CFT Convention 2015: Issues of Relevance to Higher Education

katiewoolseyby Katie Woolsey

The California Federation of Teachers held its annual convention from March 20-22, 2015, in Southern California, with the theme “Organize. Fight Back. Win the Future.” This year CCFT sent a delegation of seven to the convention: CCFT President Conrad Scott-Curtis, CCFT Co-Vice President John Govsky, Membership/Education Chair Beth McKinnon, COPE Co-Chair and BELA rep Steve Schessler, BELA rep Katie Woolsey, VAPA rep Susan Stuart, and VAPA rep Sharon Took-Zozaya, as well as our union director, Maya Bendotoff.

Some members of our delegation led a workshop, titled “Keep the Community in Community Colleges,” addressing our ongoing work around the draconian restrictions on course repeatability passed by the Board of Governors in 2012. This workshop, presented by Maya, Beth, Steve, and Susan and moderated by John Govsky, was a continuation of the conversation begun at our 2014 convention workshop of the same name. The workshop was intended to provide an update on our work to change the repeatability regulations; to gather information about the impacts those regulations have had on student access and success in other districts; to hear about the work being done in other districts, and statewide, to fight those impacts; and to strategize for the future.

During the workshop, delegates from a number of other districts described their departments’ frantic attempts to rewrite curriculum as fast as they can to work around the restrictions. Some of the delegates who spoke on this issue described a kind of pinch that their campuses and departments are experiencing between, on the one hand, pressure to redesign rapidly, and on the other, the need for time to familiarize students with retooled curricula and offerings. Unsurprisingly, many delegates noted that they are seeing negative impacts on enrollment as a result, and more than one person in the room pointed out that even a redesigned curriculum at the department level can’t necessarily meet students’ real needs under the new guidelines. These comments were very much in line with the stories that we have been gathering in our own district and via ongoing outreach across the state.

A number of delegates offered perspectives beyond the instructional and curricular, too. A few small examples: A delegate from West Valley raised the point that “older adult,” “lifelong learner,” and “community member” students have been paying taxes into the public education system and voting through bond measures for years; these students, the delegate pointed out, have every right to be angry about being excluded from taking classes at the schools they’ve been funding for the duration of their working lives. Delegates from several districts made the point that, while we inside higher ed understand the importance of student access and quality of education, the general (voting) public may not share our sense of urgency about those concerns; a delegate from El Camino made the strong
“bottom line” argument that employers may see a decline in availability and quality of employees as a result of restricted educational access.

We heard promising although general statements about higher ed from some of the convention’s invited speakers. Most notably, Jose Medina, chair of the Assembly Committee on Higher Education, affirmed his personal commitments to community colleges, to measures protecting part-time faculty (including his proposed bill AB 1010), programs such as Mesa and Puente, and revisiting the issue of the now-abandoned 1960 California Master Plan for Higher Education. His remarks were welcomed as a promising statement of general principles, but many delegates had follow-up comments and questions for him about specifics, and Medina is taking home with him a long list of concerns about accreditation (particularly alternatives to the ACCJC), SLOs, and repeatability regulations, the latter of which our Beth McKinnon and Susan Stuart did much to inform him about. None of the issues raised are new, but they’re not going away until they’re dealt with, and we strongly hope that Medina will prove to be an ally of the community colleges in his position as Higher Ed Committee chair.

Other ongoing issues of relevance to us in higher ed: There was a workshop on the ins and outs of AB86, and CFT adopted resolutions insisting on shared governance, particularly faculty involvement, in the decision-making processes about how adult education is going to play out in the community colleges; on additional funding for instruction and support rather than administration; and on making sure that adult education funds are spent on educating adults and not diverted to secondary instruction. Accreditation continues to be an urgent issue, and in addition to the ongoing fight that San Francisco City College is having, the CFT has resolved to push to reopen the ACCJC’s 2006 disaccreditation and closure of Compton Community College, given what is now being exposed about the ACCJC’s gross and punitive overreach in such matters. The conversation about equity for part-timers was expanded to include calls for Social Security and STRS benefits, as well as equal pay and paid office hours for noncredit faculty.

Social justice issues were a matter of some urgent debate, and the CFT has now adopted an official stance of support of the “Black Lives Matter” movement, as well as an official stance of condemnation against the arrests and disappearances of students, teachers, and union leaders in Mexico.

A lot of work and discussion happened in a couple of days, all of which points to far more work to be done. The takeaways: Ongoing concerns about forces, both political and economic, that are limiting educational equity, access, and affordability for our students; concerns about the practical effects of AB86 and the future of adult education and noncredit classes in our colleges; concerns about the future of the accreditation process; and concerns about equitable pay, treatment, and security of our faculty. We hope to continue these conversations back here at Cabrillo, as well as with colleagues throughout the state.