CHAPARRAL

RESULTS OF PART-TIME FACULTY SURVEY

The last time the Guild carried out a comprehensive survey of part-time faculty at Glendale College was five years ago. Therefore, this fall a study was undertaken to provide a picture of who GCC part-timers are and how the college is serving this group. This semester there are 585 part-timers teaching for the district. Of that number, one hundred and forty nine returned their surveys, which is about a 25 percent respondent rate.

     The investigation garnered some surprising results. While many administrators and legislators consider part-time faculty to be occasional workers making extra money on the side by “moonlighting,” in fact only 30 percent of the respondents had full-time careers. Fifty-three percent of the part-timers who teach at Glendale College also teach part-time elsewhere; half of them teach anywhere from nine to 35 hours a week outside of the district. It is therefore no wonder that clearly one third of all respondents chose career advancement, in the form of a full-time teaching position, as their number one priority over other issues such as salary.

     On the subject of rehire rights, 67 respondents reported having received an “exceeds standard” on their latest evaluation. According to the office of human resources 79 part-timers are currently on the new rehire list. Part-timers should check with Barbara Stepp in HR to ascertain whether their names have been put on the list which is administered in that office. This is a good start to the process, and many recent evaluations should add more part-timers to the rolls.

     Part-timers can also be pleased with the fact that 80 percent have access to campus e-mail and 60 percent have access to campus phones. Only 28 percent, however, said that they had campus voicemail, which seems unfortunate for the students who do not use the Internet and prefer to leave a phone message for their teachers. Fifty percent of part-timers say that they have access to a campus computer and 55 percent have office space. Unfortunately, two thirds of Glendale College’s part-time faculty lack storage space or even a file cabinet drawer on campus. This means a great deal of carrying of papers and books from remote parking locations to the classroom. Past records of test scores and copies of assignments or tests cannot be stored on campus for future use. This is a need that the Guild with the cooperation of the administration will try to address in the near future.

     Not surprisingly, salary is a big issue for part-time faculty. Over half of all respondents indicated that salary was their number one concern for future negotiations. Twenty-four of the 149 who responded hold doctoral degrees, and yet they are not compensated in any way for this advanced educational standing. Since many part-timers teach in other districts they have a basis for comparison and can see how their salary at GCC stacks up against what they are paid at other schools. This may impact their choice of schedule from semester to semester, though that question was not asked on the survey.

     Eighty percent of those who responded said that they were members of the GCC Guild, and yet in true numbers only 60 percent of part-time faculty belong to the union. This misapprehension may be a result of Glendale College’s guild being a “fair share” bargaining unit in which all workers pay fees but do not become members without first signing a membership form. If you do not receive ballots (such as the one for the upcoming ratification of the new contract), you may be paying dues but not enjoying the benefits of membership. Contact our membership chairperson, Kathy Holmes, if you are uncertain as to your status.

     The Guild would like to thank Arlene Guillen for the hours of work she put in to cull through and process the data from the surveys and Ed Karpp for his assistance in helping to create the database system necessary to analyze the information.

Phyllis Eckler can be contacted at peckler@glendale.edu or at ext.5646&

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