Monthly Archives: April 2014

May 2014 Advocate – CSM Veterans get support at Resource Center


HIGHLIGHTING CAMPUS PROGRAMS

CSM Veterans get support at Resource Center 


by Rose Garcia, CSM Veterans Resource Coordinator

My name is Rose Garcia. I am the Veterans Resource Coordinator here at the College of San Mateo. I fell into this position and it has changed my life. I love working with the Veteran students here on campus.  

The Veteran students on campus are an amazing group of people and I am honored to do whatever it takes to help them. We provide many services at the center. We have academic, educational, career, and mental health counseling inside the center. We help each Veteran fill out Vonapp, Financial Aid, Ebenefits, VA Health Benefits, Certification and enroll at CSM. We help gain outside resources such as housing, childcare, food, books, computers, etc.  We hope in the future to provide bookstore vouchers, scholarships, mentorship programs with four-year colleges, and veteran peer counseling.  

We have recently celebrated our two-year anniversary, the number of students using the center and our resource services has tripled and it is only going to keep growing in volume.  We have approximately 300 Veteran students on this campus.  Our program’s goal is to integrate these students back into our communities and provide the skills necessary for them to succeed. The idea is to help these veteran students feel safe and supported and flourish as students throughout their academic careers here and to ensure an easier transition from service to student and eventually back into the workforce.

 

 

 

May 2014 Advocate – Skyline faculty gather to honor part-timers


PART TIMERS

Skyline faculty gather to honor part-timers and discuss how to improve their work lives


by Janice Sapigao, Skyline Part-Timer Representative

On Thursday, March 20th, 2014, the AFT 1493 Skyline College Chapter hosted “A Party to Celebrate Part-Time Faculty: Pizza, Prizes & Parity.” Over forty part-time and full-time faculty members gathered intermittently to honor adjunct instructors and take part in what were waves of conversation in a Socratic seminar style discussion. Skyline AFT Executive Committee members Katharine Harer, Nina Floro and Eric Brenner facilitated the discussion by asking attendees to introduce themselves. Part-timer representatives Janice Sapigao and Paul Rueckhaus and Executive Secretary Dan Kaplan were also in attendance to answer questions. The discussion began with the question, “What is one particular thing that you would like to change about teaching at Skyline?” 

SkyPTerEvent-2Though attendees represented a spectrum of disciplines, the causes for concern were the same. Part-time and full-time faculty came from a range of departments: English, Accounting, Early Childhood Education, ESOL, Dance, Kinesiology/Physical Education, History, Music, Mathematics and the Library, among others; most were interested in gaining healthcare benefits and matters of job security. Some members talked about the need to expand the stipend for medical reimbursement while others shared personal stories about their multiple stints, hustles and contracts at colleges including their classes at Skyline and the emotional drain of worrying about whether or not they’d be offered enough classes for the next semester. There was also conversation about the need for transparent hiring practices for full-time job openings. 

The event was punctuated with raffle items as the crowd came, built, left and built again.  Raffle prizes were gift certificates from the Skyline College Bookstore as tokens of appreciation for part-time and full-time faculty. 

Potential solutions were also a heavy discussion topic. Participants discussed desiring multi-semester contracts, encouraging classified staff to work with or become adjunct faculty, workshops specifically for adjunct faculty, research campus budgets and working interdepartmentally to build campus community and support. 

AFT 1493 Skyline College Chapter hopes to host more discussions and events like this one in the future.  Please feel free to contact your Executive Committee representatives should you have any more concerns or questions about the change you’d like to see at Skyline.

 

 

 

 

May 2014 Advocate – CFT Convention


 “Solution-Driven & Bad Ass”: 
A report from the 72nd CFT Statewide Convention


By Katharine Harer, Co-Vice President, AFT 1493

Are conservative forces hell-bent to “Wisconsonize” the rest of the country?  Will STRS run out of money for teachers’ pensions?  Are the changes in Repeatability Standards taking the community out of community colleges?  These are just a few of the questions that kept us glued to our seats at the 72nd California Federation of Teachers Convention.  Our Local sent delegates (l. to r. in photo at left) Teeka ConventionDelegatesJames, Katharine Harer, Nina Floro, Monica Malamud, and Executive Secretary, Dan Kaplan, to the statewide gathering from March 21st to 23rd in Manhattan Beach.  We joined over 600 participants — teachers, staff and students — to listen to inspirational speakers, attend workshops and reinvigorate our fighting spirit. 

“Who else–besides us—will fight for public education”  – Randi Weingarten

AFT National President, Randi Weingarten, exhorted the packed auditorium to be “solution-driven and bad ass.” Weingarten zeroed in on the enemies of public education – the forces behind the Vergara case, wealthy interests such as the Koch brothers and David Welsh: “Big money wants to take away our due process, our pensions and our labor power.  They want to drive a wedge between communities and teachers.  They like an uneven playing field.”  Weingarten brought the crowd to their feet when she declared: “They have all the money in the world.  We have all the people in the world!”

“A Kid Without An Education is a Crime” – Kamala Harris

California Attorney General and former San Francisco DA, Kamala Harris, fired up the crowd with her focus on education.  One of the new initiatives coming out of her office targets the issue of elementary school truancy.  According to Harris, some elementary school districts have a truancy rate as high as 40%, and research shows that children who can’t read by the end of third grade drop out by high school.  Truancy among children is often closely related to issues of poverty: kids with asthma, dental or vision problems that are often untreated, kids in foster care or in homes where parents are working round-the-clock.  Harris declared herself, “the top cop of the biggest state in the country”, and she’s on a mission to improve graduation rates and keep kids in school before they end up “in the ER or jail.” 

Harris’ other education-related initiative focuses on reducing recidivism and targets 18-24 year old low-level offenders.  As Harris said,  “They’re considered adults, but we all know that 18-24 year olds make bad decisions.  They need support.” In a project she spearheaded when she served as DA in San Francisco, re-offenses in this age group decreased from 54% to 10%.  Now a pilot project she’s directing in Los Angeles focuses on young unmarried fathers. She’s brought the courts, K-12 schools and community colleges together with the larger community to help get the dads on track: job-trained, employed, giving child support to the moms and staying out of jail.

No Se Puede Charters! 

A lively panel discussion, Reclaiming the Promise of Public Education, brought together teachers, administrators, parents and community members from three school districts where strategic alliances are being built to defend public education.  In Morgan Hill, the teachers’ union, along with the school district, parents and community activists are fighting a charter school corporation that employs enrollment strategies to segregate Latino kids while siphoning funding away from public schools.  Theresa Sage, president of the Morgan Hill teachers’ union, shared their story.  Working together, they were successful in influencing the local school board to deny the charter corporation government bonds; they organized a petition drive and held a highly successful educational summit to inform the community about the threats to public education from charter schools.  Mario Banuelos, a parent and community leader, shared the Morgan Hill rallying cry:  No se puede charters!

The Jefferson Elementary school district, just down the road from Skyline, has been working closely to strengthen ties between schools, parents and community.  Melinda Dart, president of their teachers union, described a program that started with a series of family education workshops held in the evenings, where parents were asked what they wanted from their schools and the union listened.  Building on these relationships, the union packed school board meetings, ran a strong candidate for the board, and put on a wildly successful Saturday conference for families and teachers, with 400 adults and 300 children participating.

Debbie Forward, an organizer for the Palomar Faculty Federation, described a labor alliance she’s helped to build in their community that will create a broad base for local school board elections.  Forward said, “We want to identify, vet and endorse real candidates, not lesser of two evil candidates.”

California: the 8th Largest Economy in The World 

CFT President Josh Pechthalt, in his State of the Union address, surveyed the good news and the bad news. California, the 8th largest economy in the WORLD, is 51st in the nation in library-to-student ratio and 45th in nurse-to-student.  That works out to one nurse to every 2800 kids.  But the good news is that a new bill, AB 1955, “Healthy Kids, Healthy Minds” would provide a nurse for every school and a mental health professional, and it would ensure that libraries are open before and after school.  

More bad news: the ACCJC is out of control and Brice Harris has failed to stand up to the agency; the Vergara case is costing enormous amounts of money and time to fight and seriously threatens due process; and we desperately need to amend Proposition 13 to protect homeowners and small businesses while forcing big business to pay their fair share of taxes.  The good news is that the defense of CCSF has been strong and has garnered positive results; the Fair Property Tax Reform movement is working on legislation that will amend Prop. 13; the oil severance tax campaign is up and running; and the CFT’s Strategic Campaign Initiative/Quality Public Education Campaign organizing grants are “creating and deepening ties” between schools and community partners. A last potentially good news item: the CFT is working on a new model of restorative justice to take the place of suspensions and expulsions as an antidote to the school-to-prison pipeline.  

“We Are Born To Be Here Right Now In This Place” – Reverend William J. Barber II

Every single one of the more than 600 people at the convention were held in rapt attention by guest speaker Reverend William J. Barber II, the President of the North Carolina NAACP and the organizer of the Moral Movement.  Barber began his speech by stating:  “These are serious times.  Fifty years after the War on Poverty, now we step on people who are hurting, attacking programs like Medicare, Pell Grants, Headstart and Social Security. That’s pretty low.”  Barber has reached out to people across all faiths and backgrounds with his Moral Mondays in North Carolina, protesting huge cuts in education spending and the passage of a voter suppression bill.  What began with a few hundred people gathering on Mondays and marching to protect healthcare and voting rights, education, anti-poverty programs and the rights of the LGBT community, has swelled to hundreds of thousands on certain Moral Mondays.  

This is Barber:  “Any time a mean and extreme element tries to fool Americans into denying education, healthcare and voting rights and then advocates tax cuts for the wealthy and more guns in people’s hands, we got to fight back!  We are born to be here right now in this place. We don’t have time to be morbid and depressed.”

And: “Abortion and homosexuality are not the moral debate.  How you treat the poor and the sick – that’s the moral question.  We’ve got to unpack the moral debate.  Bring it on!”

We rose out of our seats over and over to applaud Reverend Barber’s ideas, his commitment and his eloquence as he spoke to us in the rousing tradition of Martin Luther King and the great leaders of the civil rights movement.  His definition of morality cuts through pretense and political posturing and goes straight to the heart of social justice:  “We are called to deeply moral and deeply constitutional values.  Fight back!  Push forward!”  Reverend William J. Barber II rocked the soul of the 72nd CFT Convention. 

AFT 1493 Communication Awards

Last, but not least, our local once again won a number of awards for our publications. In the category of Best Six-or-more Page Newsletter, The Advocate, by Eric Brenner, Editor, won Second Place. In the category of Best News Writing, Katharine Harer won Third Place for her article “Community Building vs. Privatization Highlighted at 71st CFT Convention”. In the category of Best Use of Graphics, Donna Bowman won Third Place for her “Collage Art Panels of AFT Local 1493: 1963-2013”. In the category of Best Single Effort, Donna Bowman and Dan Kaplan won Third Place for their “Collage Art Panels of AFT 1493 History: 1963-2013”.

 

 

 

May 2014 Advocate – Letter to the Advocate


LETTER TO THE ADVOCATE

Full-time Position Open: In-house Adjuncts Need Not Apply

The author of the following letter wished to remain anonymous. -Ed.

I’d like to share with you the unfair hiring practices that we have witnessed over the past several years.  Within the last year alone, we have seen a number of longtime Skyline College part-time faculty apply for full-time positions and not even get an interview.  Examples are in the Science, Math & Technology division and the Language Arts division.  Time and time again we see faculty members who are well qualified by the most objective of standards get shunted aside for outsiders.  There are long-time faculty members who have good track records, abundant experience, positive peer evaluations, and have been involved in numerous campus activities and committees, yet they have gotten overlooked for the next full-time position that opens up.

This is not right.   From a social equity point of view, there is no defense for reaping the benefits from part-time employees who have contributed their time and efforts to Skyline College, and then not even giving them the consideration of an interview for a full-time position.  

It does not make sense to overlook long-time employees with years of experience and good track records in favor of people from the outside just based on a (possibly embellished) cover letter and resume, and a one hour interview.

Indeed, one would have a very difficult time finding support for this policy among the general public – that is, the people who vote to fund our college and who we claim to serve.  Nor is such a policy very popular with the majority of both full-time and part-time faculty.  I think it is appalling to use policies that are in contempt of common standards of fairness to run a publicly funded institution that is there to serve the public.  If Skyline College becomes known for being unfair to its faculty, it is not such a stretch to believe they could also be unfair to their students.

Good enough to work as adjunct, but not good enough to be interviewed for a full-time job?

There is no question that such policies have a disastrous effect on employee morale – both among full-timers and part-timers.  Think of how much more difficult faculty collaboration would now be with a bunch of unhappy faculty after the ties of professional trust have been broken.  In addition, what message does it convey to the adjunct faculty?  That they are good enough for Skyline on a part-time basis but not even close to being good enough for an interview for a full-time position?

This is not a full-timer versus part-timer issue.  Indeed, many full-timers, administrative staff, and even administrators, have expressed their support for our position and agree that it is unfair and inequitable not to seriously consider our own before hiring an unknown faculty member.  Few can deny the inequity of having adjuncts who have invested their time and efforts in providing a quality education at Skyline College with no recognition or return on their investment.  

This is not a problem for every department at Skyline College.  In fact, many departments do make a practice of interviewing their own and even growing their own.  

The policy of ignoring insiders in favor of outsiders does not even enjoy unanimous support in the departments who are guilty of such a policy.  I am aware of full-timers in the Math and English departments who do not support what is going on when their hiring committees decide to not offer an interview to their current part-timers.

Shouldn’t hiring committees get to choose?

One might argue that faculty hiring committees should be free to interview who they want to interview.  Well, such an argument can be used to justify discrimination or office politics – which is most likely what this is.  Do we really want to be an institution that puts a higher value on social conformity over fairness and common sense?  

Another argument could be that a college doesn’t have the time, money, or resources to interview their own.  Nonsense.  In fact, giving first consideration to our own would be cheaper and less disruptive than first going to unknown applicants from the outside based on just paperwork.  In addition, faculty who have already been working at Skyline College know their way around so there is less time and resources spent getting them up to speed.

So what can be done about this problem?

I suggest to our union to start working on getting something into the contract similar to what is in the contracts of CCSF, College of Marin, and Peralta, which is to guarantee interviews for all qualified adjunct faculty who have been working at SMCCD for a certain number of years and/or first consideration for any full-time openings.  A proposed item like this would cost the district nothing and could save the district time and money by shortening and streamlining the process.  Qualified, proven long-term part-timers deserve an interview in return for their investment.  It is the right thing to do.

Let’s put a limit on the number of desired qualities in a job listing.  For example, it is not unheard of for a department to expect an applicant to address fifteen or more desired qualities in a listing for a full-time position.  This is way out of line with other government organizations and the private sector.  Research has shown that most government organizations and private entities put a limit on around five or six.  Many of these fifteen or more desired qualities are not even measurable or verifiable, and thus provide opportunities for all sorts of subjective scoring and discrimination.  They can be used to exclude strong qualified applicants and do not encourage inclusiveness.  Does anyone really believe that a candidate with only fourteen of the desired qualities should be overlooked in favor of a candidate with all fifteen qualities?

The Skyline CTTL is now putting on workshops for adjunct faculty on the full-time application process and the interview process.  These are helpful, but they don’t address the heart of the problem which is unfair and inequitable hiring practices.  To properly address the unfair and inequitable hiring practices we have seen here, something needs to be put in the contract.

If you feel that you have been unfairly excluded from consideration for a full-time position, and/or concerned about this situation, contact the union and let your views be known.

 

 

 

 

May 2014 Advocate – AFT 1493 launches Facebook page


AFT 1493 COMMUNICATIONS 

AFT 1493 launches Facebook page

by Michelle Kern, CSM Part-Timer Rep.

Continuing its tradition of excellence in communications, AFT 1493 is rolling out a new venture in social media, a Facebook page, located at facebook.com/AFT1493 

The Facebook page will a be place for the union’s membership and for members of the public to check out articles from The Advocate, posts about union and college activities, and also articles of broader issues in higher education.

Anyone who has a Facebook account can join by “liking” the page at the address, which will subscribe a member, which will cause the pages’ posts to appear in one’s private newsfeed.  Members can share articles and posts from the page, so other friends can view the material as well.  Becoming a member of the page also allows subscribers to comment on posts in conversations with other members on threads on the page.  

The AFL-CIO, AFT, and CFT have been employing Facebook pages for a few years now, and view social media as a key piece of strategy in informing members of important political issues.  Facebook campaigns built around the Proposition 30 and 32 ballot measures of 2012 in California, for example, were instrumental in reaching voters.

Social media can also be a critical tool in helping to foster and build on local alliances and community ties. Neighboring AFT locals, such as CCSF’s AFT 2121, use and maintain a Facebook presence to connect the public to ongoing issues of import and concern to the public, such as the accreditation struggle with ACCJC.  

Facebook pages are often the first place a member of the public will encounter information from the union about current events or issues of interest, and as a result they can be a key tool in organizing and building community.  For union members, the page can be an excellent way to provide feedback on articles and campaigns by AFT 1493 and to explore the work done by the union.

Have more ideas for how this Facebook page can expand the union’s communications?  Like the page and let us know what else you’d like to see.