Letters to the Editor
“Eating Well in Academe”
To the Editor:
When I read your recent report on adjunct pay (“Eating Well in Academe, Adjunct Advocate, July/August 2006), I had to laugh. I live in Texas. I am lucky as a community college teacher to get more than $1,600 per course. $3,000-$7,000?! I could actually make a living on that! Well, I do, in fact, make a living by teaching online. This way I can teach many courses per semester. What do you think is the solution to this problem—unionization? I’m tired of putting up with the outrageous wages and being expected to keep my mouth shut. Is there any hope for the future?
Ripped Off in Texas (Angela)
Editor: We would refer the writer to Michael Mauer’s handy piece on page 22 of this issue.
“A Bigger Slice: California’s 80 Percent Law”
To the Editor:
I am writing in response to the Adjunct Advocate piece on the 80 percent Legislation (Adjunct Advocate, July/August 2006). The bad news is that the legislation has been withdrawn from further consideration for this legislative session. Now, I am not terribly surprised that politicians need to bend and flex depending on the way that the wind blows, but, like so much else, nothing is going to change for a number of reasons:
1. Until part-time faculty are able to champion their own causes, or until we find an angel with deep pockets, we are doomed to being exploited and abused…and with only an occasional nod from our more privileged full-time faculty colleagues.
2. Therefore it follows, as the night follows the day, that part-timers will always lose when their union local also represents full-time faculty in negotiations at the district level. All statewide and national labor efforts are generally tainted by a conflict of interest that pits part-time needs against the will of full-time faculty intent on cementing their own gains. Ironically, there are a few community college districts that have made gains on behalf of their part time faculty (Community College of San Francisco and DeAnza Community College come to mind), but their successes need to be measured against the continuing exploitation of the 60 percent Law.
Will the notion of “equal pay for equal work,” ever be operationalized? I’m not holding my breath on this one!
3. We have always been told that there is strength in numbers, and that the 39,000 part-time faculty in the California Community College System just need to “wake up and smell the roses,” get organized and demand their rights. Yeah sure! This sort of unrealistic goal has kept us reaching for the brass ring on a merry-go-round. Part-time faculty, statewide and nationwide, choose to teach under exploitative conditions for myriad reasons…almost as many reasons as there are grains of sand on a limitless beach. We only look like we are a single species, when in fact, we are not.
The solution? We need to rethink our priorities and in small, lithe and agile groups, make the most of our strengths and work on disrupting “business as usual” practices locally, regionally and at the state level.
Nobody took our cause seriously until only 100 or so part-time faculty and many of their students picketed a regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Governors a couple of years ago in Sacramento. Standing outside, chanting and looking in, we managed to get the attention of the then Chancellor, Tom Nussbaum and his sitting Board, and were invited in to present our case.
As a partial response to our presence (acutely embarrassing) the Chancellor convened a Part Time Issues Task Force. Out of that came AB 420–the so-called “Part Time Bill of Rights”– that many of us saw as a small down payment on a huge debt owed to all part-time faculty for almost 30 years of exploitation.
Instead the full-time faculty and district administrators immediately went to work gnawing at the edges of this legislation, seeking to define “parity” and the distribution of “equity” funds in such a way as to advantage full-time faculty. In the intervening years, there are still some districts who refuse to define “parity” in such a way as to fairly distribute these “equity” funds to their part time faculty, and who additionally skew the salary schedule to “reward” full-time faculty for teaching overload classes, while keeping part-time faculty on the same pay schedule shut out and cut off from the money that is rightfully theirs. Abuses abound, and the litany of horrors continues unchecked and unabated, because we neglected to write into AB 420 compliance guidelines with enforceable, immediate and significant monetary penalties to districts for non-distribution of said funds solely to part time faculty.
4. Until we stop pandering to the “demands” and “suggestions” of our exploiters we will always be playing at a disadvantage. It has been suggested that striking, work slow downs, teach-ins, protest marches and peaceful demonstrations will all, to varying degrees hurt our cause and result in irreparable damage to our students. The irony here, of course, is that one of the missions of the community colleges is to educate and prepare youth to take their place in society as full participants and well paid workers.
This noble goal is being accomplished on the backs of exploited part time faculty, without whom the community colleges would fail. If we do not have enough self-esteem to tell our students, and anyone else who will listen, that the system exploits its largest and most valuable labor force, then we deserve to continue suffer.
5. We must begin to work for changes that will impact each of us in a meaningful and significant way. That is much more important than trying to speak for 39,000 part-timers, many of whom could care less about making life better for themselves. And is so often the case, this huge mass of inert bodies will be there to reap the benefits that others have fought so hard to obtain, without a moment’s thought or an iota of thanks. Anyway, let me end with my standard closing: How Much Longer, Part-Timers?
Robert B. Yoshioka, Ph.D.
“Thanks”
To the Editor:
I am writing to say thanks for the great magazine! I was surfing online and found your website. After reading the publication online for a few months, I subscribed. I have made it a point to tell my fellow part-timers in the English department about the magazine, and I really enjoyed the July/August issue.
Sandra D. Rocci
Des Moines, Iowa
