Part-Timer
Part-Timer
Part-Timer promotes the interests of part-time faculty working in the California community colleges. It contains news about the movement to establish better conditions of employment for adjunct faculty, both in California and North America. Browse by date below or by index here.
Part-Timer is published twice during the academic year, in the fall and in the spring. The newsletter is emailed to part-time faculty. We welcome unsolicited articles, letters, and story ideas. Please send letters, submissions, or other inquiries to Jane Hundertmark, CFT Publications Director.
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Freeway Flyers: Local action & quick news
ACCJC has taken part-time jobs from San Francisco
With City College of San Francisco still in limbo status due to unfair sanctions from the Accrediting Commission for Junior and Community Colleges, nearly 150 part-time faculty have lost their jobs in the past couple of years and few, if any, part-time counselors have been rehired.
AFT Convention forms Part-Time Caucus
Part-time and contingent faculty throughout the United States now have a stronger voice in our national union with the formation of a Part-Time Caucus at the AFT Convention in July.
Several California part-timers are helping shape this tool to influence AFT priorities and connect part-timers nationwide.
Two new laws will benefit part-time faculty in California
Improved transfer of unused sick leave
Assembly Bill 2295 (Ridley-Thomas, D-Los Angeles) makes it easier for part-timers to transfer unused sick leave from a previous community college employer to a new one by extending the transfer period from a mere one year to three academic years.
CalSTRS offers more assistance with service credit reporting
By Sharon Hendricks
To help part-time faculty understand how districts report service credit and to ensure they receive all service credit they have earned throughout their teaching careers when they retire, CalSTRS has opened new centers in Irvine, Glendale, and Santa Clara, staffed by benefits counselors trained to navigate part-time-faculty issues.
Join CFT campaign for office hours pay, full-time positions
How can we get more state funding for office hours, equal pay for equal work, and new full-time positions that that will benefit existing part-time faculty? CFT is calling on part-timers and their allies to urge the governor to include line items in the state budget dedicated to these essential improvements.
Advocate for our interests in providing equal education opportunities for students by writing directly to Gov. Brown and others who influence the state budget. Ask the governor and the Department of Finance for these new resources:
Rehire rights: Long-time instructor describes pain of losing assignment
Outpouring of faculty and student support
What happens when your employer disregards your contractually negotiated rehire rights? Part-time instructors at Oakland’s Laney College recently found out. One of them is Cynthia Mahabir, a sociology instructor and Part-Time Representative on the executive board of the Peralta Federation of Teachers.
Freeway Flyers: Local action & quick news
- AFT Guild successfully negotiated for continuing education part-time faculty in the San Diego community colleges to be on the same salary schedule as credit-course instructors, and in the Grossmont-Cuyamaca district for part-timers teaching 50 percent of a full load to be eligible for fully district-paid healthcare coverage starting January 2015.
Part-time-friendly resolutions passed at CFT Convention
At the CFT Convention in March, the full body of delegates passed three important resolutions that affect part-time faculty.
More part-timers choose AFT/CFT as their union
Faculty teaching non-credit courses at both Citrus College and the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Colleges have chosen AFT as their union. Non-credit hourly part-time faculty at Citrus and continuing education part-time faculty at Grossmont-Cuyamaca had been paid significantly less than their colleagues teaching for-credit courses.
Now the faculty have union representation, are on salary schedules with opportunities for schedule advancement, and can accrue sick leave.
What does the Affordable Care Act really mean for part-time faculty?
The Affordable Care Act has made it possible for some previously uninsured part-time faculty to get healthcare coverage. For others, coverage has become more affordable. Available subsidies, along with customizable combinations of premiums and deductibles, may make going on the exchange worthwhile.
When do you qualify for unemployment benefits?
If you are teaching summer school, you may qualify for unemployment benefits in the periods before or after summer session. If you do not have a summer or fall teaching assignment, or another job, you may be entitled to unemployment benefits.
This results from a 1989 legal challenge brought by the CFT in the landmark case Cervisi v. California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board.
Ancillary pay programs: New strategies for part-timer inclusion on campus
Parity pay — compensation for part-time faculty commensurate with that of our full-time colleagues for comparable work — is one of the defining goals of the movement for part-timer equity. Progress continues to be made, but in lean budgetary times salary schedule advancements may be more difficult to negotiate.
How does your pay rate compare to others?
CFT releases comprehensive salary survey of part-time faculty
Have you ever wondered how your pay rate compares to that of other part-time faculty throughout the state? Who gets paid for office hours and how much? Will you earn more if you have a doctorate? What percentage are you earning of what full-timers make at your college for their teaching duties?
Mark James Miller: Meet one of the hardest working organizers of part-timers
English instructor and president of the Part-Time Faculty Association of Allan Hancock College Mark James Miller says that one of the accomplishments of which he is most proud is “getting administrators to recognize how important part-time faculty are. Part-time faculty used to be invisible to them, or seen as just interchangeable parts. That’s not the case anymore.”
CFT undertakes study of part-timer compensation
Comprehensive statewide analysis will compare pay rates, schedule advancements
In a show of support for part-time faculty, the CFT committed this year to completing the first phase of a substantial study of part-time faculty compensation that may prove invaluable to those seeking stronger contract language for part-time instructors.
Union supports paths to full-time status for adjuncts
Delegates to the annual CFT Convention passed two resolutions submitted by the CFT Part-Time Committee calling for the union to pursue legislation that would help part-time faculty secure full-time employment.
Prop. 30 brings bounty of classes for students, part-timers
The passage of Proposition 30 in November of 2012 has been a boon to part-time faculty at Citrus College in Glendora, beginning with the winter term and continuing uninterrupted into this fall.
Dedicated part-timers take on extra student responsibilities
The fight for fair accreditation
As City College of San Francisco struggles to remain accredited, part-timers have played pivotal roles in maintaining the quality of instruction and services on which so many students depend.
Freeway Flyers: Local action & quick news
Victor Valley part-timers spearhead needed change on campus
AFT Part-Time Faculty Federation has become active like never before. President Lynne Glickstein reports that with the support of the CFT, the union got educated and got smart.
Local scholarship program gives back to students and community
Established in honor of dynamic organizer Linda Cushing
The Linda Cushing Scholarship program launched by Part-Time Faculty United at College of the Canyons recently expanded to award four $500 scholarships per year to qualified students, according to Pete Virgadamo, history instructor and president of the Santa Clarita union.