During National Part-Timer Equity Week, AFT 1493 focused on raising awareness of the issues that part-time (as well as many full-time) faculty face in trying to teach and live in the Bay Area. We set up a table at Cañada College with a large map of the greater Bay Area and made a list of where part-time faculty members live and how many live in the various cities across the Bay Area. We invited students and faculty members to stick colored map pins into the cities where part-time faculty live, visually highlighting the long commutes many of us experience in order to teach in SMCCD. You can see photos here.

We also gave students a flyer/fact sheet (see below) with information on housing costs, driving distances, healthcare, compensation, and office space for part-time faculty in our district. Students were especially surprised to find out just how far their instructors have to travel in order to teach here. They quickly made the connection between faculty’s working conditions and their own learning conditions. You can read more about this event in our Advocate article.

In organizing for part-time faculty, students and full-time faculty are vital allies. You can help us continue the positive effects of PT Equity Week by posting the attached flyer/fact sheet on your office doors, in division workrooms and other prominent places in your department. The fact sheet also appears on the last page of our recent Advocate. If you’d like a color copy of the flyer, just let me know.

We also hope you will consider taking time, when appropriate, to discuss this with your students. When we help students to understand the challenges we face in order to give them an education, we are also helping them make connections to their own struggles to get an education.

Many thanks,

Jessica Silver-Sharp

Skyline College Part-timer Rep, AFT 1493

silver-sharp@aft1493.org