CHAPARRAL

There are approximately 173 faculty positions on governance committees, 24 Senate positions, 80 positions on task forces, nine Guild officer positions, and 20 hiring committee positions (this year) beyond division members.  Altogether, that adds to 306 voluntary spots full-time faculty can fill to help govern our campus.  Given 241 full-time faculty, and ignoring the important fact that many adjunct faculty participate in campus governance, 306 spots divided by 241 faculty is approximately 1.27 spots per faculty.  Basically, if each full-time faculty member volunteered for one governance, Senate, or Guild appointment, we would cover all the governance responsibilities on our campus.  Sadly, only 141 of GCC’s 241 full-time faculty (which is approximately 60% of our full-time faculty) volunteered to serve this year in governance, Guild, or Senate. And, 25% of those 141 full-time faculty members serve on more than one committee; the author serves on the Senate and six additional committees.

     When I come home at the end of a day of work at Glendale College, I often tell my wife that I am physically, emotionally, and mentally exhausted.  Instead of a sympathetic response, I often get the standard line from her: “You’ve got it easy, Sid.  You teach only 15 units maximum (the equivalent of three high school classes).  And, your students are more mature and well-behaved than high school students; they chose to attend your school.”  In contrast, my wife teaches the equivalent of 30 units to a “captured” audience; many are behavior problems we would not tolerate.  Moreover, she has nutrition and noon duties, and some committee work and meetings.  I counter that while it’s true that I teach half the number of units she does (actually less because of my release time), I do what our contract intends us to do—I volunteer, for professional, ethical, and contractual reasons, to work within our governance system; by law, we are a self-governing college. Unlike secondary schools, we can have a significant say in how our campus is run.  It is the committee work within our governance system that greatly contributes to my exhaustion.

     In my first Chaparral article of this academic year, I concluded with  “…ask not what your Senate can do for you, but what you can do for your Senate.  Turn your concerns into positive actions.  Come increase our joy while lessening our burden.  We have much to accomplish that affects us all.”  That was, obviously, a plea for all of us (not just 60% of us) to do our share of the work within our governance system, including work on the Senate and the Guild.  Those of us who do contribute get worn out because we are the 60% who are doing the work for all of us; we are taking on much more than our share of the burden.  If everyone were to contribute, all of our burdens would be significantly lightened.

     So, where have all the volunteers gone?  Based on the proportion of full-time faculty they represent, I computed the number of volunteers necessary from each division to completely cover governance committees, including Senate and Guild.  I found that there were four divisions that were under-represented in our governance structure, and four divisions that were doing much more than their share: 2.5 times the representation, twice the representation, 1.5 times the representation, and 1.5 times the representation.  The remaining divisions were proportionally represented.  So, we have four divisions “making up for” the deficit created by four under-represented divisions.

We need the help of all full-time faculty to lighten everyone’s load.  When the call goes out to volunteer for Senate, Guild, and governance committees, do your fair share. Do not ask for whom the e-mail soliciting volunteers tolls; it tolls for thee.

     I would like to thank Dr. Ed Karpp for his assistance in preparing this article. &

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