|
CEW
PLANS
Washington
Colleges
Edmonds
Community College
Edmonds
Community College has been putting out weekly email "SoundBytes"
with facts about part-time use in higher education to build up interest
in Campus Equity Week. The union will be sponsoring a letter writing
campaign to Governor Locke asking him to continue to support equal
pay and benefits for equal work for part-time faculty. Edmond’s
Board of Trustees has endorsed a resolution supporting CEW taken
to it by the union. An article was published in the union’s
newletter.
The
Washington Federation of Teachers has asked the Governor of Washington
to declare October 29, 2001 Part-Time Recognition Day. On that day
the state federation will be sponsoring a recognition event, "Marching
Towards Equity: A Progress Report." They will recognize two
outstanding legislators, Representative Phyllis Kenney and Senator
Jeanne Kohl-Welles, who have led the legislative battles for salary
increases and more fringe benefits for Associate Faculty. As chairs
of the Senate and House Higher Education Committees in Washington,
they have offered a great deal of progressive legislation.
Activists will also issue an assessment of how well part-time faculty
are doing state wide and give report cards to each of the community
colleges, assessing progress towards full wage and benefit equity.
Districts will be evaluated on key areas such as average salary,
part- to full-time faculty ratios, and percentage of part-time faculty
who have health and retirement benefits. Those campuses with high
GPA‚s will also receive awards at the event.
Local activists will also be recognized with, among other things,
an honor roll on our website. During the years of activism, many
WFT members have volunteered countless hours to lobby the legislature,
make calls, send letters, and contact fellow faculty with information.
Many of the community colleges will be holding events on campuses
during that week, including Seattle, Shoreline, and Edmonds. Other
campuses will be holding part-time membership/activation drives
to encourage part-time faculty to join and become more active in
their local unions.
We are also using our website <http://www.wftaft.com/>
to put up resolutions and other materials for locals to use. They
can be found under the "CampusEquity
Week" link.
In addition, many of our locals are using CEW to do a membership
drive among the part-time faculty. Since we have been making gains
for them, we are hoping more of them will join their local unions.
Seattle Community College Federation of Teachers (http://dept.sccd.ctc.edu/sccft/index.html):
The Seattle union has created special buttons for CEW and has created
curriculum materials for faculty who chose to present an equity-based
class. Other activities are being planned.
Everett Community College Federation of Teachers:
Everett’s Board of Trustees has endorsed a resolution supporting
CEW taken to it by the union. The union will place a full page ad
in the student newspaper announcing CEW and giving facts about part-time
faculty. Everett will hold a membership drive among part-time faculty
that week.
Shoreline Community College Federation of Teachers (http://www.sccft.org/):
Shoreline's events are still being planned.
Olympic College, Bremerton:
Our campus has the good fortune of having received a CEW grant from
the National Education Association, which we applied for thanks
to having heard about it from the CEW Steering Committee coordinator
for the Northwest, Sandra Schroeder, with support from Terry Fitzpatrick,
the state president of the NEA-affiliated Association for Higher
Education (WEA-HE).
Five things are listed below:
(1) A free Campus Equity Week Concert on Friday evening, Oct 26,
2001 (the Friday immediately before CEW begins) which, in addition
to a music performed by a group called "Acoustic News,"
will feature several speakers who will briefly touch on the idea
of Equal Pay for Equal Work. A promotional flier (Concert
Flier) is available for download. Speakers will include
(i) the president of our faculty union, the NEA-affiliated Association
for Higher Education, who happens to be a former part-timer;
(ii) a representative from the union of campus staff, the "Washington
Public Employees Association"
(iii) a representative from our area's Central Labor Council
(iv) a director of the Washington State Board for Community and
Technical Colleges
(We had invited three local legislators as well as our new college
president, all of whom said they were unable to attend. We are delighted
to have this involvement, especially from our state board.)
(Jack Longmate also plans to speak on the history of part-time employment
at the community college, citing its origins as the demand for instructors
that exceeded the supply in the 1950's, the fact that supply caught
up by the late 1960's but the practice of employing part-timers
did not recede but has greatly expand from the 1970's until the
present, as colleges have become increasingly market driven. He
will cite the California's 1988 AB 1725, which stipulated the ratio
of full-time to part-time faculty shall be 75 to 25 percent but
due to the flexibility of the bill that allowed for discretionary
use of funds at the campus level, that ratio has never been realized
as administrations have always found other what they consider more
pressing campus needs, which is why Campus Equity Week is important:
to underscore the blatant violation of the principle of Equal Pay
for Equal Work)
The daily newspaper, the campus's student newspaper, as well as
the several local weekly newspapers have been contacted about the
concert and CEW. Thanks to volunteers from our campus, the event
will be videotaped and will be aired on our local public access
cable channel.
(2) Part-time faculty, along with help of our campus's student government,
plan on distributing an Equal Pay for Equal Work Petition (download
Petition) around campus
and the community, based on the AAUP wording: "compensation
for part-time employment should be the corresponding fraction for
a full-time position having qualitatively similar responsibilities
and qualifications."
(3) We hope to post fliers around campus to promote CEW (sample
to download Flyer).
(4) We have routed a suggested resolution of endorsement of CEW
(Download Resolution),
and plan to make wider distribution to local governmental organizations.
(5) At the upcoming meeting of the Board of Trustees, we will be
introducing CEW and will invite board members and the administration
to the concert and sign the petition.
Contacts:
Washington Federation of Teachers - Sandra Schroeder,
<sschroeder@wftaft.com>
Edmonds Community College - Mary Hale, <mhale@edcc.ctc.edu>.
Seattle Community College - Lynne Dodson, <ldodso@sccd.ctc.edu>
Olympic College: Jack ongmate,
<jacklongmate@silverlink.net>
|
