Gavilan Faculty Unity Group
This site is funded with a grant from the Community College Association

“I need a union because…

Ali Arid
A union will use its bargaining power to get better contracts for part-time faculty and fair treatment.”
Ali Arid, Math

Jane Rekedal
Part time faculty offer the same level of expertise and teaching excellence as full-time faculty, and yet we do it at 56 percent of the pay and without benefits. A union will serve us and the students by improving this situation.”
Jane Rekedal, Art

Art College
It's the only fair and equitable way that part-timers can be recognized for the contributions that we make to the college. Certainly there should a reasonable and equitable structure, and representation for part-timers, that doesn't exist now. It's the trend across the state from what I can see.”
Art College, Accounting

Matt Johnston
It's critical that part-timers have a say in their pay and working conditions and that can only happen when we join the existing union and make ourselves heard.”
Matt Johnston, Philosophy

Campus Equity Week Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: LARRY MOELLER, 408 848-4787

Campus Equity Week Celebrated at Gavilan College

GILROY, October 24, 2005. — Adjunct, or part-time, faculty at Gavilan College, will be honored for their contributions during College Equity Week, October 31-November 4, by various college departments through a special grant from the National Education Association and the Gavilan College Faculty Association.

Gavilan College has nearly 200 adjunct faculty, and fewer than 75 full-time faculty. In any given semester, adjunct faculty teach more than half the classes at the college. This semester, a survey of the college's schedule reveals that they are teaching an estimated 54 percent of Gavilan classes.

Adjunct professors work for a fraction of the salary of their full-time colleagues, without benefits, without job security and often without basic tools of the trade, such as office space or paid office hours during which they may meet with students. Adjunct professors have the same qualifications — a masters degree or higher — required of full-time Gavilan faculty.

Campus Equity Week is a coalition among faculty organizers and organizations throughout higher education. The groups are united by a common focus on the increasing and exploitative contingent employment practices in our colleges and universities, and the problems deriving there from.

Among the activities at Gavilan to honor and recognize adjunct faculty, and to discuss their priorities and needs, will be a dinner among Administration of Justice Faculty, a dinner meeting in the Social Science Department, a social for Athletic Department faculty, and a tea for librarians and online adjunct faculty. All events have been co-sponsored by the Gavilan College Faculty Association, which is matching the NEA/CTA's $250 grant.

"I can't imagine where this campus would be without adjunct faculty," said GCFA President Larry Moeller. "We need them, we hear their concerns about the economic sacrifices they make in order to work here, and we'd like to work on improving their situation."

Aside from bread and butter issues, Moeller said, there are a number of practical and dignity issues which adjunct faculty have raised in a GCFA survey done last year.

"Adjunct faculty here do not even receive college e-mail in a systematic way. That would cost very little to fix, and we're hoping the college will see the urgent need to address the problem."

During Campus Equity Week, there will be coordinated activities on campuses throughout the US, Canada & Mexico. Campus Equity Week has been held regularly since 2001.

A broad coalition of faculty activists, locals, major federations and professional associations, including the American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association, American Association of University Professors and National Writers Union have come together to sponsor CEW.

For information on state, national, and international activities, see the Campus Equity Week site.