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CFT Part-time Committee Calls on Jill Biden for Support |
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Friday, 20 November 2009 |
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The California Federation of Teachers Part-time Committee recently sent a letter to Jill Biden, wife of vice-president Joe Biden, calling on her to urge better treatment of part-time faculty at institutions of higher education.
"We are thrilled to have an advocate for community colleges who has the teaching experience and influence within the White House that Dr. Jill Biden possesses," said Phyllis Eckler, chair of CFT's Part-time Committee. "However, we believe, as we state in the letter, that Dr. Biden's stature as a public figure and status as a part-time instructor could attract much needed attention and help prod change if she were to advocate on our behalf."
The letter calls for Biden to support four basic policy positions:
- That every college or university have at least three-fourths of their faculty members be full-time, tenure-track employees.
- Part-time faculty get the same pay per class as their full-time peers if they have achieved the same qualifications and length of service.
- Part-time, nontenure-track faculty be granted proportionate benefits compared to their full-time, tenure-track peers.
- At universities, a tenure track should exist for teaching faculty, not just research faculty.
Eckler, who is an assistant adjunct professor of dance at Glendale College as well as a women's physical education instructor at LA City College explained the committee's thinking.
While we know there are excellent adjunct faculty currently teaching in our colleges and universities, higher standards and the matriculation of well-trained students into the workplace and post-graduate institutions requires more investment in these teachers who have become the new faculty majority. Without equal pay for the same work that tenured faculty do, part-time faculty will be forced to run from campus to job to campus while missing important opportunities to contribute to curriculum improvements, learn new teaching methodologies, and provide adequate help to their students.
CFT has not yet received a response to the letter.
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