Alex Hamond
Continuing Education
If you, like me, are an adjunct who is also serving as a permanent manager or classified employee at GCC, then you must have received a letter from Dr. Viar to let you know that you cannot teach anymore or “perform adjunct faculty duties” at GCC after spring 2022, by reason that, “It is not fair to deny” adjunct faculty “potential adjunct opportunities in favor of full-time GCC managers or staff who already receive a regular, consistent salary and benefit coverage.” If you are also a classified staff who has current or future plans to teach at GCC in a similar fashion as the targets of that letter, your plans may have to be put on hold for now. With that same reasoning in that letter, Dr. Viar also blames some adjunct faculty departures from GCC on insufficient teaching assignments as a result of such assignments going to permanent managers and classified adjuncts. As I was trying to absorb and digest the narrative of that letter, I wanted to also look into the scope of the problem, for analysis and objectivity.
While there is truth that many of our adjunct colleagues may be seeking more teaching assignments to improve their livelihood, guilting classified adjuncts into making them the problem in the way of achieving such goal is simply a misconception, an excuse for the administration’s lack of support to our adjunct colleagues, like offering them full-time teaching positions, better health insurance options, or by adding more courses to our curriculums with a wider scope of disciplines, to name a few. Such opportunities can open space also for potential faculty tenure, which is a major reason why adjunct faculty go elsewhere, for the lack of certainty and job security. They can also help attract adjunct skills and potential students to our college, thereby increase student enrollment. There are currently 38 open employment positions on our HR/Employment website as of this writing, 30 of which are PT Faculty jobs, in a variety of disciplines, with no FT Faculty jobs offered. This, roughly, represents about 79% of the open job opportunities at GCC. It is worth noting here that classified adjuncts are limited to only 40% teaching load of that of a full-time faculty, many of which do not even reach that quota because they typically teach one course in addition to their classified job. It is also important to note that adjunct faculty are limited to 67% teaching load of that of the full-time faculty load, which, depending on individual situations, is not enough to maintain a comfortable living, let alone a secure retirement. The following 1980 report, The Status of Part-Time Faculty, prepared for publication by a subcommittee of the Association’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure, and posted on the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) website, highlights the importance of adjunct faculty in educational institutions and the need to find ways to reward them for carrying a good burden of the academic responsibility while undermined in compensation and benefits. While many and similar suggestions in that report may have already made their way into guild agreements with different districts nationwide, some recently addressed topics are still missing and need to be addressed, certainly after Governor Gavin Newsom lately vetoed the suggested increase in adjunct teaching load to 80% of a full-time load. Nevertheless, none of the proposals in the referenced publication pointed at classified adjuncts as taking teaching assignments away from adjuncts. In fact, they explain how some adjuncts seek work opportunities in different endeavors to support their part-time work as educators, or by choice as a lifestyle. Maybe our administration needs to look closer into such suggestions to learn more about why some of our adjunct faculty really leave GCC, instead of blaming their departure on a classified adjunct workforce that supports and expands on our institution’s diverse workforce, skills, and student outreach and retention.
Furthermore, and for the sake of analysis and argument, let’s reverse the order a little. Let’s assume an adjunct faculty at GCC was lucky enough to land a classified job (or managerial) with the college for the lack of teaching assignments, thereby making salary equivalent to a full-time faculty or staff. Does the college then force that adjunct to choose either, or, under the same logic that she/he cannot have both jobs? By advocating such narrative as intended by Dr. Viar’s letter, the college is also sending the message to present and future potential staff that you will have limited opportunities to grow in your career at GCC, thereby leaving one option for work continuation with GCC as either a classified/manager, or a faculty, but not both. In such case, why bother contribute to, and participate in, committees and governance to learn about the different areas and bodies that govern our institution, when the college is not willing to open venues for individual and career growth?
It is time for the administration to address the real issues behind our adjunct colleagues leaving GCC, as explained, for a better opportunity elsewhere, instead of pointing fingers and blaming the meek classified adjuncts for going above and beyond the call of duty to serve our faculty, staff, and students, in multiple capacities such as a classified staff and an adjunct. In addition, the decision to deny hard-working classified an opportunity to expand on their career horizons and aspirations after investing a good portion of their life and savings into pursuing higher degrees and skills, to serve our students and community in a teaching capacity, is simply a slap in the face of community service members; it puts limitations on individual hard work, individual ambitions, and individual and institutional potential and development. It will also become a roadblock in the advancement and support of Guided Pathways due to the disconnection and distrust that this will create between staff.
If we allow such narrative as stated in the referenced letter to blind us from reality and from seeking truth and facts and addressing institutional issues objectively, mind as well hang our academic gowns and caps and blindly stand behind misconceptions in our educational endeavors while we watch the administration attack the very heart of unity among staff and at the same time diminish the value of our vision and mission as an educational institution in the community, for opportunity, progress, and excellence. This is a shame...
