Chaparral 2024-2025: Growing as One Faculty with Incoming 2nd VP Carla Ruiz

Chaparral congratulates Cultural Diversity Coordinator and Academic Counselor Carla Ruiz on becoming 2nd Vice President (VP). We asked Carla what she would like to cultivate in her position as 2nd VP: 

As Guild 2nd Vice President, I hope to continue the powerful legacy of advocacy built by leaders like Juli Wolfgram, while also cultivating a stronger, more united future for all faculty. As an adjunct counselor, I’ve seen how both instructional and non-instructional adjuncts are essential to student success, yet often remain excluded or overlooked. My vision aligns with the CFT’s “One Faculty” campaign in cultivating a future where we move beyond part-time/full-time labels and work together as one united faculty body. I want to help grow a culture in our union where all faculty regardless of classification are respected, protected, and given a real voice. For me, this means, clear reemployment rights for adjuncts to ensure stability and dignity in our work, equity in pay and benefits, including access to remote options, voting rights in division decisions so leadership comes with real power and representation and a shift in union language that reflects our collective identity, not part-time vs. full-time, but one faculty working together. In this position, I hope to keep planting seeds of unity, equity, and structural change so that every faculty member who shows up for students is fully seen, supported, and heard. As 2nd Vice President, I’m committed to carrying this vision forward and adapting to the new challenges and needs our adjunct faculty may face in the future.