CHAPARRAL

 Why Did Part-time Faculty Receive a Pay Cut This Year?

     Beginning in spring of 2002, the Glendale College District began distributing funds that were allocated in the state budget to go directly to part-time faculty to compensate them for course preparation and class work assessment. In our salary schedule it is a “parity percentage” that is added onto the B-1 schedule. B-1 is the part-time salary schedule for all part-timers except for non-instructional adjuncts. (See link from www.glendale.edu/guild.) This hard-won line item in the state budget helped remunerate adjunct faculty for the hours of work done outside of instructional time to fulfill their teaching obligation. Full-time faculty are paid for preparation and assessment as a part of their salaries. During the Gray Davis era it was brought to the attention of the legislature that adjunct faculty were glaringly underpaid for all the work that they did in comparison to full-time faculty, and thus this Part-time Equity line item was added to the community college budget.

     This line item, along with two others designated to help part-time faculty, became part of the “categorical” line items in the community college budget. The money ear-marked for this categorical has been cut back from one state budget to the next and never received cost-of-living increases (COLA). However, never has it been slashed the way it was this past year, when the legislature signed a budget that cut almost all categorical line items by 50%. This led to 3.76% drop in adjunct faculty pay in the Glendale district.

     However, not all part-time faculty in the state experienced this kind of pay cut. The state budget allowed districts to reallocate the categorical funds (many of which had been reduced) in any way that they saw fit. In some districts this parity money was already included in the base of part-time salary schedules, so there was no way that districts could unilaterally withhold it from adjuncts without negotiating for a salary reduction at the table. This was not the case in the Glendale District, since our contract stipulated that the equity (or parity) money could be reduced or eliminated if the state budget took it away. If we were to roll the parity funds into the base salary of part-timers, it would protect them from any further cuts if parity money were to be reduced again.

     In the latest round of negotiations the full-time faculty took a .5% pay cut for this year with a promise from the district that no further reductions in the parity percentage would occur this year or in the next year, even if the state budget for 2010-11 again reduces this categorical line item. So far the governor’s budget is already proposing a 40% further cut to the equity line item for 2010-11. We can consider ourselves safe for now as far as pay cuts go. The threat to the college budget, however, is continuing in this year’s state budget.

What Can Part-timers Do to Help Secure their Pay?
     There are two ways that part-time faculty income is affected by poor college budgets. One is the kind of hourly pay reduction of 3.76% that we saw just this year. But the other more serious problem is when classes are cut. Once cut, classes are often impossible to get back on the schedule (and since adjuncts are limited by the 67% rule, a class cut can mean anywhere from one third to one half of their income slashed). Every college district in the state is given funding to educate a certain number of students per academic year. This number is called the Full-time Equivalent Student (FTES) “cap.” Once this cap, or number of students, is reached the college is not paid for any more students (even if we choose to cram them into our classes). If this “cap” is reached earlier in the academic year (which runs from July 1 to June 30), the college will actually save money by turning away students that we aren’t being paid for. The college district does this by slashing course offerings.

     Of course it is the part-time faculty who often suffer the loss of assignments when this happens. It is in the best interest of part-time faculty to spread the number of students out throughout the year so that classes are not cut. To do this they must put limits on how many extra students they take into their classes. If they do not, spring offerings might be reduced because the FTES “cap,” or allotted number of enrollees, was met by the end of winter session.

     During a growth phase the college is given extra money to add more classes and fill classes to the brim, because the state budget gives the college extra money to pay for more students to be educated. This is not a growth period and there is no extra pay for part-timers to do what they should be paid for—preparation and assessment—let alone for larger classes or more sections. Keep this in mind as you see the long line of hopeful students outside your classroom this spring. It is hard to turn away students, but letting them add your class may cost you your job.

 If you wish to respond to this article or add your own thoughts please contact Phyllis Eckler at peckler@sbcglobal.net

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