CHAPARRAL

Gabbing and Grousing with Gordy
by Gordon Alexandre, Guild President

The Times They Are A-Changin': For Better or Worse

Anyone who says these are the best of times is delusional. In fact, these are the worst of times in recent memory for the nation, state, and GCC. We have a national economy in the throes of the worst financial meltdown since the Great Depression, a state budget that's irresponsible and harmful to public education, an erosion of our purchasing power at GCC due to the acceptance of a paltry 1% salary increase last year and more of the same expected this year, a strained relationship between the president/superintendent and the faculty resulting in the lowest morale at the college since I've been here, and a Board of Trustees in denial about the seriousness of the problem, pretending that it's just one of transition and resistance to change.

     Let's start with the state budget. The good news is that we finally have one. The bad news is that it stinks. The budget is balanced through borrowing, relies heavily on one-time fixes and accounting gimmicks, pushes tough choices into the next fiscal year, and gives more power to the governor by allowing him to make unilateral mid-year cuts. All the structural problems of the budget remain, with the likelihood that the delay and in-fighting of this year will be repeated again next year. The Democrats "caved" on pushing for fair and reasonable tax increases on the wealthiest Californians,  and the ideologically rigid, right-wing Republican minority “hijacked” the process and got their way. As far as I can tell so far, the budget will cut $3 billion from K-14, contains a small .68% COLA, and sets aside very few growth dollars. Once again, political expediency won out over doing the right thing in this latest budget "compromise."

     With a very small COLA and few growth dollars, negotiating significant salary increases will be extremely difficult. However, we shouldn't be too pessimistic, because there is some money available for negotiations. The District has saved hundreds of thousands of dollars from the retirement incentive, pushing the start of the first summer session in 2009 back one week, reduced insurance broker commissions, Blue Shield premium renewal rates coming in at much less than expected, and there are still last year's growth dollars. We all knew that this year would be tough. The real problem was last year, when there was a 4.5% COLA and we received only a 1% raise, and it was like pulling teeth to get even that. The District is to blame for this, because they spent last year's COLA at the beginning of the year to balance the college budget, leaving nothing for collective bargaining. They avoided making difficult budget decisions by not making the faculty a priority.

     Morale on campus continues to sink. In fact, I notice more and more resignation amongst the faculty. In my opinion, the president/superintendent is disconnected from the college and spends little time getting to know the faculty. When she is on campus, it appears she's mostly in her office and not very accessible. It seems as though the president/superintendent's main concern is in revising board policies and administrative regulation and in making sure GCC doesn't get placed on "warning" by the accrediting agency. Protocol and procedure have replaced people and collegiality. This is indeed a change, but not the kind we need nor should support.
 

     The Board of Trustees must share some of the responsibility for the decline of morale at the college. Many perceive that the Board tries to micro-manage the college and doesn't really listen to faculty and staff. As William McGinnis from the Community College League of California (CCLC) stated at a recent Board meeting, the Board should be concerned with "what" and leave the "how" up to the staff and faculty. I think in the last couple of years the Board has been too involved in negotiations and has made some bad budget choices. This has generated some ill-will between the Board and the faculty. Though damaged, I think the relationship is repairable. Only time will tell whether or not that happens.

     So, where does the Guild go from here? To me, it's obvious that we need to become more politically active. We do not have the luxury, as some feel we do during good times, to sit on the sidelines and watch others do things for us. We cannot afford to say things like "Let Guild Exec. do it," or "I don't have time to get involved," or "Things aren't so bad." It's going to take all of us being involved to turn GCC around so that, once again, students and faculty come first. Here are a couple of activities the Guild will be engaged in this year: First, the Executive Committee has established a Job Activities Committee to support negotiations this fall. The JAC is chaired by First Vice President Richard Kamei. The committee has already met once this past summer and will continue to meet throughout the fall. Hopefully, the combination of talking at the table and activities off the table will result in the Board listening longer and harder to our concerns. Second, There are Board of Trustee elections in the spring of 2009. We must be actively involved in these elections. Three current Board members are up for re-election, and we have some very serious choices to make. We have to decide if we want to support the three incumbents, some of them, or none of them. If we want to support challengers, we need to decide who and how many. The process has just begun. Professors for Quality Education (PQE), chaired by Ramona Barrio-Sotillo, is preparing to interview interested candidates. The process will be fair and democratic. Ultimately, the membership decides whom to support, not me, not Exec., not PQE. But, whatever we decide, we must win. This means not only contributing money, but also time to phone-bank, precinct-walk, and do whatever else is necessary to win.

     This is going to be a difficult year for us, but if we remain united and active we can make a difference.

In Solidarity, Gordy

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