CPFA Plenary Report

Second Annual Plenary Meeting of the California Part-time Faculty Association
June 24-25, 2000

The second annual CPFA Plenary was a great success and set the stage for a third year of increasing expansion and effectiveness. This past year we solidified our coalition with the other faculty organizations at the state level and convinced the system, including administrative leaders, the Chancellor's office, and the Board of Governors, that it was in the interest of California's community colleges to recognize the problems created by the current use of temporary faculty assignments. PT faculty equity has been placed on a high priority and a system budget proposal to address PT compensation equity gained strong support in both sides of the legislature.
To aid in our ability to influence these processes, CPFA decided by resolution at the Plenary to move ahead with coalition building in the broader state and national arenas. A list of these is appended below, but most importantly, CPFA is going to move ahead with formal discussions to co-sponsor a National Contingent Academic Labor Conference with the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the Boston based Conference on Contingent Academic Labor (COCAL), the CSU-CFA Lecturers, the UC-CFT Lecturers, and other faculty groups. The conference may be as early as early January, 2001.
We are also going to beginning the work of building an alliance with other areas of the contingent labor market, both locally and nationally. We will be joining NAFFE, the National Alliance for Fair Employment which recently was featured in the national press throughout the country, and we will probably be inviting NAFFE members and other related organizations to the national conference being organized. I have also attached below a summary discussion of the Plenary that was posted to the el chorro listserv by Sandy Baringer, CPFA's new Director of Communications. Other new officers are announced therein. The CPFA website www.cpfa.org has been updated with the revised Constitution and By-laws, as well as other new information.
Since the Plenary, it has become clear that the unified efforts of the whole system, with our legislative friends, were not able to reach Governor Davis who not only forced the systems PT equity proposal out of the final conference committee budget, but then blue-lined the minimal $5 million office hour program augmentation that he had supported last year. He said:
"I am concerned that this augmentation does not contain any assurance of improvements in the quality of instruction or student outcomes. Additionally, I am not supportive of the reduced local match requirement contained in the education trailer bill. Furthermore, any action pertaining to faculty office hours may be premature until the completion of a study of the CCC's part-time faculty employment, salary, and compensation patterns, as required by Chapter 738/99 (AB 420)"
The day before the Governors veto, but too late to have an effect this year, the Legislative Auditor released his report on PT faculty compensation. This report, though limited in scope and a bit distorted by the small sample of districts studied, will provide strong support for future legislative efforts to address PT equity. You can see the whole report at:
http://www.bsa.ca.gov/bsa/summaries/2000107s.html
The Consultation Council HRI Task Force will be considering options for moving ahead with our issues on the 11th, after the Board of Governors Meeting. I will keep you posted.
I hope you are having a good summer.
Ciao,
Chris

Here's an update on the main events at the CPFA plenary last weekend. This is not intended to be exhaustive; the resolutions passed and minutes should be available soon from the new director of administration, Mary Ellen Goodwin. Please check the website, www.cpfa.org for new info as it becomes available. Also, contact info for all executive council members is available at the website. If anyone loses their email records, they can always go to the website for such information.
Three guests from other organizations spoke to the plenary: Rich Moser, from the AAUP (American Association of University Professors) national office in Washington D.C.; David Kruchta from UC-AFT (University of California, American Federation of Teachers), and Greg Tropea of the Lecturers Council of CFA (California Faculty Association). The latter two unions represent the non-tenure-track faculty of the University of California and the California State University systems respectively.
Most of Saturday afternoon was devoted to discussing possible coalition activities in the upcoming year. Rich Moser said that COCAL (Coalition on Contingent Academic Labor) is interested in having its conference on the west coast in 2001, and a resolution was later passed in support of CPFA's assistance in this direction. COCAL and AAUP are also interested in developing a national Part-time Faculty Equity Week next year based on the model implemented by the Action 2000 Coalition in California this past April.
The two pending constitutional amendments that were recommended by the membership at last year's plenary both passed. The first adds two executive council positions: Director of Public Relations and Director of Communications. The second deletes the requirement that executive council members be part-time instructors in the California community colleges, replacing that with a requirement that they be members in good standing of CPFA.
New Executive Council members elected by acclamation (they all ran unopposed):
Mary Ellen Goodwin, Director of Administration;
John Martin, Director of Finance;
Martin Goldstein, Director of Public Relations;
Sandy Baringer, Director of Communications.
Reelected:
Gloria Heller, Director of Membership
Lantz Simpson, Legislative Analyst (renamed per the constitutional amendment from Director of Protocol and Public Relations)
Continuing their two-year terms until next year:
Chris Storer, Chair
Debbie Brasket, Director of Publications (renamed from Director of Communications and Publications)
MaryAnne Ifft, Northern California Representative
Dave Bush, Central California Representative
Therese Gray withdrew her candidacy for Southern California Representative and there were no nominations at the plenary. This position is open.
Nine resolutions were passed in connection with goals for the upcoming year; they will be posted in due course.
My personal feeling is that this plenary marked a significant step in coalition building for CPFA. I invite questions from those who were unable to attend and comments from others who were there.
- Sandy Baringer, Director of Communications

See the resolutions of the Second Annual CPFA Plenary - June 24-25 at www.cpfa.org/resolutions2000.html

Return to CPFA Main Page

California Part-time Faculty Association
2118 Wilshire Blvd.
P M B 392
Santa Monica, CA 90403
teachers@cpfa.org