Hopefully everyone has had a great Spring Break!
Many things have happened since I last wrote this column.
We will have celebrated the 48th Annual Earth Day on April 22, 2018, the 49th Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage, Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day and Holocaust Remembrance Day.
On the campus, we have had Guild Elections, Academic Senate Elections, two Guild meetings on the Garfield Campus, a forum where the staff has had a chance to listen to and question the four finalists to replace Dr. Rick Perez as Vice President of Student Services, as well as a Special Meeting of the Release Time/Extra Pay Committee to elect a new chairperson, and start the reinvigoration of the entire governance process.
As you read this, you are probably thinking that the previous two paragraphs are unrelated. However, this month’s theme of Chaparral is Social Justice and all of those things are parts of Social Justice.
Among the issues I hear from the staff are, “Why don’t we have the same number of Police and Cadets on the Garfield Campus on a per capita basis as they do on the Verdugo Campus?” “Why are there always burned out lights in the parking structure?” “Why are the steps going to the parking structure always dirty?” On the parking lot issue and stair issue, I have a very simple solution: have all of the Administrators and Senior Managers, as well as the members of the Board of Trustees, park in lot “C,” and see how long it takes for everything to be fixed and kept clean.
I also hear, “The F.O.N (Faculty Obligation Number, which is mandated by the State of California and is the number of Full Time Tenured and Tenure Track Instructors based upon the number of Full Time Equivalent Students enrolled): Fulltime Tenured and Tenure should be the minimum, not the maximum number of full time tenured and tenure track employees!” “We should be hiring permanent employees for more than 19 hours per week and the jobs should have benefits!” “We should be getting more money; we should be getting raises that are greater than the increase in the percentage cost of rent increases in Glendale!” “We should be earning enough to live in Glendale!” “The College should be helping to solve the housing crisis in Glendale, not adding to it!” The housing issue deals with the numbers of housing units being destroyed to provide greatly needed additional parking at the Garfield Campus. This could be addressed by the college building replacement units for all of the units being destroyed and building additional units that can could be rented to faculty and staff members at below market rates!
I have talked about stuff for the staff. Now for the students! We hopefully will have finalized the “U-Pass” Program from the M.T.A. for our students. The food pantry needs more space and more staff so that it may service more students. The Library needs to be open many more hours; many students who attend classes at non-prime times are unable to use the library as it is closed when they are on campus. Perhaps, the library should be open 30 minutes before classes start on the campus and close 30 minutes after classes end, as well as being open on Sundays.
How do we achieve Social Justice at Glendale Community College? Be involved, and if you are already involved, be more involved! Attend Guild meetings! Attend your division meetings! Attend your department meetings! Vote in campus elections! Attend the Board of Trustees meetings! Become a part of a governance committee! Make your voice count!
Thank you for reading this, and have a great remainder of the semester!
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