CHAPARRAL

Reemployment Rights

The biggest issues confronting part-time faculty in the state right now are layoffs and reduced course assignments. When community college funding gets tight, reducing the number of hourly instructors is sometimes the simplest way to balance district budgets. But what happens to those unfortunate part-timers, their students, and their career path? What encourages “at will” employees to stay in the teaching field when the prospect of a secure income vanishes? Why should they get involved in campus governance, improving their course content, assessment work, or department projects when there is no assurance that they will ever see the fruits of their labor?

At the moment, there is a reemployment rights bill making its way through the state legislature. AB 1807(Fong) provides a minimum base of job security for adjunct faculty. After being evaluated over a course of four years, adjunct faculty who meet the standard decided upon by the local district will receive reemployment status for a future assignment (if and when available). The other important element in this bill is that it will provide a clear and fair way to withdraw assignments when budget cutbacks occur.

While Bill AB1807 provides a minimum standard for academic job security, it gives part-time faculty the faith that the money and time that they spend to upgrade their training or degree will be a worthwhile investment. This change in the Ed Code, if it is enacted, would offer adjunct instructors the protection to grade students stringently yet fairly without the fear of losing their position because of a random student complaint. It would offer hourly faculty a stake in the college continuum and curriculum development and provide students the assurance that teachers who inspired and helped them would not vanish forever when the economy falters.

One potentially troubling innovation arrives in the form of a Faculty Diversity Internship Program, which has been developed by the GCC Academic Senate. The program is designed to bring graduate students, who are within a year of obtaining their Master’s degrees, to the college in order to increase diversity among our present faculty. These graduate students will enjoy something like a waiver of minimum qualifications* and will arrive with no experience teaching in community colleges, and will be provided with mentoring, orientation and training in order to prepare them for positions as possible adjunct or full-time faculty at Glendale College. The program is very cost effective because the interns will be paid a fraction of what adjunct faculty members make. Yet, the stated goal of diversity can and is being met by new adjunct faculty hires who are needed annually just to keep up with the growth in our student population and the retirement of older faculty. Imagine if these resources for training, orientation and mentoring were directed at our present adjunct faculty! Who knows how many more part-timers we would have on the rehire rights list?

As tenured faculty have always known, security in the teaching field allows for academic freedom and the chance to innovate in content and method. Adjunct faculty have become the new faculty majority, and therefore it is more important than ever that they have the security of knowing they are valued and have a future at the institution where they work. Then even when tough times come around, the part-time faculty, who have helped build programs and support college goals, will stick around until times get better again.

Unemployment
If you will not be working (or working at a reduced level) during the summer, you may be eligible for unemployment insurance benefits.  There are some important things to keep in mind when applying for unemployment.  Getting through on the phone to the EDD is difficult, so you should use their website to apply.  However, the website is not set up to accommodate the unique nuances that affect adjuncts—you cannot cite the Cervisi decision, which ruled that adjuncts in community colleges are eligible for benefits because we are not guaranteed “reasonable assurance” of continued employment. However, when you receive a follow-up phone call, you can cite the decision.  Remember that you have no “reasonable assurance” of an assignment for the next semester even if your name is in the schedule of classes. To
figure out your last week’s pay you can divide your previous monthly paycheck by four. You are not technically a member of the union when your assignment ends, so you can answer the question about union membership with a “no.” The last day of the semester (June 9) is the last day for which you are paid and the date on which you should file for benefits.

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