26 January, 2026

Dear Trustees and Chancellor Moreno,

The Bay Faculty Association (BFA) is a regional consortium of California Community College faculty unions in the greater San Francisco Bay area.  Membership is open to unions of any affiliation–AFT, CFT, CTA, independent, et al–and currently includes members from as far afield as Santa Rosa and Modesto.  While there are many distinctions between our colleges, one of the things we all share is an interest in working collaboratively with our Colleges/Districts to resolve our conflicts and establish sustainable working conditions.

We are therefore incredulous that the San Mateo Community College District has declared impasse and is refusing to negotiate with their Faculty Union (AFT 1493), who are long standing BFA members.  Arguably the biggest difference that needs to be settled is the District’s refusal to negotiate an “Academic Freedom” contract article.  In this political moment, when the federal government is leaning on institutions of higher education nationwide to capitulate to ideological demands that stifle free speech, it should be no surprise how important academic freedom is to our faculty.  It would be one thing if our system leaders in the UC, CSU and CCC’s stood up in unison to such threats, but regardless, their willingness to capitulate reinforces the imperative that faculty unions have to stand up for themselves.  We have seen this most recently in the preliminary injunction granted to plaintiffs in AAUP et al -vs- Trump et al, a complaint on behalf of which a number of California Community College unions filed an amicus brief (see attached).  I don’t think the San Mateo district really wants to see itself on the wrong side of this equation when the smoke clears.

Your District’s non-compliance with the CCC’s 50% law is likely one of the main contributors to your inertia at the bargaining table.  You have been out of compliance for so long (and currently spend only around 40% of total revenue on instructional salaries) that perhaps your complacency towards it informs your bargaining around other aspects of instruction.  Currently San Mateo CCD and College of Marin are the only Districts in the Bay Area that are out of compliance, and San Mateo is by far the largest outlier at 42%.  While it may seem satisfying to simply thumb one’s nose at the Chancellor’s office since you no longer receive funding (as well as penalties) through apportionment, there is an ethical dimension here that other Basic Aid Districts (including my own) seem well aware of.  It is that public dollars need to be spent on the primary reason students come to our colleges in the first place–taking classes and learning.  Although I am uncertain of the precise numbers in your District, systemwide there has been a decline of funding spent on instructional salaries (50% being the floor, not the ceiling) even while there is a huge increase in the number of administrative positions hired and the rate at which they are compensated.

Which brings me to a final point: salaries.  Regardless of the total institutional funding applied to faculty salaries, the wages paid to individual faculty need to provide them with a liveable wage, a point that should be no surprise to anyone living in the greater Bay Area.  Yet considering the rate of inflation over the past several years, the 2.75% increase you proposed at the table is a pittance of what faculty need just to break even!  This is in stark contrast with the continuous increases in your tax revenue over the past 15 years, which averaged 6.43% in the last 5 years alone.  Accordingly, the Bay Faculty Association expresses our unstinting support of the San Mateo Community College Faculty Union’s efforts.  Should this matter lead to a strike, you will be facing not just one union, but a collective of unions, which may include direct participation in your union’s work actions as well as our own forays in the public relations sphere.  We implore you to return to the negotiations table now, before this situation devolves into a more costly, time consuming matter likely to embarrass your District in the court of public opinion and lead to regrettable outcomes not easily undone.

Sincerely,

Tim Shively
Bay Faculty Association President
Foothill-De Anza Faculty Association President