CFT Priorities for Higher Education

By Katie Woolseykatie

The 2014 CFT Convention highlighted some particularly urgent issues for those of us working in higher education. A common thread emerged from many of the workshops, committee and council meetings, resolutions, and floor debates: maintaining high quality and broad access to California’s public higher education despite current and ongoing economic and political challenges.

Several of the resolutions adopted by CFT speak directly to our local concerns. One such resolution was brought by our own delegation and calls for revising the course repeatability regulations that are limiting student access and hampering student success. Another adopted resolution called for improving pay parity for part-time faculty, who now outnumber full-time higher education faculty by almost three to one; by adopting this resolution, the Convention established that CFT’s stance on this issue is that faculty should receive equal pay for equal work, regardless of the faculty member’s full-time/part-time status.

A related issue was brought by the Council of Classified Employees, which called for legislative intervention against the increasing practice of colleges holding long-term classified workers in “part-time” or “temporary” employment categories. The Convention also adopted a resolution brought by the delegation from City College of San Francisco, raising concerns about the ways in which skyrocketing fees and an increasing orientation toward privatization are making California’s public higher education system more exclusionary than inclusionary; this resolution calls for the state to recommit to the 1960 California Master Plan for Higher Education.

In terms of legislation, the CFT is currently sponsoring several bills of direct relevance to us at the community colleges. AB 1199 would provide a period of stabilized funding for a college district that falls below its enrollment target. AB 1942 would change the accreditation process, allowing a district to choose its own accrediting body and introducing public hearings and appeals processes. AB 2709 would create financial incentives for college districts to meet a 75:25 ratio of full-time to part-time faculty, effectively flipping the current model. CFT’s full legislative report, including the full list of bills that CFT is sponsoring as well as CFT’s recommended positions on other bills relevant to public education, is online at http://www.cft.org/images/ADOPTED_Convention_3-23-14_4.pdf.

Here’s the takeaway: a great deal of the conversation at this Convention was about whither the community colleges are going and what forces are driving. Delegations brought serious concerns about the current reach of the ACCJC and the Board of Governors; about the benefits and liabilities of non-classroom instruction (there was a hearty set of disagreements about MOOCs and online courses, but these are things that we have to talk about as instructors in an era of expansive technology); about declining funding following declining enrollments; about the factors and forces that contribute to that current enrollment decline. How do we keep our doors open to as many students as need us? How do we support students through appropriately-paid faculty and staff? How do we keep California’s community colleges robust and diverse? These are questions that are shared among the districts throughout the state, and they’re the common theme underlying CFT’s current positions and priorities for higher education.

 

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