators and some faculty to takeover some responsibilities there.

In the midst of this difficult situation,however, the Compton faculty negotiat-ed a new contract that Murray believes isa significant advance over previousagreements. “For the school year thatends in June, we got a 5.92% COLA onthe salary schedule,” he says,“16% forpart time and overload teaching, a one-time bonus of $1137, and increases inhealth benefits. All-in-all, I’d call it agood contract.” The union will be open-ing negotiations for a new contract inthe next few months.

El Camino negotiations more difficultIronically, the faculty and classified

employees at El Camino are having amuch more difficult time with theiradministration. The faculty union isgoing to arbitration over a dispute in theapplication of the COLA. If the districtwins, faculty will get a 1.2% pay cut.

El Camino faculty chief negotiatorSean Donnell says faculty are very frus-trated. “We’ve been asked to step up andtake on a lot of extra burdens. We’refeeling the pinch. And despite all of thiswe’re being told the district can onlyafford a 1% pay raise at most, althoughthe district is getting funds for COLAfrom the state.”

Donnell, who teaches English, arguesthat “The administration is predictingdoom and gloom due to decliningenrollment. Yet any potential impactwon’t be felt until 2010. We’re beingasked to tighten our belts due to a prob-lem that may not ever occur.”

El Camino classified employees, alsorepresented by AFT, have been workingwithout a contract, and have begun toshow their discontent as well. Onbreaks, a group of classified employeesputs on union t-shirts, and takes a “soli-darity walk” through the campus.Luukia Smith, president of the classifiedunion at El Camino, says this startedwhile students were on spring break. “Iwas expecting very few people, becausethe campus is so quiet during this peri-od, but 50 people came out.” Two weekslater, the solidarity walks were drawingover a hundred employees.

“We keep getting told by the districtthat we’re losing enrollment. If we can’teven fill the positions responsible for get-ting students registered and into classes,the lack of student services can leadmore students to other colleges that paybetter attention,” warns Smith.

“They’re offering just a little over 1%,and we want more than 5%,” Smithexplains.“So I was very happy to see thatpeople were willing to stand up, comeout on the walks, and show the districtthat we’re serious. We’re still not carry-ing signs, but we’re ready to start turningthe heat up.”

By David Bacon

concedes there were a number of simi-lar problems he witnessed himself orwas told about, including malfunction-ing air conditioning and an inadvertentflood by fire sprinklers, which leakedthrough ceilings onto the floor below.

But Djukich stresses that none ofthese things resulted in formalgrievances, and that “anyone who waspaying attention during the buildingprocess wouldn’t have been surprised” atthe disarray when the building opened.He recalls that the administrationignored recommendations from CIS fac-ulty on wiring the building’s computernetworking, and as a result “the wiringhadn’t been pulled when the buildingopened, and there were no diagrams.”

For a history teacher, there wereinconveniences,“but it wasn’t terrible.We had classrooms, boards, chairs anddesks.” For a while there was a hole inthe wall, through which Wollenbergand his students could hear (and see)the classes next door. “And there was alot of noise, sawing and drilling, thesounds of construction going on whilewe were trying to teach.”

The people who really suffered wereinstructors who needed labs. Therewere people in computer classes with-out computers and science classeswithout lab equipment. But by thebeginning of the spring semester thebuilding was much improved.

Green buildingDespite the roller coaster ride getting

there, most agree the building is beau-tiful. Classrooms, offices, a graceful250-seat auditorium, labs, library andadministrative space surround a soaringcentral atrium. Says Wollenberg,“Wehave a lot more space; the classroomsare built as classrooms. In the Vistabuilding we were teaching in roomsbuilt as offices. Now we have built inAV, computers, projectors, screens.”

Wollenberg believes the new Berkeleycampus is the largest community collegebuilding in California at 165,000 squarefeet.There is no on-site physical educa-tion facility or parking, and these wereconscious moves. BCC is just a teach-ing and learning environment.

Designed by Ratcliff, a venerableBerkeley architectural firm with manyother edifices in downtown Berkeley,including a number on the UC cam-pus, BCC is a sustainable green build-ing.There are a lot of energy savingmeasures in the heating and lighting.Most of the paint was non-petroleumbased, and, according to Wollenberg,“The insulation is made of old clothes.When you went in during constructionit looked like a bunch of old Levis, asopposed to plastic or fiberglass.”

Aspects of the energy efficiency canoccasionally be irksome, says Wollen-berg:“If you sit too still in your officethe lights will go off, but if you move alittle they will go back on.” But theseare irritations he can live with. “Morethan 70 per cent of our students walk,bike, or take public transit to get here,”he observes.“This building reflectswhat a college for this communityshould be.”

By Fred Glass

This bookmark was designed by City College ofSan Francisco Graphic Communications studentDavid Tran, with an image from the collectionof the Labor Archives and Research Center atSan Francisco State University. The image ispart of a current exhibit at the City College ofSan Francisco’s Rosenberg Library co-curatedby AFT Local 2121 member Kate Connell, "Yarnsof Rebellion: Women Needling History," acollaboration between the CCSF Library and theWomen's History Department. The exhibitionincludes work by local artists, student artistsand a section contributed by the Labor Archivesthat focuses on the struggles of garmentworkers, including the 1938 National DollarStore strike in Chinatown, San Francisco, shownhere. The exhibition is on the second floor ofthe Rosenberg Library through September 15.

ActionLocalBerkeley City College continued from page 7

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Perspective, May 2007

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Transcript of Perspective, May 2007