Welcome to the SEPTEMBER History Page of
 COC Part-Time Faculty United

College of the Canyons Part-Time Faculty United
Building a better profession, a better institution and better student learning.

The following information includes emails come from several sources (including California adjunct organization listservs).  There are included here for there direct or indirect relevance to the part-time faculty organizing campaign at College of the Canyons.  The names of Part-Time Faculty at COC (excepting the organizing committe) and VVC who authored some of the emails that follow are omitted to preserve their anonimity.

September 25, 2002
The following emails came to COC Part-Time Faculty United/ AFT from fellow part-timers at COC:

Michael-

Thank you.

S.

. . .and another:

I am incredibly frustrated due to the recent news.  There is a question that is really bothering me and I hope someone can clarify it for me.  How can a community college, which is supposedly more bound by state laws & regulations (especially pertaining to fair practices and employee rights) than private schools, have so much POWER AND INFLUENCE to lawfully deny employee rights to choose representation?  Is there a petition that part-time faculty can sign to submit to PERB and other related authorities to demonstrate our absolute disbelief and outrage at how differently part-time faculty are being compensated and treated by COC?  If I'm not mistaken, the Dictionary of Occupational Titles basically stipulates equal pay for equal work.  No business in the private sector would last weeks operating under such discriminatory conditions.

Sincerely,

H.
Part-time Faculty

The following email comes from the CPFA "El Chorro" listserv as posted by well-known part-time faculty advocate Margaret Quan:

To the Listserv:

I do not agree with the above blanket statement [which reads as follows: "Faculty should never be divided--it gives the district an advantage!"]. Where a union is not representing their (part-time) members equally, then it is right that those that are being ignored, cheated, short-changed -- whatever, have the right to form a union that will represent them. I suggest that it is the full-timer's union that will be at a disadvantage if part-timers form their own union and bargain in their own behalf.

Margaret Quan 

The following email comes from the CPFA "El Chorro" listserv as posted by COC PTFU President Michael Ward, in response to a listserv posting by CTA/ CCA President Dian Hasson (her email follows below):

To the listserv,

While many of us agree with assertions that full-time and part-time faculty shouldn't be divided  - when there is an enlightened full-time faculty body - there are certainly times when they should be divided, as is the case at College of the Canyons.  There the CTA-affiliated full-time faculty association works very closely with the administration - and both entities have the advantage over part-time faculty!

While it may be true (as Ms. Hasson states) that "everyone involved at College of the Canyons want the part-time faculty to get started negotiating for their interests at that campus," the majority of COC part-timers want their freedom to choose their union affiliation in order to get this process going.  Contrary to Ms. Hasson's assertion with regard to a "wall-to-wall unit," there never was one.  At the end of last year the CTA aggressively moved to accrete 380+ part-timers through the misuse of the "unit modification" rule intended to induct a few individuals - they did this while we were already in the middle of an organizing drive with the AFT, a union that was willing to work with us after COC adjuncts had gone for 24 or so years without a union, and during which the CTA wanted nothing to do with us.  This is what our (and the CFT's complaint has to do with).  Ms. Hasson assumes that there exists a kind of still-not-yet-determined legal right to represent the COC part-timers; even if that was the case, CTA could never claim the moral right of COC adjunct representation, since the majority of COC adjuncts dislike the CTA, because what the CTA has done to us and continues to do is an outrage!   An explanation to this assertion follows.

The supposed legal right to represent COC adjuncts is based on a "decision" that Ms. Hassan refers to, as recently made by an Administrative Law Judge in our case at COC - but it should be noted that this was a "proposed decision" that can become final only if it is not challenged.  Because this proposed decision is very poorly supported by gross misinterpretations of case law (according to our attorney Robert Bezemek, who insists that this proposed decision must be challenged and overturned as a matter of principle), the 3/5 of the COC part-time faculty who signed cards for AFT strongly support an appeal.

Our most recent problem at COC had to do with the end of the injunction preventing the COC administration and CTA from negotiating part-time faculty issues, as it was set to expire yesterday (September 23, 2002).  A hearing scheduled for September 19, for the purpose of extending that injunction (pending the likelihood of an appeal to the ALJ's proposed decision), was postponed until October 1.  In other words, because of a glitch in the court schedule, there was to be a one-week period before a new hearing could take place to extend the injunction.  In light of this situation, Robert Thompson, the chief counsel for PERB, sought written assurance from the COC administration and the CCA/ CTA union to honor the spirit of the injunction and not rush to seize control of adjunct faculty decision-making during the short inter-injunction period.  Unfortunately, both the administration and the CTA responded with written refusals, sending a clear indication of their intent to hijack us and become our negotiators against our will.  As a result of these developments, the future of COC part-time faculty choice and self-determination was in immediate and grave danger.

What is very extraordinary about this episode of our case at COC, is that because of the potential for harm done to COC part-time faculty as a result of this situation, a PERB attorney literally waited outside of Judge Yaffee's courtroom today (at the L. A. County Superior Court) in order to get an emergency extension of that injunction.  An emergency extension was granted, pending the hearing to extend the original injunction next month.  Though these details and the COC part-timer story to date is obviously convoluted, the single issue that prevails (and which is at the heart of the entire matter) is that of CHOICE.  All we have wanted from the beginning of this struggle (about one year ago), was the right to make a free choice for our own representation!  This idea resonated with the majority of COC adjunct faculty members, and we collected signed cards for AFT from THREE-FIFTHS of the part-timers.  The pro-CTA administration and the CTA itself did not like that, and have done everything in their power to block us from having our ability to choose who our union representation should be by an election.  Such actions remain indefensible, and I have yet to hear anyone address this issue here on the listserv, or anywhere else.

Now, the CTA and the administration have colluded to rid the college of the card signers by taking classes away from part-time faculty (in the name of budget cuts), and requiring full-timers to take overload assignments - while COC is still hiring new part-time faculty (check the CCC Job Bank - COC is seeking applicants for "all disciplines")!  Such union-busting activities are shameful, and CTA should be taking the lead as the full-timers' union to STOP such activities!  By their refusal to act, they are complicit in these malicious deeds.  Shame on them!

The adjunct faculty at COC are outraged at this latest round of unscrupulous and opportunistic actions of the COC administration in concert with the CTA to hijack the part-timers!  It is obvious these two entities will stop at nothing when it comes to finding ways to seize what they could not earn by a legal vote of the part-timers: the control of adjunct faculty now and in the future.  If they get their way, we will lose our freedom to choose, and we will lose our voice in matters that concern us at COC!  Moreover, the ramifications of this happening will direly impact adjunct faculty rights to self-determination state-wide. The "real issues" at COC have to do with FREEDOM OF CHOICE pure and simple.  There is no "organizational hype" in that assertion; just plain old basic American values, something the CTA is evidently too willing to obstruct.

Sincerely,

Michael K. Ward
Adjunct Instructor, History
President, COC Part-Time Faculty United/ AFT

Dian Masson's email (in response to her shill, San Diego area part-timer David Milroy) follows:

What can we do at COC?
       
Willing to help in SD,
        
David Milroy

Hasson's response to Milroy:

David,

Thank you for the kind words and sentiments. I think everyone involved at College of the Canyons want the part-time faculty to get started negotiating for their interests at that campus. We have a decision by an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) which dismissed all the charges filed by CFT but legal decisions are always subject to interpretation. I suspect that CFT will pursue their legal rights and continue pursuing an injunction against the CCA Chapter representing a wall-to-wall unit. Until a decision is made on that appeal, the local CCA chapter is prohibited from changing their structure to include part-time faculty on the negotiating team, etc., and of course, no one can negotiate or file grievances for any part-time faculty member until the injunction is lifted. I am hopeful that the situation will be resolved shortly and however it comes out, that we all keep focused on the real issues facing our colleagues and not some organizational hype. As you can see, even though! CFT charges were dismissed by the ALJ, we in CCA are not pounding on our chest or sending out quotes from the decision. We are simply waiting to see CFT's legal reaction, and if they do react, then we will see what the appeal brings. Law is interesting--as all parties honestly believe they are right. The law can be arbitrary. Anyway, you ask "what can we do?" I think we need to see what the legal system decides and that could be as early as October. If the injunction is extended, no one can do anything until a hearing is set and PERB decides the appeal. If the injunction is not extended, then the full and part-time faculty at COC can start working as the team they should be.  Faculty should never be divided--it gives the district an advantage!
    
Dian  Hasson

September 24, 2002
The following email comes from Ventura County Federation of College Teachers (AFT Local 1828) Vice-president Bea Herrera: 

Let me know what I can do to help! AFT Local 1828 is very supportive and we have great people like Homer Arrington, Ruth Hunt, Larry Miller and Harry Korn to help out as well.  Let us know what we need to be doing. 

Bea Herrera
AFT Ventura College, ext. 1330
Vice President

THANK YOU BEA, HARRY, HOMER, RUTH and LARRY!!!

The following email is from Mike Dixon, COC Part-Time Faculty United/ AFT Organizing Committee member and Part-time Faculty Senator at COC:

Mike,

I found this link fishing around for budget info.  I can't figure out how this translates into cutting classes and instructors.  Does CoC have some other local funding they're factoring in that would lead to the supposed cuts?  As stated here, the budget constraints sound in line with what's going on at Ventura (less or no growth) rather than the draconian cuts CoC is claiming are necessary.  Let me know if there's a good source to clarify this. 

<A HREF="http://www.ccleague.org/leginfo/budget.asp">

Mike Dixon

September 23, 2002
The following email came to COC Part-Time Faculty United/ AFT from one of our colleagues, regarding class cancellations for the spring 2003 semester:

Dear Michael, 

As a new faculty member, last fall semester, I signed a card indicating my interest in being able to vote for a part-time faculty union. 

I teach a course . . .that is a "duplicate" course (more than one instructor teaches that course).  I have made my numbers both of these semesters . . .  This is the only course that I teach at this college.  Last week, the chair of the department called to tell me that my class was canceled for the spring '03 semester, and I wouldn't have a class to teach.  He told me to consider myself to be still on the faculty, however.  I don't know how I can do this if I am not teaching at COC.  I guess I just hope for the best.  Anyway I will be happy to vote for a part-time faculty union if it ever comes to a vote.  Despite the fact that my department's full-time faculty seem very fair, the culture at COC is decidedly different toward part-time faculty than at the other college that I teach at. 

Thank you and the other officers of the AFT for your efforts on our behalf.

J.

. . .and another email from one of our colleagues:

michael, thanks for everything.

d.

The following email came to COC Part-Time Faculty United/ AFT:

Hi Michael and fellow part-timers: Thank you for the COC updates.  I just wanted to let you know that I did write a letter to the L.A. Times last week asking that they take a deeper look into your situation.  Maybe if enough people write them, they'll act!  Best wishes and good luck!  

Ann Reich, 
P/T English, 
Oxnard College

The following email came to COC Part-Time Faculty United/ AFT from AFT/ CFT Community College Council President and part-time faculty advocate Marty Hittelman:

Just a note to assure you that the Community College Council (AFT) is behind you. We will continue to back you in your fight for self-determination. We will continue to work to guarantee your right to vote on union representation and we will continue to fight to secure rights and benefits for part-timers equal to those of full-time faculty. 

Marty Hittelman 
President, Community College Council 
California Federation of Teachers (AFT) 

The following email came to COC Part-Time Faculty United/ AFT from a fellow part-timer:

Dear COC PT United, 

This is scary because we don't know "who's who". Sure wish we had pictures and titles of the "enemy" so we could see them approaching us.  At least send pictures of our true "friends" so we won't so easily fooled.  Maybe there are too many but I'm sure at least the leaders would be sufficient.  (Is this a dumb request? I'm sure I'm the first to ask it).  

Sincerely, 

G.

September 22, 2002
The following emails comes from the CPFA "El Chorro" listserv:

And Folks,
 
This is the real tragedy of this terrible and unjust system.   What other profession do you know of that treats its members with so little disregard? 
 
We stand in front of our students day after day, month after month, year after year preparing them to be better able to compete for jobs; hopefully inspiring them to become more knowledgeable and effective citizens; passing on the tenets of a just and democratic society; providing them with the tools they need for self-fulfillment and social mobility; and yet, as part-time faculty, we are denied these very same opportunities.
 
We need to demand more fairness in hiring practices and a more just system of professional and social development for all faculty.   We must demand not only an equitable salary, but we must also demand equal access to career paths and social mobility that we tell our students they are entitled to if they are willing to work hard and make the necessary sacrifices.  
 
Sacrifice without reward equals disillusionment.   The system, as it exists, is a daily lie to those of us who will continue to sacrifice.
 
Take care of yourselves,
 
Mary Ellen

September 21, 2002
The following email comes from one of the less-visible mambers of the COC Part-Time Faculty United/ AFT Organizing Committee (hence this identity will remain anonymous):

Mike--

This [COC] situation is revolting. I was already told I can only have 2 classes in the spring, as I think I told you. The COC ad might be in anticipation of any labor disputes or adjuncts quitting in protest since they know we're hot.

Unfortunately, there's little we can do about it without a union . . . 

Ultimately, union organizing efforts are going to be necessary to make the state legislature understand how disgusting this situation is.

F.

September 19, 2002
The following email exchange between COC Part-Time Faculty United/ AFT President Michael Ward and an unidentified (for reasons of anonymity) COC part-timer, relates to unfolding events at COC and the unfairness of the treatment of adjunct faculty by the COC administration and CTA-affiliated full-time faculty union:

Dear COC PTFU,

My name is C.  I am adjunct . . .  Yesterday, [my department chair] called and left a message with my wife that I would be losing 1 class for the Spring semester . . .  He then checked my other classes and found that all 3 of my classes have been canceled.  He said that the Dean did not mean for anyone to lose employment.  If I had not asked about the other classes, I would not have known.  I am not sure where seniority comes into play, but if there are others below me that have their classes in tact, I want to know if I can bump them.  Please advise asap.

The response came from COC PTFU President Michael Ward:

Dear C.,
 
What you describe is turning out to be common treatment for most of us.  I too have lost all of my class assignments for the spring after having taught three courses consistently each semester for a few years.  It appears that the college administration is clearing most of the part-timers out under the pretext of budget cuts, when they are ordering department chairs to assign our classes to full-time faculty as overload assignments.  It is also noteworthy that many of the adjunct faculty who are not losing their assignments are new part-timers.  Moreover, as we pointed out in last weekend's COC Part-Time Faculty United's broadcast email, COC is still recruiting new adjuncts for the spring semester!  When the spring semester begins it will be obvious who is teaching the classes pulled from us; if full-timers aren't teaching them as overload classes, we can unfortunately expect these classes to be assigned to new adjunct faculty.  Since we do not have a part-time faculty union we have not been able to negotiate basic protections like seniority and limitations to full-time overload (which are respected at the other campuses where I teach).  The administration is to blame, but the full-timers' union (COCFA) should have made good on its false claims as being the part-time faculty representative, by going to bat for us and stopping this carnage.  What the administration is doing is low; it is shameful; and it is illegal.  This is all the more reason for organizing ouselves.  
 
The likely reason for this awful situation is simple union-busting.  Since we succeeded in collecting signed cards from 3/5 of the adjunct faculty, and since the administration can have no knowledge of the identity of those card signers, they are apparently culling the majority of us as a means to eliminate the voters.  Of course, the COC administrative line is that the California State CC Chancellor called for a 10% reduction in costs at all campuses state-wide, and that COC expanded beyond its funding, but neither of these factors warrants the wanton elimination of part-timers ranks in the manner that they are engaged in right now.
 
We have a number of plans in the works - retribution works two ways and we are not powerless.  So far, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has filed and Unfair Labor Practice charge against the Santa Clarita CCD.  The bad thing about that is it provides no immedite remedies to our current problems. . .  We also need to draw as much attention to our situation as possible, and make Diane Van Hook (the real architect of the nefarious COC plan to rid themselves of us) answer publicly for this situation.
 
Take good care, and hang in there.  Are you teaching anywhere else?  This situation is ruining the teaching careers of many fine and talented instructors.
 
Sincerely,
 
Michael Ward

 . . .and C's response:

Hi and thanks for the reply. . .  Yes, I teach [elsewhere] too.  I have two classes there, but that is not enough to get us through this kind of thing.  I am so sick of this professional situation, I am thinking of leaving the teaching profession for one that is more stable.  We have even talked about at least moving away where the situation is not so utterly intolerable.  If I had known what I know now about the treatment of adjunct faculty, I never would have gone into teaching in the first place.  It is my profession, a life, but I am sick of the emotional roller coaster my family and I stay on trying to survive on less that we deserve.  I have put so much money and time into getting my degrees I expected a payoff when apparently there is not any because of the inherent dysfunction of the American education system.  This industry tries to maintain an appearance of stability for our children, but there is none.  It's constant to the point that the rollover of employees is fast becoming that of a MacDonalds.  What kind of misperception do people have of those coming into the profession.  If they pay more for teachers there would be good teachers teaching instead of those coming into the field for a temporary respite from their "real" world careers, or until they  can find themselves.  If they pay us more money we could get rid of the bad apples that we all know are here, leaving a healthy environment for a "new" kind of teacher to come back to teaching when that teaching is considered to be an honorable profession.  I feel like I am considered to be of no value whatsoever.

As a nontraditional student myself, I know what younger people must be going through in trying to continue to live a life teaching when there is no living to be made in teaching.  The struggle to become a scholar so that you can be a teacher so that you can continue being a scholar has become a dead end street instead of being the road to guiding the thoughts of our country, our world.In the broad picture, this is such a tragic mistake that our American society is being led through.  Those in charge seem absolutely clueless as to the real dangers.  And, all I want to do is teach.  If I spend my time being politically active, I can't spend my time teaching.  But, then, perhaps I will have to try to earn a living being politically active because there is in fact no professional remuneration in teaching anymore, only professional upheaval and insecurity.

I'm raving again.

Thanks again.

C.

. . .and the response from COC PTFU President Michael Ward:

Hi C.,
 
Keep on raving!
 
I share your discouragement and frustration with the abusive side to higher education.  I too was a nontraditional student, returning to school to earn my degrees as a career change, and following the direction of my advisors who asserted that there was going to be a significant shortage of college and university instructors due to the baby boom echo and massive projected retirements.  I am still pursuing my final degree (and often wondering why), and the thought of repaying my student loans on an unstable part-timer's income frightens me.  As you have also found out, the expected job openings did not occur as the numbers of qualified candidates flooded the market for the few jobs available.  Unfortunately this situation became a boon for college and university administrations, as they found that they could take advantage of this surplus of talent as a means to trim costs and expand the numbers of their own ranks.  Moreover, the involvement of corporations (that have found higher ed to be a lucrative "recession-proof" enterprise) continues to make inroads that undermine job security and benefits, especially for part-time faculty.  To make matters worse, our society wants quick fixes with and conveniences, needs that appear to be directing higher education toward the use of the internet and off-campus programs (corporations love this trend) where curriculum standardization and use of temporary faculty are often the rule.  You are right indeed; higher education in the U.S. IS a very dysfunctional system (though the U.S. is not alone).  These developments surely undermine the goals of modern education (as you point out); it certainly isn't what my great-great grandfather Charles. L. Flint (co-founder of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Boston public high school system in the post-bellum era) would have wanted.  His intent was to make education accessible to everyone who wanted it, in order to create a better society, recalling the Jeffersonian ideal.  The efforts to do that in late 19th-century Massachusetts required significant expenditures of public money, something that today's America seems unwilling to do.  At present, our corporate-dominated government seeks to lower costs and polish the presentation as you describe; we suffer and the students suffer as a result.  I suppose that I am raving now, too - we all should rave and be enraged about this situation, because it's deplorable and it won't change until enough people become angry about it!   
 
You are right, the situation looks grim, but it is NOT hopeless.  You are also correct in assuming that becoming politically active takes away from what drew us to this profession to begin with - but sometimes life brings us to a place where our talents and abilities seem to be required for other virtuous (and in this case, related) uses.  That is why several of us at COC chose to take on this fight and give it our best efforts.  What COC is doing is WRONG and terribly unfair to us (part-time faculty members) and to the students it purports to serve.  I am confident that we will win our fight against COC for part-time faculty representation, and that we can win our teaching positions back again and establish benefits, pay equity, seniority, etc.  I communicate regularly with part-time faculty from all over the state (and from other parts of the nation as well) and our fight is part of a larger movement in higher education where adjunct faculty are seeking positive changes from the current situation in California - by the way, relocating out of California is not a good idea unless it is for the purpose of taking a full-time position - amazingly (and tragically), we fare far better here in California than adjuncts do elsewhere (especially better than those part-timers east of the Rocky Mountains).  Part-time faculty advocates and activists all around the state are watching and supporting us in our struggle at COC.  I can't guarantee a respite from the emotional rollercoaster, but I assure you that we have widespread support in our quest to right the problems that we all have been facing lately at COC.  Acting on our own and our colleagues behalf in this struggle is a reward in itself, and offers a kind of strength that sometimes makes the rollercoaster a bit more endurable. 
 
Thank you for your continued support.   
 
Take care,
 
Michael Ward

September 16, 2002
The following email came to COC Part-Time Faculty United/ AFT from well-known part-time faculty advocate Margaret Quan:

Michael:

As your are probably aware, I have been working for years for change in the treatment of part-time faculty. I have read (and have been thoroughly dismayed) of the treatment of part-time taculty at COC by management, tenured faculty and their CTA union.

I have been with you guys thoroughly in spirit, but a very ill husband has kept me from getting involved and following the path I generally take when something like COC takes place.  I would have very much enjoyed making the trip to your campus for no other reason than to rally the troups and show them that there is outside support for what you all are trying to accomplish.

I know Attorney Bob Bezemek well and I trust his advice completely. CTA and their tenured minions at COC, aided and abetted by management, must not be allowed any success in what they are trying to do. The potential for all part-time faculty in the community college system is evident; COC must be stopped in their tracks.

In support (and wishing I could be there to help you fight the good fight).

Margaret Quan

. . .and the response from Michael Ward of COC PTFU:

Dear Margaret,

Thank you for your support - those of us active in the COC organizing drive have long recognized your name on many supportive and encouraging emails - these have been added to the "history pages" link to our web page - and your energetic efforts and hard work on behalf of part-timers statewide.

With the guidance and direction of Linda Cushing (without which we would be nowhere) we are doing everything that we possiblly can to resist the COC/ CTA scourge against us.  So far, despite several setbacks, our organizing group continues to grow and remains in very good spirits, confident that we can win what will certainly be an extended fight for part-timers rights affecting all adjunct faculty.  We are also confident in the abilities and legal direction of Robert Bezemek.

Again, THANK YOU for everything that you have done for us and continue to do on behalf of part-time faculty across the state.  You indeed have been with us throughout this effort and are now with us in this fight!

In Solidarity,

Michael Ward

The following emails and an exchange re: COC come from the CPFA "El Chorro" listserv:

To the Listserv:

Tenured faculty member of Los Rios, Robert Perrone, and I have exchanged several letters since 1996 (all of which I have saved in my file).  When I want to read some stereotypical views of part-time faculty written by a tenured, union staff person, I read Perrone's letters. 

In fact, it was Perrone's "Teacher, Teacher"  article written in the Sacramento News and Review that set me firmly on the path with renewed energy to try and change the way part-time faculty are treated by management, unions, and tenured faculty. Granted, not all districts treat part-time faculty the same -- some are better than others. But there are plenty of full-timers (using Perrone's words) "who criticize part-time faculty for alleged lack of dedication, or professionalism, or who diss part-timers for their failure to procure full-time positions, or their perceived refusal to get involved in union activities".  The treatment that part-time faculty at COC has been "treated to" by management and the full-time faculty and their union only confirms Robert Perrone's above assessment of tenured faculty. 

The following is a quote from the famed anthropologist, Margaret Mead, that has been my inspiration for years: 

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever does."

Margaret Quan 

An emailexchange follows, related to our issues at COC:

I agree with Linda's assessment of the COC situation.  I also think that Chris has a point IF in fact the "layoffs" or "cancelled sections" are across the board and applied equitably.  

It does seem strange that PTers who have taught for years all of a sudden do not have classes, yet there is room at colleges for "new" PT faculty.  Chris, I would accept your rationale if the cancelled classes remained cancelled, and fulltime faculty were not being asked to pick up sections on overload.

In fact, enlightened FT faculty (I know, Robert Yoshioka, I can hear you say that is an oxymoron!) should refuse to teach such sections and insist that they be paid a living wage and not carry overload assignments that take classes away from PTers and do not serve students well.  How's this for optimism, Chris! :-)

Christine Goudy

. . .and the message Chris Goudy addresses:

Chris, I'm sorry, but your head is in the sand.  Of course colleges are cutting back on unfunded growth, but what COC is doing goes way beyond - in multiples of two or three - the cutbacks happening at other colleges.  This is not business as usual and I do not think we should allow COC to frame it that way.  

We have a several smoking guns: among them a department chair who admits he was ordered to pull a class from a part-time union leader by the administration, ordered to teach it although he does not have time and does not want it, and agrees that the college is doing that to get at specific part-timers they want to remove.  

Some cutbacks in the face of the budget shortfall are inevitable, but this is retaliation and union-busting, and it hurts all part-timers, even those who did not choose this fight.  Your response is exactly why the COC administration is not worried. They can do what they want and even formerly activist part-timers will look the other way.

Linda Cushing

. . .and the message Linda Cushing addresses:

Add one more possible "excuse"/explanation (?). The state is 40,000 or so FTES over-cap (unfunded FTES.) A 2 or 3 percent reduction in FTES would still leave us over-cap so there would  be no loss in state funds. One of the state's primary goals in the CCC mission is student access. Reduced access this year ("forced by severe underfunding") lays the groundwork for a large infusion of funds next year. This thinking says that the CCC system has finally decided that it has too long maintained access at the expense of quality and equity (it agrees with our charge that the system has long exploited PT faculty to achieve student access under diminished quality resulting from poor institutional support of PT faculty.)

While forced reductions of student access hurts some students and PT faculty disproportionately in the short run, the hope is that it will finally bring home to the government what the real costs of underfunding are. The strategy may seem a sledgehammer to drive a nail, but the system has distorted reality so long by exploiting part-time faculty and students that the contrast of speaking the truth is actually refreshing.

(PS, if reality works in Sacramento as successfully as it has on Reality TV, there is every reason to expect that next year will see the second of augmentation to the PT Compensation Fund - as long as we keep up the good fight).

Just my optimistic Sunday musings.

Ciao,

Chris

Our friend Robert Yoshioka also addresses Chris's message:

Chris,

While it would be a "best practice," for locals to monitor hiring/firing of part time faculty utilizing the vehicle of an ongoing database, what if, as is the case at COC, the union is PROBABLY as much a part of  the problem as the administration?

To whom do part time faculty turn?

As usual, if we want it done correctly, we gotta do it yourselves!

At COC, if it were not for AFT, the part time faculty would have already been hung out to dry.

I sure hope that part timers at COC are trying to keep track of their own comings and goings, as the administration of Fuhrer Van Hook is not about to make their actions public, nor is help forthcoming from the full time local CTA.

While one can argue that full time faculty of conscience SHOULD refuse overload assignments designed to eliminate annoying part timers on campuses around the state, the sad truth is that most full time faculty, given the chance, would jump at the chance to make a couple of bucks, the reason(s) for the overload aside...Money Talks, boys and girls...and when given the chance, most folks bite the bullet and proceed to teach overload, much to the detriment of students let alone part time faculty who are without classes/income...forgetting the reason we teach to begin with.

Look at the word:  OVERLOAD, and tell me how in the heck someone who is barely able to teach five different classes a term could possibly teach two or three more classes without quality suffering.  On the other hand, Scantron tests and lots and lots of videotapes do make for a relatively stress free teaching experience, never mind the twenty year old "lecture" notes and the course outlines on computer disk that have not been significantly altered lo, these many years...

"Why of course, I'd be happy to take that extra class..." " We wanted a new car this year and will need an expensive vacation after this...and besides, I need to up my 'best base year's salary' so that I get maximum retirement benefits from STRS!   I only have to do this for one year...and those lazy part timers...sheesh!  If they were any good, they should all go and find full time jobs...just like the one I have."

That is the reality...them vs. us.  Go figure.  Now, having said that, I believe that there are honorable and decent full time faculty all over the state...people of high principles who work hard, teach well and make a difference, but the vast majority, sorry to say, are more like tradespersons rather than professionals. For them, teaching is just a job...there is no passion, there are no higher goals...it is just a job, and a good one at that.

As one full timer told me once, "If what you want is going to come out of my pocket; well, we will do whatever we have to do to protect what we earned.  You are expendable, and don't you forget it!  We got ours, now go someplace else and get yours!"

The vast majority of full time and part time faculty in the community colleges are more like sheep than lions.  They are content not to rock the boat, keep their heads down and go with the flow.  Standing on principle is as alien to them as are discussions about academic freedom.  Given their track record, they rarely, if ever, during their careers, ever say or do anything evocative of a higher calling or mission, and so really do not need many of the protections that some us cherish and find necessary to our survival, and so, one might rightly conclude that tenure is wasted on the likes of them.

What is happening to part timers at COC is absolutely horrible and we need to rally behind our brothers and sisters if only out of a sense of self-preservation, because, if it is happening to them, it can (and probably will) be happening to us...sooner rather than later.

Someone once said that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.  Well, the price tag attached to our continuing to be employed is OPEN AND FREQUENT communication between part time faculty in districts all up and down this great state of ours.

We have to become our own best source of information and action.  We need to know when and where and who is doing "what" to us, so that we can devise audacious and effective countermeasures in order to protect our livelihood, our dignity and our profession.

COC and the troubles facing part time faculty is just the most current and most visible example of how districts all over the state are going to try to meet Nussbaum's 10% budget cutting goal by cutting classes of part time faculty...this is nothing short of PART TIME FACULTY GENOCIDE!

I would suggest that districts look elsewhere to find "fat" and "under-producing" segments of the community college culture...what about simply reducing administrator's salaries by 51% and make them all part timers?  Seems to me, if you give a busy person more to do, they always get things done.  So, if we pay administrators 51% less than they are getting now, they should be working a just about their peak capacity, and the system will not be any worse off.  With them there only less than full time, they could share offices, share classified staff, generate less waste paper and maybe have to meet students and their families, stripped of their layers and layers of gatekeepers and guardians...

What a novel idea...barefoot administrators...people's administrators...accountable administrators...time card punching administrators...Maybe if they were not so invested in keeping things the way they were, they might actually get about the job of working for faculty, staff and students...and not the other way around...Just some thoughts!

Turnabout is fair play, don't you think?  Why should part time faculty be the ones to always take the hit during the lean times, and rarely, if ever, get the benefit of enlightened management programs anytime?  We gave, we give, and we will continue to give, but not without some concessions from others across the board...We are ready to do our share, but not to shoulder the whole burden of meeting this (and future) budget shortfalls.

More as more comes into being.

Just some random thoughts, boys and girls.

Always look over your shoulder, take showers often, and never underestimate the power of your students to do the right thing...

Best,

Robert B. Yoshioka

September 15, 2002
The following passage is an email by Linda Cushing AFT National Representative, sent to the California Part-time Faculty Association (CPFA) listserv on Friday, September 13, 2002, detailing the proposed decision made by the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) in our Unfair Labor Practice complaint with the California State Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) against College of the Canyons:

Colleagues

September 11 was a bad day for a lot of reasons.  For longsuffering part-timers at College of the Canyons, they lost Round Three of their struggle for self-determination. 

Round One went to the district/CTA full-time faculty union amalgum when - with no meetings, no flyers, no authorization cards, no effort, no notice whatsoever - they signed a back-door deal forcing nearly 400 previously-unrepresented part-timers into the company union.  The reason: AFT two months earlier had begun a legal organizing drive on campus to allow the part-timers to gain the representation they had been denied for over a quarter of a century.  Having the part-timers in the mix with their own union was going to disrupt the cozy relationship the district and the full-timers had previously enjoyed carving up the financial pot.

Both the district and the full-time faculty union responded to part-timer protests by saying, "It's a done deal.  There's nothing you can do about it."  Part-timers asked AFT to do something to preserve their right to free choice, so we filed an unfair labor practice charge against the college administration.  CTA asked to be joined with the district in the legal action.  PERB sought and gained an injunction against the district to keep them from further aiding and abetting the full-time faculty union, showing preference for one union over another.

Round Two went to the part-timers, when they heroically collected authorization cards from nearly 60% of their colleagues and filed valid proof of majority support with PERB.  All they wanted an election - they wanted a chance to vote.

The district and the full-time faculty union didn't want the part-timers to vote. They turned down an AFT offer of holding a consent election, and continued to try to force legally what they could not accomplish any other way.  They continued to insist that they had the legal right to accrete the part-timers into a union not of their choosing, ignoring the even larger question of whether indeed it WAS right.

Round Three now has gone to the district/full-time faculty union amalgum due the wrongheaded decision of a new ALJ.  In his convoluted decision, he relies on specific case law where decisions he cites established exactly the opposite legal precedent.  PERB Chief Counsel Robert Thompson has moved to extend the injunction he sought and won in LA Superior Court, so the part-timers are protected from subsumation by the full-time faculty union until any possible appeals are decided by the full PERB Board.  That injunction extension request will be heard next week.

Meanwhile, the district has been attempting to cull the herd of part-timers, by cancelling classes in record numbers this semester and ORDERING full-time faculty to take overload classes for next semester they do not want to remove them from the part-timers.  The word has gone out that COC intends to cut another 400 classes next semester, carving deep into the adjunct ranks.  Why?  To eliminate as many part-timers as possible who signed cards for AFT hoping to get an election.  And to cut deeply enough into the part-timer ranks to excise the vocal leadership of Part-Time Faculty United.  All the visible and vocal part-time leaders have lost all or most of their classes. . .

Today AFT is filing another unfair labor charge against the district for blatant union busting, for trampling on the rights of part-timers whose only crime was that they wanted to freely choose their own union representation.  Shamefully, the district has gotten full-time faculty department chairs to knuckle under to their scheme to retaliate against the part-timers.  At the same time, the college president and deans are publicly touting COC's new "enrollment management" strategy which is boosting remaining class enrollments to overflowing and throwing students who need classes out on the street.

I just got a note from Bob Bezemek, California labor attorney best known to part-timers for winning the landmark Cervisi case granting unemployment benefits to part-time faculty between terms.  Bob says, "I read the (ALJ's) decision, which is an abomination.  I think it can be reversed on appeal, and that it MUST be reversed."

The following email came to COC Part-Time Faculty United/ AFT from one of our part-time colleagues:

Hi Michael,

As always, thank you for taking the time to compose the highly detailed and thorough e-mails.  I appreciate the updates on part-timers meetings and mixers.  Unfortunately, like many other adjuncts, I'm on three campuses and fly from one to another and opportunity to attend is minimal.

I've got a question for you--and if someone else should be addressing this please don't hesitate to forward this e-mail to them.  It's regarding the pay periods at the Canyons.  Why is it that full-time faculty receive their paychecks the first of the month, and part-timers have to wait until the 10th?  In total, I've taught on five community college campuses in the greater L.A. area (some part-timers may have logged in twice that many!), but there is no other campus that discriminates their "pay days" between full- and part-time faculty!  Or am I being nit-picky?  Just the overall tone of it further confirms the pecking order and higherarchy separating full-time faculty from part-timers.

Thanks for any input you can give!

T.

. . .and the response from COC PTFU President Michael Ward:

Hi T., 
 
. . .As far as COC's late pay schedule is concerned, the discrimination that the administration shows for part-time faculty is an abomination!  To make matters worse, the COCFA (the full-time faculty union that claims to be our representative) allows this to happen as well.  The only solution is to have our own part-timers' union.  I'll forward your email to our organizing committee.  The other issue related to the payment schedule is the delay that keeps us from receiving compensation for our work in August, until mid-October.  This issue can easily be remedied (by anyone) by calling the appropriate authorities (the state labor board, I think) and citing the Ed Code, § 87821, that states that pay must be by the 10th of the month following work in the previous month.  We decided to wait before acting on this issue because there were (and still are) so many issues to deal with right now in our struggle to get representation - moreover, there were some concerns aired by several part-timers who feared some kind of retaliation that could undermine the remedy.  
 
Take care, and stay in touch.  By the way, are you OK for the spring?  Many part-time faculty at COC are losing spring classes to full-timers, and this trend seems to be increasing.  Please let us know if you are affected by pending cuts in the spring 2003 semester at COC.
 
Thanks.
 
Michael Ward

The following email came from the California Part-time Faculty Listserv:

Caroline

Thank you for understanding the seriousness of what is and has been happening at College of the Canyons.  The part-timers who are being retaliated against are people just like the rest of us.  The only difference is that the COC administration has felt it has been insulated from scrutiny and can get away with the extinction of huge masses of part-timers with no adverse consequences. 

In the growing LA suburb of Santa Clarita Valley, they are not in a major media market and they have local media in their hip pocket.  Prominent BOT members are realtors and others drawn from the business community.  14-year COC president Diane Van Hook, whose name is on a bronze plaque on virtually every building on campus, testified at the state auditor's hearings two years ago (I was there) and bragged that "her part-timers" didn't need a union because she treated PTers so benevolently.  Her silver-voiced spokesperson, Vice President Phil Hartley, lovingly and sincerely calls COC "Camelot."

COC is the Stepford campus of Southern California, where everybody thought they had it pretty good until they departed from the party line.  The administrators - and the complicit full-time faculty department chairs - are counting on the scores and scores of carcasses of PT faculty in the college compost heap to just dissolve into the earth with nobody much noticing.  Meanwhile, this campus SMELLS.

Linda Cushing

September 13, 2002
The following emails came from the California Part-time Faculty Listserv:

Colleagues

September 11 was a bad day for a lot of reasons.  For longsuffering part-timers at College of the Canyons, they lost Round Three of their struggle for self-determination. 

Round One went to the district/CTA full-time faculty union amalgum when - with no meetings, no flyers, no authorization cards, no effort, no notice whatsoever - they signed a back-door deal forcing nearly 400 
previously-unrepresented part-timers into the company union.  The reason: AFT two months earlier had begun a legal organizing drive on campus to allow the part-timers to gain the representation they had been denied for 
over a quarter of a century.  Having the part-timers in the mix with their own union was going to disrupt the cozy relationship the district and the full-timers had previously enjoyed carving up the financial pot.

Both the district and the full-time faculty union responded to part-timer protests by saying, "It's a done deal.  There's nothing you can do about it."  Part-timers asked AFT to do something to preserve their right to free choice, so we filed an unfair labor practice charge against the college administration.  CTA asked to be joined with the district in the legal action.  PERB sought and gained an injunction against the district to keep them from further aiding and abetting the full-time faculty union, showing preference for one union over another.

Round Two went to the part-timers, when they heroically collected authorization cards from nearly 60% of their colleagues and filed valid proof of majority support with PERB.  All they wanted an election - they wanted a chance to vote.

The district and the full-time faculty union didn't want the part-timers to vote. They turned down an AFT offer of holding a consent election, and continued to try to force legally what they could not accomplish any other way.  They continued to insist that they had the legal right to accrete the part-timers into a union not of their choosing, ignoring the even larger question of whether indeed it WAS right.

Round Three now has gone to the district/full-time faculty union amalgum due the wrongheaded decision of a new ALJ.  In his convoluted decision, he relies on specific case law where decisions he cites established 
exactly the opposite legal precedent.  PERB Chief Counsel Robert Thompson has moved to extend the injunction he sought and won in LA Superior Court, so the part-timers are protected from subsumation by the full-time faculty union until any possible appeals are decided by the full PERB Board.  That injunction extension request will be heard next week.

Meanwhile, the district has been attempting to cull the herd of part-timers, by cancelling classes in record numbers this semester and ORDERING full-time faculty to take overload classes for next semester 
they do not want to remove them from the part-timers.  The word has gone out that COC intends to cut another 400 classes next semester, carving deep into the adjunct ranks.  Why?  To eliminate as many part-timers as 
possible who signed cards for AFT hoping to get an election.  And to cut deeply enough into the part-timer ranks to excise the vocal leadership of Part-Time Faculty United.  All the visible and vocal part-time leaders have lost all or most of their classes. . . 

Today AFT is filing another unfair labor charge against the district for blatant union busting, for trampling on the rights of part-timers whose only crime was that they wanted to freely choose their own union representation.  Shamefully, the district has gotten full-time faculty department chairs to knuckle under to their scheme to retaliate against the part-timers.  At the same time, the college president and deans are publicly touting COC's new "enrollment management" strategy which is boosting remaining class enrollments to overflowing and throwing students who need classes out on the street.

I just got a note from Bob Bezemek, California labor attorney best known to part-timers for winning the landmark Cervisi case granting unemployment benefits to part-time faculty between terms.  Bob says, "I read the (ALJ's) decision, which is an abomination.  I think it can be reversed on appeal, and that it MUST be reversed."

Why can't the COC part-timers just be good adaptive children?

Linda Cushing
AFT National Representative

. . .and the response:

Thank you Linda for your eloquence and guidance.  We will keep on organizing
at COC, against administrative absolutism and an environment of injustice
that does not serve part-timer faculty or our students well.  We can effect
positive changes, and we will!

Without your support and dedication we would not have enjoyed the remarkable
gains that we have made in just a few months, nor would we have been able to
spark the ire of the bad guys (not that that was our goal - all we wanted
was an election!).  The degree to which they are attacking us now are the
measures of our success and their lack of ethics and fairness.  Our
part-time colleagues at COC have come to seek us out for help, guidance, and
shoulders to cry on this semester; they need us as they realize how fragile
their jobs are in the face of real bullies who scheme and gloat over small
gains in their pursuit of self-aggrandizement and attempts to crush our
will.

But we ain't broke yet - we haven't yet begun our fight, and we'll not give
up!

Thanks again.

Michael Ward

September 12, 2002
The following emails came from the California Part-time Faculty Listserv:

Hang in there, Michael, and get CFT to help you with the legal bills.
--charles johnson, yuba and los rios

. . .and the response:

Thank you Charles!  We have a sizeable and tight group of fighting COC part-timers not yet ready to roll over because of a bad ruling.  Your encouragement and support are most appreciated!

Michael Ward 

. . .and another:

Michael and COC Part-Time Faculty United,
 
This news is such a blow for all COC part timers and for you, who have soldiered on amazingly with such resolve and courage.  It is a shocking decision to hear.  It makes me wonder about the "editorial policy" or politics of that particular judge.  An appeal is the only avenue left open.  Please tell us on the listserv that there is funding for an appeal........
 
Thank you on behalf of all part timers in this largely brutal CCC system.  I hope you can find time for yourself, to relax and refuel......Don't let the bastards get you down.  We outnumber them.  In the past, I interviewed twice on your campus and immediately saw what a fascist control place it was.  I felt like I needed to take a shower afterwards.

In solidarity,

Caroline Blake

. . .and another:

Michael and COC P-T United,

What a blow!  Kudos to your calm, balanced and courageous stance and willingness - along with your colleagues - to "fight the good fight".

Very much in Solidarity with you,

Sasha Moore

. . .and the response:

Thank you Sasha.  Yes, this is a blow, but it's certainly NOT over yet!  Since all we have been asking for is our freedom to choose, we have a strong moral argument for maintaining our fight.  This may just be a bump in the road, or it could be worse; the next few weeks will tell.  Any sense of temporary victory on the part of our opposition must be tempered however, by the reality that we collected signed cards for AFT from 3/5 of our adjunct colleagues at COC. 

THANK YOU for your support and joining our movement for solidarity.  The good fight continues!

Michael Ward

. . .and another:

Mike--

Appeal all the way, baby.  I just got hit with a class reduction--from 9 hours down to 6--for spring 2003.  This thing sucks when enrollment is up. . .  It will affect students as well.

F.

September 11, 2002
The following email came from the California Part-time Faculty Listserv:

Dear Colleagues,

It looks like the administrative law judge has made an unexpected ruling against us in our unfair labor practice complaint against College of the Canyons.  This September 11th ruling in our case is unfortunate to be sure, especially since it perpetuates a situation whereby COC part-timers are blocked from making their own free choice for union representation.  We collected signed cards for AFT from 3/5 of the adjunct faculty and have worked hard to build a strong part-timer organization.  The technicality aspect of this ruling certainly lends itself to the idea of an appeal, something that appeals to COC part-timers who remain steadfastly opposed to the notion of being forced against their/ our will into the CTA.  Since roughly 1/3 of such rulings are overturned on appeal, this obviously bad ruling may need judicial review.

Seeking democratic free choice, I remain in solidarity with my part-time faculty collegaues at COC,

Michael Ward
 

September 7:
The following email came from the California Part-time Faculty Association (CPFA) Listserv:

As temporary part-time employees of the Santa Clarita Community College District, adjunct faculty are seen by the administration as an expendable and easily replaceable resource, as too many of us have experienced recently when the district cut course offerings in order to manage student enrollments.  All of us love teaching and find ourselves particularly hurt when we are treated with the kind of disconsideration expressed recently by the cancellation of courses before they were given an opportunity to make minimum enrollment.  For those of you so affected, you deserve praise and recognition for your good and noble efforts, since compensation is not forthcoming.  Thank you for your responses to our requests for information on how these cuts affected you.  You have our utmost attention and your anonimity is and will always be safe with us; please feel free to contact any of the members of our Executive Committee at any time with your concerns and questions.  As part-time faculty members ourselves, we share your situations and concerns. 

We hope that our frantic efforts to discover and report on low enrollments during the first week of clases produced some results - it evidently helped in several cases - this was our hope amidst a number of difficulties and the ire of the administration for "stirring: the part-time pot, so-to-speak.  Our intention was never to cause problems for the administration, but rather, to stick up for ourselves and our part-time colleagues - someone has to!  Your responses to our email queries over the past few weeks are sources of important data that we will surely use to improve our working conditions at College of the Canyons.  To that end, we have solicited the help of the American Federation of Teachers, and AFT National Representative Linda Cushing has already submited a Public Records Act request to the administration for a comprehensive list of all scheduled classes which were cancelled this semester at COC.  From this information we will be able to determine the effects that COC's fiscal management concerns and schedule mismanagements have had on vulnerable part-time faculty.  We will report our findings on our web pages and in future emails as we organize this information.  Preliminary results from your MANY emails and your touching personal reports and experiences, indicate that the wreckage of many class cancellations has been a costly and difficult burden for many of us; one that the district callously disregards.

As an explanation for what appears to be the district's last-minute management of student enrollments in the face of a projected budget shortfall, Chris Storer, De Anza College Philosophy Instructor and Legislative Analysist for the California Part-time Faculty Association, makes the following observations in response to a query made by COC P-T Faculty United Secretary-Treasurer Paul Lin:

I fear you will be proved correct in the case of many colleges and districts which regularly over-react to economic shortfalls [see a COC memo that describes this very thing at our "Documents"page]. What is odd about this is that there is a long and obvious history which shows that districts which do this end up losing big bucks in the following years because they lose students and can't regain them as easily as they lose them. Their imagination is that they will close sections and students will move to fill sections which are not yet full, thus increasing efficiency overall.  They have a bit of success the first term they try this, but then students drop out because their inconvenient schedules don't promote their success.  The following term they return to the workforce disenchanted with the idea of a higher education. The half a billion dollars in "reserves" currently held by the colleges is supposed to provide a buffer to avoid such stupidity, but administrations have come to see their "reserves" as sacrosanct, never to be touched.

FT Faculty suffer overwork. PT Faculty suffer overwork and job-loss (The same is the case for FT and PT Classified employees).  Students suffer the loss of their futures.  The society suffers the loss of a productive work force and a healthier culture. But the administrators who caused all this grief through short-sighted ineptitude continue and make the same mistake again when the next economic downturn occurs, and no one holds them accountable!!??

Chris Storer
De Anza College, Philosophy
California Part-time Faculty Association
Legislative Analyst
storerchris@fhda.edu
(650) 949-2287

THIS is the situation that we face at COC.  THIS is one of the MANY reasons that we need a separate PART-TIME faculty union at COC.  In the face of budget constraints, full-timers will necessarily look out for their needs.  With a part-time faculty union we will best stand up together for our needs, and as a separate entity we can work in tandem against administrative opposition in the future.  The administration does not want this because they will have two faculty fronts to deal with. 

September 1, 2002
The following email came from the California Part-time Faculty Listserv:

How curious that anyone on this list would think that part time interests would be best served in a union dominated by full timers (who have little interest in negotiating for adjunct needs)!

Pamela Highet