ADJUNCT JUNCTION

New Possibilities

After much hard work and negotiation, the Guild has come to a tentative agreement with the district to amend the application of the office hour so that more part-timers teaching in the credit-course area will receive conferencing time with their students. The new distribution of hours would allow those teaching from 3 hours and 3 minutes up to 5 hours and 36 minutes a 2/3 hour (i.e. 40 minutes) of conferencing time per week. Credit part-timers who teach from 6 hours and 6 minutes up to 8 hours and 39 minutes would receive 1 hour and 20 minutes per week. Those teaching more than 9 hours and 9 minutes per week would re­ceive 2 hours of conferencing time.

Although this possible redistribution does penalize some part-timers who may be losing some weekly office hour pay, the Guild and the district felt that all teachers and students deserve some personal one-on-one attention. This change allows those who teach fewer than 5 hours a week to receive a paid office period for the first time. This new plan will have to be approved by the Guild membership and the Board of Trustees before being implemented, and if agreed upon, will not go into effect until the fall 2002 semester. (Incidentally, no office hours are paid to either full-time or part-time faculty during intersessions.)

Much of the credit for this proposal goes to Pete Witt, one of our Guild negotiators, who spent countless hours trying out different formulas in order to reallocate fairly the money that was available for office hours. Much praise should also go to the district negotiating team, which understood the need for students and teachers to have a conferencing time outside of classroom teaching hours. Despite a difficult financial outlook for the college budget this coming year, the district agreed to add funding to the office hour program so that these changes could be realized.

Another development that is making waves around the state is the recent signing of Bill AB1245, which requires that districts negotiate seniority/rehire rights with the local bargaining agent (i.e. the GCC Guild). Many union locals including North Orange County, Yuba College, Los Angeles and Santa Monica have recently won this battle on behalf of their part-timers. Meanwhile other districts, such as San Francisco and Ventura, have long included adjunct seniority in their contracts because they have seen the benefits that it provides. These districts get first pick of the best, most experienced "freeway flyers." In an era when college populations are exploding, having a loyal, excellent teacher base can make programming and student retention a much easier task. We hope that Glendale College will soon see the wisdom of making part-time seniority/rehire rights a contract priority.

Finally, as mentioned above, the budget for the coming 2002-2003 school year looks bad. There has been talk of cutbacks to the academic program with possibly 40 sections being eliminated from the fall and spring schedules. No one knows yet in what areas these cutbacks will take place or in fact, exactly what the budget picture will turn out to be. The governor does not come out with his final community college budget until June. However, if classes are eliminated it will be part-timers who will lose work. This is not a pleasant prospect, but one would rather be prepared in advance than not at all.

Any questions or responses to this column can be directed to Phyllis Eckler, ext. 5646 or <peckler@glendale.edu> v