San Diego Adjunct Faculty Association Stage Silent Protest at City College Social Justice Conference

Press realease:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 20, 2019

SAN DIEGO ADJUNCT FACULTY ASSN. TO STAGE SILENT PROTEST AT CITY COLLEGE SOCIAL JUSTICE CONFERENCE
Adjunct professors are paid only a fraction of what Full-time tenured professors make for doing the same work in the classroom

San Diego, CA: City College is holding it’s fifth annual Social Justice Conference this week focusing on student housing instability and health, the caravan and coloniality of the U.S./Mexico border, and labor and the movement for social justice, among other topics. This conference has repeatedly ignored the precarity and wage disparity suffered by the District’s own adjunct or part-time, contingent faculty, which comprise over 75% of the faculty and teach over 50% of the classes offered across the district.

The San Diego Adjunct Faculty Assn (SDAFA) will be holding a silent protest during the Social Justice Festival on Wednesday, March 20, from 12:45-2:30 pm in the AH/BT Quad located on the main campus between B & C Streets and 15th and 16th Streets and on Thursday, March 21, from 9:15-9:45 am in front of the Corporate Ed Center in the MS Building at the corner of 16th and C St. as attendees are arriving for a session titled Labor and the Movement for Social Justice led by Dr. Kelly Mayhew, City College Contract VP of the AFT Guild 1931, the union that represents both FTF and PTF in the San Diego and Grossmont/Cuyamaca Community College Districts.

● Part-time faculty (PTF) are limited by state law to teaching up to 67% of a full-time tenured/tenure track (FTF) faculty member’s contractual teaching load.

● This works out to be a maximum of three 3-unit classes (typical lecture class) or two 5-unit classes (language, math, classes requiring lab time).

● PTF are only paid for the actual classroom teaching hours, but not for prep and grading; limited office hours are paid (if applied for,) at a much lower hourly rate, but PTF must find their own space to hold office hours as the shared PTF office spaces generally do not allow student access.

● PTF are paid on a second tier hourly schedule and make much less than FTF for teaching the same classes

● PTF must have the same qualifications (generally at least an MA/MS) as FTF

● While PTF are temporary workers laid off at the end of each semester with no guarantee of re-employment and can collect Unemployment Insurance during recess periods, many PTF have been working in the district for decades and in many cases longer than FTF who have a guaranteed contract and tenure.

● San Diego Community College District salary data compiled from TransparentCalifonia.com (2017 data, the latest available)

Job Title Average Pay & Benefits

Administration $121,801.78

Tenured Faculty $112,046.34

Adjunct Faculty $21,220.17

FT Counselors $116,238.23

Adjunct Counselors $24,791.88

FT Librarians $142,463.38

Adjunct Librarians $12,624.71

The San Diego Adjunct Faculty Association (SDAFA) is a non-profit organization by, for, and of community college adjunct faculty who work within San Diego County. We are dedicated to promoting the professional treatment, economic welfare, and equitable rights of adjunct faculty and their students, as well as maintaining an adjunct community of resources. SDAFA is not affiliated with any particular union, nor does it represent adjuncts in a union capacity, but rather supports union ideals and strives to increase our voice within our unions.