Session on What Community College Historians Do: Careers in Two-Year Colleges

Friday, April 23, 1999, 3:30-5:30

The California Situation

The following information was compiled by Ken Bell Gleason, session panelist and instructor of history at Santa Rosa Junior College (Sonoma County District), College of Alameda (Peralta), and Chabot College in Hayward (Chabot-Las Positas), all in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Historians Only:

The source of information in paragraphs 1-11 is staff data provided last week from the management information system in the Chancellor's Office of the California Community Colleges system in Sacramento, California.

The information is for the fall 1998 term, the latest available, in most of the 71 California community college districts. Paragraphs 1-5 show the number of faculty with a primary history assignment-in other words, the actual numbers-for 63 districts; paragraphs 6-11 show the full-time equivalency (FTE) of regular and overload faculty with a primary history assignment-in other words, the officially mandated maximum legal limits-for 62 districts.

1. Statewide, there were 1,060 faculty employed teaching at least one section of history. There were 435 employed full-time, 602 employed part-time (adjunct), and 23 in other categories. By comparison, for Instance, the world-class UC Berkeley History Department in the late '80s employed 55 full-time.
2. Districts with at least 15 historians employed full-time were five: Coast, Los Angeles, Los Rios, North Orange County, and Sierra.
3. Campuses with at least 10 historians employed full-time were six: Orange Coast College, Diablo Valley College, Mt. San Antonio College, Fullerton College, San Francisco City College, and Sierra College.
4. Districts with at least 20 historians employed part-time were six: Contra Costa, Los Angeles, Los Rios, North Orange County, San Diego, and South Orange County.
5. Campuses with at least 15 historians employed part-time were seven: Long Beach City College, Sacramento City College, Cypress College, Palomar College, San Diego Mesa College, Canyons College, and Saddleback College.
6. Districts with at least 20.0 FTE historians were five: Contra Costa, Los Angeles, Los Rios, North Orange County, and Sierra.
7. Districts with at least 10.0 FTE historians were sixteen: Cerritos, Chabot-Las Positas, Coast, Foothill, Grossmont, Long Beach, Mt. San Antonio, Palomar, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, San Mateo County, South Orange County, Southwestern, Ventura County, and West Valley.
8. Districts with at least 10.0 FTE full-time historians were nine: Coast, Contra Costa, Foothill, Los Angeles, Los Rios, North Orange County, San Mateo County, Sierra, and Ventura County.
9. Districts with at least 5.0 FTE part-time historians were eleven: Cerritos, Chaffey, Contra Costa, Foothill, Los Angeles, Los Rios, North Orange County, Palomar, Riverside, San Diego, and South Orange County.
10. Districts with higher FTE full-time historians than part-time historians were forty-seven: Allan Hancock, Barstow,,Cabrillo, Cerritos, Chabot-Las Positas, Chaffey, Citrus, Coast, Compton, Contra Costa, Desert, Foothill, Gavilan, Glendale, Grossmont, Imperial, Lake Tahoe, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Los Rios, Marin, Mendocino, Mt. San Antonio, Napa Valley, North Orange County, Palomar, Peralta, Rancho Santiago, Rio Hondo, Riverside, San Francisco, San Joaquin Delta, San Jose, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo County, Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, Sequoias, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Sonoma County, Southwestern, Ventura County, West Kern, West Valley, and Yosemite.
11. Districts with higher FTE part-time historians than full-time historians were fifteen: Antelope Valley, Butte, Feather River, Fremont-Newark, Kern, Mira Costa, Mt. San Jacinto, Redwoods, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Clarita, South Orange County, State Center, Victor Valley, and Yuba.

All Faculty:

The source of information in tables 1-2 is based on a document provided to about 100 delegates in attendance at the annual meeting March 12, 1999, of the Community College Council at the annual convention of the California Federation of Teachers, AFT, AFL-CIO. The document consisted of three salary schedule tables for 1998-99 for 40 of the 71 California community college districts.

TABLE 1: CCC Regular/Adjunct Faculty
Historical Numbers Data

Year	Fall Enrollment (Millions)	FT Faculty	FT % Change	PT Faculty	PT % Change	PT% of FTE Faculty
1982	1.401	17802	---	25319	---	31.11
1983	1.282	17589	-1	22231	-12	29.35
1984	1.183	16867	4	23730	7	31.07
1985	1.215	16741	-1	24278	2	32.14
1986	1.267	16748	0	24582	1	32.14
1987	1.307	16029	-4	25056	2	33.86
1988	1.382	16638	4	26221	5	33.91
1989	1.455	17051	2	28421	8	35.86
1990	1.505	18016	6	30442	7	36.33
1991	1.515	18127	1	27997	-8	34.25
1992	1.500	18003	-1	27660	-1	34.14
1993	1.377	17225*	-4	26727*	-3	34.09
1994	1.357	17590	2	27271	2	33.46
1995	1.336	17626	0	26689	-2	33.63
1996	1.407	17796	1	29230	10	34.79
1997	1.450	17903	1	29939#	2	35.79

*1993 nationally: 97291 (35) 179122 (65)
#1997 California: (37.4) (62.6)

TABLE 2: CCC Regular/Adjunct
Faculty Historical Salary Data
[Compiled by Ken Gleason]

Year	FT Avg. Salary	PT Avg. Hourly Rate	FT Avg. Hourly Rate (1)	PT % of FT Hourly Rate (2)
1978	24123	16.62	27.57	60.3
1979	26270	18.13	30.02	60.4
1980	28273	19.84	32.31	61.4
1981	30156	20.50	34.46	59.5
1982	31849	21.74	36.40	59.7
1983	31890	22.41	46.45	61.5
1984	34226	23.20	40.26	57.6
1985	36391	24.32	41.59	58.5
1986	38005	25.50	43.43	58.7
1987	40047	26.77	45.77	58.5
1988	42236	28.38	48.27	58.8
1989	44286	29.66	50.61	58.6
1990	47575	31.79	54.37	58.5
1991	48976	33.12	55.97	59.2
1992	49933	34.33	57.07	60.2
1993	50546	34.64	57.77	60.0
1994	51902	35.20	59.32	59.3
1995	52819	35.52	60.36	68.8
1996	54682	37.09	62.49	59.4
1997	67269	40.32	65.45	61.6
20-year (1978-97) Avg. of PT % of FT Hourly Rate				59.5

(1) Formula: Fall semester of 18 weeks + Spring semester of 17 weeks = 35 weeks X 3-hour course X 5 courses = 15 classroom hours weekly + 5 office hours weekly + 5 committee hours weekly = 25 hours weekly = 875; therefore, annual salary divided by 875 = FT Avg. Hourly Rate.

(2) Formula: PT Avg. Hourly Rate divided by FT Avg. Hourly Rate = PT % of FT Hourly Rate.

Chancellor Nussbaum's paper:

Also distributed at the March 12 Community College Council session of the CFT annual convention was a second document, a January 1999 10-page working paper by state community college Chancellor Thomas J. Nussbaum, "Important Historical Data, Trends, and Analysis Relevant to Full-Time/Part-Time Issues," which also included three faculty tables and four faculty graphs. The Community College Council summary said the paper was an "interesting document to read and study."

Nussbaum's paper makes eleven points, only one of which, Point 7, deals exclusively with parttime issues, stating there is no current data on these "critical part-time issues." He then identifies ten "important matters" needing current data:

• the numbers and percentages of part-time instructors who 1) have paid office hours; 2) have health benefits; 3) work in more than one community college district ("freeway flyers"); 4) are evaluated (including the frequency and method of evaluation); 5) have rehire rights or preferences;
• the number of part-time instructors who 6) seek full-time employment with the community colleges as instructors; 7) are employed full-time in other positions;
• and the extent to which 8) colleges have physical office space to accommodate office hours for part-time instructors; 9) part-time instructors have education and experience which is similar to full-time instructors; and 10) part-time instructors receive equal pay for equal work when compared to compensation for full-time instructors (including the magnitude of the gap systemwide).

Nussbaum concludes with seven thoughts about future actions:

1. [W]e should be concerned as a system that we have not been able to reduce our reliance on part-time faculty.
2. [Me must make continued progress in improving the overall funding level per student towards the national average for community colleges.
3. [T]he system should weigh various options and determine the appropriate strategy for ensuring that the system maintains and increases its progress in hiring more full-time faculty.
4. [W]e should consider extending the time that districts have in order to make the hires of 2,500 to 3,000 full-time faculty.
5. For 2000-01, consideration should be given to a Budget Change Proposal that creates an incentive fund regarding part-time instruction improvements.
6. During 1999-particularly the first six months-the system should engage a comprehensive study of part-time instruction.
7. For 2000, as part of the Education Code rewrite, the system should propose statutory modifications as necessary to address the remaining full-time/part-time issues.

His first thought notes that the California system still relies too much on part-time faculty, while his fifth thought proposes an explicit state part-timer fund. Notice his sixth thought would get the answers to the ten "important matters" he identifies under Point 7.

David A. Berry's article:

The following information is excerpted from David A. Berry, "Community Colleges and Part-Time and Adjunct Faculty," in Nadine Ishitani Hata, ed., Community College Historians in the United States: A Status Report from the Organization of American Historians' Committee on Community Colleges (Bloomington, Ind.: Organization of American Historians, 1999).

"The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) stated in a recent Fact/Profile brochure, 'Part-time faculty allow community colleges to keep tuition low, helping fulfill the institutions' mission of maximizing access."' (p. 63)

"At least two immediate courses of action need to be taken to address the problem: (1) increase the number of full-time, tenured line positions by establishing and enforcing full-time/part-time ratiosperhaps using the California model [AB 1725] as a standard; and (2) index part-time salaries to full-time salaries [pro-rata pay], including the provision of benefits." (p. 64)

Part-Time Faculty Bills:

Earlier this week, two bills received legislative hearings.

A bill described as the Part-Time Faculty Rights Bill, AB 420 sponsored by Scott Wildman (D-Los Angeles), was before the California Assembly Higher Education Committee. It would provide "equal pay for equal work [pro-rata pay], seniority [preferential rehiring rights], increased eligibility for health benefits, and improved working conditions [paid office hours].

A bill described as the Full-Time Faculty Employment Bill, SB 921 sponsored by John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara), was before the California Senate Education Committee. It would provide for a budget line item with meaningful appropriations to hire more full-time faculty [full-time hires], thereby starting to put state money behind a reform bill [AB 1725] passed nearly a decade ago calling for a 75/25 ratio on full-time/part-time community college faculty.

It would not hurt if historians even outside California as well as inside, whether at the community college, state university or private university levels, in other words OAH members, were to write letters supporting these two pieces of legislation. It would send a message to California politicians that the historian profession nationwide is paying attention to the actual legislative results that politicians support after using the education buzzword everywhere as a good campaign issue.

Three key players are:

Ted Lempert, Chair, Assembly Higher Education Committee, BX 942849, Sacramento, CA 94249-0001.

Dede Alpert, Chair, Senate Education Committee, BX 942848, Sacramento, CA 94248-0001; senator.alpert@sen.ca.gov.

Gray Davis, Governor, State Capitol, Sacramento, CA 95814.

You might send copies of any letters to the groups below.

The statewide community college faculty lobby-supported by the California Faculty Association, the California Federation of Teachers, all independent unions, and the California Part-Time Faculty Association-is the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges (FACCC) at 926 J St., Suite 211, Sacramento, CA 956814; (916) 447-8555; fax (916) 447-0726; faccc@aol.com and legislative advocate David Hawkins at advocatedh@aol.com; webpage http://www.faccc.org.

A second statewide faculty group is the Community College Council of the California Federation of Teachers (CFT), AFT, AFL/CIO, at One Kaiser Plaza, Suite 1440, Oakland, CA 94612; (510) 832-8812; Community College Council president Tom Tyner at tyner@psnw.com, and part-time faculty coordinator Scott Suneson at CFTpters@aol.com; webpage http://www.cft.org.

A new, third statewide group--not a union--is the California Part-Time Faculty Association (CPFA) at 2118 Wilshire Blvd., Dept. 392, Santa Monica, CA 90403; (650) 949-2287; chair Chris Storer and director Emily Strauss; www.sufari.nett-rsulter/elchorro/.