President's Report: Investing for Innovation and Success

This semester began with a broad visioning process to gather information and perspectives to inform strategic planning for the future of the college. It is an exciting time with opportunities for us collectively to shape the many learning activities that lead to student success. Categories being explored are:

• Professional Development and Transformational Learning
• Sustainable Programs and Services
• Community Partnerships and Economic Vitality
• Institutional Stewardship
• Institutional Responsibilities

Themes emerging from the discussions are flexibility, responsiveness, partnerships and collaboration. Embedded in the assumptions is the notion that we are willing and ready to embrace innovation and change in order to achieve new goals and better outcomes. And that we are prepared to implement professional development to strengthen skills and do things differently if that’s what it takes.

All of this implies a level of engagement that is critical for taking seriously these ambitious possibilities. Most of us are already working harder than ever, making up for recent staffing shortages, dealing with high concentrations of underprepared students, crowded classes and various increased mandates that have added to the already demanding work of maintaining currency and excellence in our fields of study.

In order for faculty to embrace the agenda of innovation and success, it is not enough to expect that the intrinsic joys of teaching, no matter how satisfying, are sufficient reward for our profession. It is also imperative that the state and the district provide real, material incentives to faculty by adequately investing in the human resources that we all are.

During the recent years of recession, faculty valiantly tightened our belts and adapted to severe state budget cuts, bore the loss of assignments, and accepted the need to contribute to our ever-increasing health benefits. Last year, after working hard to get Proposition 30 to pass, we breathed a sigh of relief and succeeded in negotiating an equitable 4% increase in compensation that was partially paid with ongoing funds and partially paid with one-time money.

This agreement included a promise to make the onetime raises ongoing if the college would serve enough students to earn restoration/growth funding. Alas, with enrollment down this year, it is projected that we will not meet that goal. A high priority for CCFT is to prompt the Chancellor’s Office to revisit recent repeatability regulations, so we can continue to serve the community and serve more students. Please see the calendar of events elsewhere in this newsletter.

by Debora Bone

The Governor’s proposed budget for 2014-15 includes only a .86% COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment), which is significantly less than the 2.6% inflation index for the Bay Area. Other revenue increases are earmarked for specific purposes, leaving very little new ongoing money.

There is no doubt that the projected state funding for Cabrillo next year is barely adequate to cover the many deferred and competing needs that face the college. The legislature and the governor have made it clear that they want to fund some things and not others. As a society, we are sorely lagging in our political will to make sure that the highest earners pay their fare share. Here in California, we still have not implemented an oil severance tax, yet we contemplate the very bad idea of increasing fracking in this earthquake prone state. Which interests are being served and who is being left behind?

Nevertheless, here at the local level, we do have the opportunity to make our own priorities, in the form of budget decisions for next year. We support the college again to invest one-time dollars to fund additional TUs and hopefully increase enrollment. We recognize that the state funding formulas demand growth in order to provide new revenues.

Faculty are keenly interested in participating in college-wide discussion and efforts to attract and retain students. We see enrollment management as far more than adding and cancelling class sections. We would like guidelines and transparency about these decisions. Historically, enrollment has ebbed and flowed with many contributing factors. There are far too many unmet educational needs in our community to think that a strategy of “right sizing” is the best move for the college. Far better to embark on the journey of innovation and mobilize, retool and re-imagine an institution that continues to prepare our entire community for the future. 

As we engage with the possibilities of how to keep serving in new and different ways, CCFT feels very strongly that it would be unconscionable for the district to exact a wage concession at this time, in the form of rolling back the one-time raises from last year. After so many years of flat, this modest increase has neither kept up with real inflation nor with the salary levels of our neighboring colleges.

It is a high priority for the college to continue to invest in excellence and innovation by supporting the faculty with a stable level of compensation. We believe that there are enough resources to protect salaries during this time of rapid innovation and that this investment in the people who will be reinventing the next Cabrillo will pay off by attracting and retaining new generations of students.