Tuesday, December 1, 2009
What are we teaching our students about the value of higher education when those who make a career of providing it struggle to make a living?
Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, is easily the most well-known adjunct faculty member in America today, which is why the Part Time Faculty committee
Friday, November 20, 2009
Community College Survey of Student Engagement
"Although many topics are addressed in the national report that accompanies this year’s survey results, one is singled out as being among “the greatest challenges community colleges face in creating strong connections with students.” The report refers to it as “the phenomenon of part-timeness"; the persistent reality that close to two-thirds of community college students attend college part time and that about two-thirds of community college faculty members teach part time."
Monday, November 16, 2009
Saturday, November 14, 2009
What is the business of Shasta College?
Students at Shasta College are offered fewer sections and are sitting in larger classes due to class cuts. This has given the district a golden opportunity to cut part-time faculty with the most teaching experience and the highest student learning outcomes under the guise of hardship.
Administrators bemoan the economy, the lack of stimulus monies, and state budget woes as the source of these problems. Yet, perhaps the first question that must be asked is, "what is the business of Shasta College?" Is it the mission of the district to run packed classrooms on a shoestring in order to maintain the administration's benefits and salaries? If not, please ask the administration what has been cut on the administration side to prevent the loss of classes. Ask if the district has considered taking monthly unpaid furloughs in order to keep classes available and uncrowded.
The campus community and citizens at large are so numbed by economic downturns they forget to ask specific questions whose answers would provide fuel for change. Each year ACCCA (Association of California Community College Administrators) names a repeal of the 50% law as one of its major goals. The 50% law requires that a full half of a district's funding must be spent on education, not administration. Yet, in a "business" whose mission it is to educate, administrators continue to seek to pull more funding away from the classroom.
At a time when unemployment is higher than it has been in decades, more and more people are turning back to school and retraining. Decisions made at our community college affect members of our community and whether our children will succeed. Ask your board of trustee members what they will do to make sure that Shasta College makes cuts to the education side last, retains its most experienced teachers, and provides the best education it can on the funding it has available. And ask the Shasta College Faculty Association why if job security and academic freedom are a right and a necessity for full time faculty, it refuses to support those rights for the hundreds of part-time faculty it purportedly represents.
Administrators bemoan the economy, the lack of stimulus monies, and state budget woes as the source of these problems. Yet, perhaps the first question that must be asked is, "what is the business of Shasta College?" Is it the mission of the district to run packed classrooms on a shoestring in order to maintain the administration's benefits and salaries? If not, please ask the administration what has been cut on the administration side to prevent the loss of classes. Ask if the district has considered taking monthly unpaid furloughs in order to keep classes available and uncrowded.
The campus community and citizens at large are so numbed by economic downturns they forget to ask specific questions whose answers would provide fuel for change. Each year ACCCA (Association of California Community College Administrators) names a repeal of the 50% law as one of its major goals. The 50% law requires that a full half of a district's funding must be spent on education, not administration. Yet, in a "business" whose mission it is to educate, administrators continue to seek to pull more funding away from the classroom.
At a time when unemployment is higher than it has been in decades, more and more people are turning back to school and retraining. Decisions made at our community college affect members of our community and whether our children will succeed. Ask your board of trustee members what they will do to make sure that Shasta College makes cuts to the education side last, retains its most experienced teachers, and provides the best education it can on the funding it has available. And ask the Shasta College Faculty Association why if job security and academic freedom are a right and a necessity for full time faculty, it refuses to support those rights for the hundreds of part-time faculty it purportedly represents.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Is equality lacking in this college community?
Some members of the Shasta College campus community are increasingly alarmed at how the campus atmosphere has changed over several years. The public persona is one of embattled administrators struggling to keep the doors open, while the quiet truth may be something quite different.
Those of us in the campus community who have observed the slash and burn procedures enacted over the past several years are now fearful of speaking our minds. And when we discover that our own faculty association does not support the concept of equal protection in the classroom, academic freedom, and job security for all of its members, we become even more fearful.
Let us be clear.
We are learning that the SCFA, in direct opposition to the standards and practices advocated by our Community College Association, not only does not support the concept of job security - its president continues to hobble any effort which might be made by faculty representatives who DO. The authors of this blog checked into this situation very carefully before making the decision to come forward. We have been attempting to contact individuals whose lines of communication have been summarily severed, with the hope of hearing all sides to this story.
In fact, we invite the current president of the SCFA to make a post here, and clearly outline his opposition to the concept of job security . . . that very thing which would allow adademic freedom and free speech for everyone on our campus.
It's time that the college community AND the citizens of our north state community were better informed about these issues. That can only happen if free speech is actually free (and without fear).
Those of us in the campus community who have observed the slash and burn procedures enacted over the past several years are now fearful of speaking our minds. And when we discover that our own faculty association does not support the concept of equal protection in the classroom, academic freedom, and job security for all of its members, we become even more fearful.
Let us be clear.
We are learning that the SCFA, in direct opposition to the standards and practices advocated by our Community College Association, not only does not support the concept of job security - its president continues to hobble any effort which might be made by faculty representatives who DO. The authors of this blog checked into this situation very carefully before making the decision to come forward. We have been attempting to contact individuals whose lines of communication have been summarily severed, with the hope of hearing all sides to this story.
In fact, we invite the current president of the SCFA to make a post here, and clearly outline his opposition to the concept of job security . . . that very thing which would allow adademic freedom and free speech for everyone on our campus.
It's time that the college community AND the citizens of our north state community were better informed about these issues. That can only happen if free speech is actually free (and without fear).
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