Flocking Together in Protest

VENTURA —  Homer Arrington said he sometimes feels like a migratory bird.

To scrape together a living as a college English instructor, he’s north one day and south the next, holding down part-time teaching jobs at Ventura and Santa Barbara colleges.

So at Ventura College on Monday, Arrington donned an avian-like costume, complete with feathers and a beak, to draw attention to the plight of all nontenured faculty.

Arrington’s demonstration was part of a weeklong rally by part-time instructors statewide who are demanding that Gov. Gray Davis include pay increases in his annual budget for community colleges.

Across the state’s 106 community college campuses, part-time faculty members are collecting signatures from students, staff and full-time instructors that they plan to deliver to the governor early next month. Ventura County instructors are hoping to gather more than 2,000 signatures at the three local colleges by the end of the week.

California Community Colleges Chancellor Thomas Nussbaum has requested a $48-million increase for part-time faculty pay and benefits. That represents a 24-fold increase over last year’s increase of $2 million, said Kyle Orr, a spokesman for the state chancellor’s office.

“With an improved fiscal environment, we’re trying to add improvements to human resources,” Orr said. “It’s one of the many priorities we’re advocating.”

Statewide and in the Ventura County Community College District, part-time faculty earn about half the $60,000 average annual salary of full-time instructors, faculty union members say.

Part-time instructors earn $40 an hour without benefits, and are paid only for the time they teach. They receive no additional pay for class preparation or office hours, union leaders say. Full-time faculty members, on salary, earn around $60 an hour, plus benefits.

“It’s the community college system’s dirty little secret,” Arrington said. “The colleges save money with us, and we allow them to do it because we love to teach.”

Nussbaum’s budget request would cover salary increases for part-time faculty, and include pay for office hours and health benefits, Orr said. To earn enough to support himself, Arrington, a Santa Barbara resident, teaches one class at Santa Barbara College two days a week, and two courses two days a week at Ventura College.

Without pay for instruction outside of class, most part-time faculty do not hold office hours for students, so faculty members say students also come up short.

“As a parent and a student, you’re going to want full-time faculty dedicated to one campus who can work on curriculum, develop course outlines and be available for students in office hours,” said Lydia Cosentino, Ventura College’s Academic Senate president. “Where do students go when they have a question?”

After hearing that faculty members were collecting signatures for higher pay, Ventura College freshman Jon Worden made a special trip Monday to add his name to the growing list.

“I don’t think it’s right,” said Worden, 18. “I don’t think it has to be equal pay. But if it’s only half, that’s not fair.”