From the Editor

Issue Preview

I’m pleased to present the first issue of this fall’s Faculty Voice in part just to launch the school year but also because this issue features several of our student support labs on-campus as well as the latest CCFT and CFT goings-on.

This fall, CCFT welcomes back Debora Bone as our President and Chief Negotiator and congratulates several others on joining our executive board and council. Taking over Debora’s former role as co-Vice President is Conrad Scott-Curtis from the English department, and our new Historian and Treasurer are Claudia Close (Philosophy) and Karl Ewald (Engineering), respectively. Division representative seats on CCFT Council are filling in, but we’re still looking for more reps from BELA (2), HASS (1), NAS (2), HAWK (1) and Watsonville (1). Meetings are on Monday afternoons; see the fall meeting schedule for specifics and please email Maya for more information or to volunteer.

At our CCFT fall flex luncheon, we had a lively discussion with our guest speaker, CFT President Joshua Pechthalt, about the ACCJC and its actions against CCSF. In this month’s issue, Faculty Senate President Michael Mangin recaps and continues this dialogue with his own observations and predictions for what it all means for us and our campus visit coming up in a few weeks.

Also in flex week, many of us heard for the first time some very discouraging news about full-time faculty hiring and ongoing cutting of classes despite a more positive budget outlook than we’ve seen in years and a desperate need to raise our FTES campus-wide. (NOTE: overall we added sections for fall, but some classes were canceled due to insufficient enrollment). While our final Faculty Obligation Number is still to be determined and may well come back up, that figure will likely not dictate much beyond replacement of retirees, if that.

by Diane Putnam
CCFT Communications Director

In her report this month, CCEU President Alta Northcutt explains that previous staffing cuts are still being enacted with duties being sorted out or even eliminated, and how this should impact faculty expectations for the coming school year. Students, too, will continue to feel this pain as they go about their school business and try to access services and programs intended to fuel their success while remaining underfunded.

Among these underfunded-but-crucial programs for Cabrillo student success across the disciplines is the availability of free tutoring and computer access. This is especially true in basic skills but continues up through transfer level and honors courses. Over the past few years, tutoring services, operating hours, and resources have been drawn down significantly as classified staff positions and teaching units were cut from our learning centers.

Incredibly, these labs continue to offer a range of excellent courses, modes of tutoring, resources, and other services in cooperation with many other programs and entities on-campus. Instructional assistants and tutors in these centers of learning, as Alta writes of all staff in her CCEU report, do “the best we can with what we have.” Their best is pretty impressive, as you will see from this month's series highlighting some of these centers. And as you encourage your students to make use of Cabrillo’s learning centers, prepare them to bring your relevant class materials and to be ready to wait for help. And be ready to provide more of that supplemental help yourself.

For now, enjoy learning what some of these labs can do for your students in this issue’s series, and take some time to watch the five-minute LRC (Learning Resource Center) video from All-College Day and decide if it would be useful to show in your class and add to your Blackboard links.