Community College Articles
Community College
News and stories of interest for full-time and part-time faculty teaching in the community colleges.
Falling enrollment, cancelled classes, and part-time faculty
FIRST PERSON | Renee Fraser
Many of us have been teaching in community college for 20 years or more, and we remember the days when the mission was education, not production. Classes might have 25 or 30 students, so we could have seminar-style discussions and individual project presentations, and even memorize the names of our students. We might assign lengthy papers and essays, and we had time to read each one, make comments, and allow students to rewrite them.
Campus Equity Week can build adjunct-student solidarity
October 24-28 is Campus Equity Week
Most part-time instructors are aware of how damaging adjunct working conditions can be to our lives economically, physically, emotionally, and psychologically. You may also be aware of how these working conditions can hurt students, the institutions, and tenure-track, full-time employees as well.
But how aware are students?
Historic victory: New law brings reemployment rights for part-time faculty
Governor signs CFT-sponsored bills calling for districts to negotiate with unions
Community college districts will be compelled to negotiate what CFT-sponsored legislation calls “reemployment preference for part-time, temporary faculty.” The landmark provisions require districts to negotiate with the union in order to receive significant funding available from the state Student Success and Support Program.
San Francisco faculty struck for a day and won
Local unity gains good contract, overdue pay raises
The faculty union at City College of San Francisco pulled off a one-day strike on April 27, despite the administration’s claim that the strike was illegal. To avert another strike, the college agreed to a union contract with substantial raises by July.
Compton College accreditation: A decade later
By Joshua Pechthalt, CFT President
One of the principles of our democracy is the right to elect our representatives. In California, one of the most basic decisions we make is about our children’s education through the election of local school boards that govern both K-12 and community college districts. This may not receive the same fanfare as statewide or national elections, but in more than 1,000 K-12 and 70 community college districts, community residents make key educational decisions that matter to them.
CFT files amended lawsuit against accrediting commission
Broader in scope than the San Francisco City Attorney's
San Francisco, May 19, 2016—Today the CFT filed an amended complaint with Superior Court Judge Curtis Karnow against the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC).
The complaint, delayed for more than two years by ACCJC legal maneuvers, alleges a broad array of violations of federal laws and regulations, as well as California common law fair procedure, by the Commission. The plaintiffs, in addition to CFT, include several local community college faculty unions, a number of individual faculty members and a student.
San Francisco City College faculty calls one-day strike
April 27 action protests college administration stonewalling
Rain, wind, and a four-hour round trip from her home could not keep English teacher Jessica Nelson away from City College of San Francisco to join a one-day strike on April 27, the first strike in the school’s history.
“I wanted to support my fellow faculty,” she said. “There’s a lack of respect for faculty here. That’s what led to this strike and all the time, energy and effort the union has put into it.”
Honoring “letter carrier who sings” turned teacher
Old school troubadour and modern Joe Hill among top labor artists and activists
Jimmy Kelly comes from a union family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where his grandfather, father and two brothers were all union members. “I grew up in a different era, in a town that traced the origin of its labor movement to the great strikes in the steel mills,” he recalls. “We learned labor terms in fourth grade.”
Community college presidents move to reform, then leave ACCJC
CFT applauds growing momentum for accreditor’s ouster
Statement from CFT President Joshua Pechthalt
March 17, 2016—“Today California moved another step closer to reforming the broken accreditation system for California’s community colleges. With a more than 90 percent vote earlier this week to reform the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC), while preparing at the same time to move to another accreditor, community college presidents struck a decisive blow to ACCJC’s fading hopes of maintaining the unacceptable status quo.
San Diego piloting move to make community college free
Can the goals of California’s Master Plan for Higher Education be fulfilled again?
The San Diego Community College District has joined the states of Tennessee and Oregon in implementing free community college. In February Chancellor Constance Carroll announced that 200 students would have their course fees waived for the 2016-17 academic year.
Freeway Flyers: Local action & quick news
Campus Equity Week draws attention to inequities among faculty in higher education and calls for economic justice, job security, and institutional support for contingent and part-time faculty. Originally organized by the Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor, these October events aim to bring greater awareness to the precarious situation for contingent faculty in higher education, organize for action, and build solidarity.
Will you be eligible for unemployment this summer?
By Grace Chee
At the end of each semester or academic term, full-time faculty go on break, while adjunct faculty become unemployed or underemployed — still working and making less than $600 per week — until the next semester or term starts.
During these periods, you may be eligible to receive unemployment insurance benefits of up to $450 a week, for up to 26 weeks per year in California.
One conversation at a time: Part-time faculty join the union in record numbers
By Linda Sneed
As a CFT vice president and representative of part-time faculty in my district, I’m pleased by the efforts made by my local union and the CFT to strengthen member engagement and outreach. The CFT “Building Our Power” campaign is helping locals do a better job of not only sharing information with bargaining unit members but seeking their input.
Do you know what to do during a campus emergency?
Part-time faculty identify needs for further training and information
How much do you know about maintaining a safe and secure environmentwhere you teach? If you don’t know your campus’ safety and security protocols and expectations of faculty in emergencies, do you know where to find them?
Soon after an isolated incident at Sacramento City College in September that left one person dead and another hospitalized, part-time Sociology instructor Angelo Williams began thinking about campus safety, what he needed to know, and how to support students in the wake of the event.
Perspective 2016
Oct 2016
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May 2016
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February 2016
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CFT goes to Washington, tells NACIQI to delist ACCJC
December 17, 2015—Yesterday CFT President Joshua Pechthalt, former CFT President Marty Hittelman, staff member Jessica Ulstad, and faculty, students and trustees from City College of San Francisco spoke before the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI), which oversees regional accreditors such as the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC).
Community College Board of Governors to send message to U.S. Department of Education
"California needs a new accreditor"
September 22, 2015—Yesterday the California Community College Board of Governors (BOG) directed state Community Chancellor Brice Harris to send his Accreditation Task Force’s Report, issued two weeks ago, to the United States Department of Education (USDOE).
The report, citing a multitude of failures by the current California community college accreditor, the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, recommends that California replace the ACCJC with a new agency.
New community college accreditor needed now
By Joshua Pechthalt, CFT President
State Community College Chancellor Brice Harris has released his long-awaited Accreditation Task Force report, and the news is not good for the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges.
The report, however, is good news for California, because it puts accreditation — the process of monitoring and reporting that provides assurance to students and taxpayers that a college offers a quality education — on a path toward renewal.
Chancellor’s task force calls for new accreditor
August 28, 2015—Today the Community College Chancellor released his long awaited Accreditation Task Force Report, and the news was not good for the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges. Bottom line: The task force, a blue ribbon group representing faculty, administrators, elected officials and other stakeholders, is recommending that the ACCJC be replaced by another accrediting agency.
Former part-timer chairs Assembly Higher Education Committee
Teaching background brings understanding, nuanced solutions
Community College Council President Jim Mahler says having Assemblyman Jose Medina as the new chair of the Committee on Higher Education is a gold mine.
Why? Because Medina, before going into politics, was a high school teacher in the Riverside Unified School District and a part-time teacher at three different community colleges, active in his union. He knows first-hand the insecurity part-timers have to deal with — cobbling together a schedule, finding enough work to support themselves, and worrying about their classes being cancelled.