Comments (16)

1. 

   williamsa

   As a community college teacher I feel that we are marginalized when it comes to recognition for our efforts. In South Carolina we are at the forefront in preparing students for an increasingly high-tech job market, but are looked upon as a vocational school. We are a feeder school for undergrads at USC, Clemson, and SC State, and many of those students come to our campus for summer classes. We are convenient and affordable, but underappreciated.

   2 years ago

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2. 

   drummke

   There are endless pockets of innovation and excellence in teaching throughout the community college sector that remain isolated to that college or even that professor and classroom. Opportunities to systematically disseminate these innovations would be immeasurably helpful. Because community college faculty have such heavy teaching loads by comparison to their university bretheren, they do not have the opportunity to publish and present their innovations to anywhere near the extent possible in the baccalaureate sector. NISOD is very helpful in this regard, but a very small percentage of our faculty are able to attend because the travel dollars just aren't there.

   2 years ago

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3. 

   Community Member

   1. Reverse the off-shoring, down-sizing trend of adjunct and temporary hiring. Most community college teachers are part-time workers. The PT to FT faculty ratios in higher education are a scandal.

   2. Ask community college teachers to tell the truth about American students' preparation for college. Community college teachers face learners who are not ready for college-level curriculum, and that lack of readiness translates into staggeringly poor retention and success rates, representing a huge waste of human and institutional resources.

   3. Support community college teachers' efforts to create sea-changes in student and community expectations of college work. This means putting teachers in charge of dollars and outcomes. It will also mean a shocking wake-up call for most Americans about how antique and ineffective is traditional high school for most students.

   4. Create a "victory garden" mentality in the United States around the vital importance of education and schools. Engage Americans in a Marshall Plan-sized effort of intellectual renewal.

   5. In failing to support K-12 and community colleges, Americans are eating their young. Support schools through collaborative efforts--not through race-to-the-top competitions that pit states against each other for funds that should be a given, not a prize.

   2 years ago

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4. 

   dlydick

   Nearly half of all my first year community college students cannot do basic (8th grade) math nor write a cogent paragraph. Grades 1 thru 12 get a "free pass" and are virtually unaccountable for this. In fact, they are rewarded when community colleges allocate personnel and physical resources for remedial courses. Thus, my more capable students are deprived of additional resources (tutors, learning labs, extened library/lab hours, etc.

   2 years ago

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5. 

   rleedy

   O.K. So, we community college instructors have been given some lemons. So have the students we teach. We have no idea what they have and do go through. We have students who have no business being in college, and a lot of them have had teachers who have no business teaching. We and they can suck on the lemons, or else we can make lemonade. Our college has prepared our Quality Enhancement Plan for the SACS re-afirmation of accreditation visit in a few weeks. It revolves around Intermediate Algebra. Too many of our students do not pass at all, or at least take two or three tries. All the Math courses required for their degrees depend on them knowing this material before they come here, or on them learning it in Intermediate. We are proposing to enhance the learning environment, and the presentation of the material so that the student, the learner, is the center of our teaching strategies. Not everyone is on the bandwagon, but we are determined that the students shall succeed. As we proceed in the following years, we know there will be adjustments; but we are not going to back down just because it's hard. Our QEP Title; Math: The Bridge to Success.

   2 years ago

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6. 

   dralt

   The movement to support community colleges, and the president's strong role therein—oh lord, who in the world can be against such things? But when ne looks and sees tat on the white house page the word "faculty" isn't mentioned not once, and that CC's are regarded as ONLY being useful for the training of a workforce—jobs anyone?—it's depressing. Especially since most of the faculty actually doing the teaching at CC's are paid so little that they can hardly make ends meet—1/3 of what "regular faculty" make—these latter are a dwindling minority of instructors at CC's and elsewhere. And no benefits. Please, CC faculty-raise your voice, and join an organization-NewFacultyMajority.info is a good place to start.

   2 years ago

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7. 

   Community Member

   We are facing enormous budget shortfalls and more cuts in the number of classes offered. All the while more and more students want to attend classes at the Community College level. Not only do we need more full time faculty but we need more Community Colleges. They fulfill a vital service to the community in education of all fields of education. If we are serious about education and infrastructure jobs in this country we need to expand the number of Community Colleges everywhere.

   2 years ago

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8. 

   Community Member

   First, I don't think this forum is big enough to address the issues that CC's are currently facing. Nevertheless, our community college(cc) has nearly tripled in size for the past 3 years,due to the poor economy. Students want to save money so they come here. More students but same ratio of teacher/student. We need money, desperately. Most CC's are operating in diseconomies of scale, so to speak. What I mean is that though we are experiencing exponential growth, we don't have the manpower nor equipment to satisfy the increase. We can't produce what we don't have and what we have is costing us more to produce. So students will have to wait until the following semester because the classes are full, if they ever get into the class that they want, so we miss that potential student due to lack of funds for space, equipment, faculty, etc. And I agree with another poster who said that we are underappreciated. That is the truth! The graduates who transfer to 4 year colleges give back to those colleges and not the CC that helped them get to that 4 yr college. There is no alumni at CC's and that is a travesty. We need to stress to CC graduates to remember those instructors who helped them get to where they are now.

   2 years ago

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9. 

   robertby07

   Districts need to pay the real TEACHERS - part time faculty - a living wage. We are education's "dirty secret," and we need to get our fair share of the pie. Without us, the system would fail, and with us, the community colleges are barely able to meet student demand for relevant courses. Full Timers are paid too much for what little they do, and part time faculty are marginalized, overworked, underpaid and routinely turned away when improvements in salary and working conditions are discussed and negotiated. How Much Longer, Part Timers? RBYoshioka, Ph.D. Santa Maria, CA 805-264-1142.

   2 years ago

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10. 

    llloyd

    robertby07 I hear you! The vast majority of our instructors are adjunct and I wrestle with finding ways/resources to support my conviction that these folks must be recognized and compenstated in a more equitable manner. Oh but the budget limitations,blah, blah, blah -

    so what can we do? As an hr and organziational development professional I recognize that we are key in finding ways to address this delimma through valuing people, all people within the organization. This is where it starts.

    2 years ago

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11. 

    dbwilder

    I have taught art and art history as an adjunct at a C.C. for years. The most confounding thing for me is to have students who are so motivated by my classes, they talk to me about wanting to pursue the field. I can't lie to them and must inform them what to expect. They will need a graduate degree to teach, but most likely will only find adjunct positions where they will be paid, based on government statistics, in line with someone with less than a high school diploma and with no health benefits. For the majority of people who teach in C.C.s they are just academic sweatshops.

    2 years ago

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12. 

    phil_ray_jack

    We must provide more opportunities for faculty to move from part-time to full-time positions, and improve the working conditions for those who choose to continue teaching as part-time faculty. In the seventeen years that I taught as a professional "part-time instructor," I taught on nine different campuses in two states. Finally, I was hired as a full-time, tenure track instructor. The difference that this has made in my personal life is amazing, but more importantly, I am able to do much more for my students and my college. There will always be a need for part-time faculty, but we should be ashamed of the current ratio of full-time to part-time faculty. Unfortunately, with the current economic crisis, things have gotten even worse.

    2 years ago

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13. 

    Community Member

    Let me associate with the five points of post 3, and with a later post's call for alumni associations for CCs.

    Pay full-time faculty professional wages.

    Pay part-time faculty (flexibility for those who desire to work part-time) at pro rata wages with pro rata benefits.

    Give paid sabbaticals and release-time for research, on the same calendar as four-year schools, regardless of whether they are on a tenure line.

    Pay for most of this with Federal Funding. It is, as others have pointed out, as important an intellectual infrastructure as the interstate highway system.

    2 years ago

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14. 

    sbannon

    How can we encourage and implement these innovative changes? Long term faculty need to include new faculty in the discussion of change and work together to improve our students education which includes 21st century skills.

    2 years ago

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15. 

    phil_ray_jack

    @sbannon. I agree that long term faculty need to include new faculty in the discussion of change and work together to improve our students' education. In order to accomplish this, we have to recognize the obstacles, and the major obstacle is the ratio of full-time to part-time faculty. The unfortunate fact is that most new faculty will be stepping into part-time positions simply because that is all that's available. At our department at our college, for example, we had two full-time positions open up. That, combined with the increase in enrollment, led us to hire thirteen new part-time faculty. Because of the current economy, the full-time positions are not likely to be filled.

    When one is trying to survive as a part-time instructor, income has to be supplemented -- either through having another career or teaching on multiple campuses. This typically interferes with one's ability to be involved beyond classroom duties.

    Interestingly enough, there are several studies that indicate that reversing the ratio would have a huge positive impact on the quality of education, and having more faculty with the ability to be involved in directing these changes is one of the reasons.

    2 years ago

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16. 

    ischmidt

    PT Staff at my CC come in 2 varieties:

    PT Temporary (at will employee, no benefits)

    PT Regular receive retirement and paid annual leave

    PT Faculty at my CC come in 1 variety:

    Adjunct -- at will employee, no retirement, PAL, etc.

    However, as stated above, we have the following kinds of adjuncts:

    1. Not dependent on wages (retired from past careers, FT elsewhere, those with FT working spouses)

    2. Dependent on wages -- the freeway fliers, roads scholars, those eeking a living from each class they teach, sweating if enrollment makes, stressing over how many classes they get, all to make ends meet.

    Students cannot tell the difference at my CC. I think it's time we educate the students, the general taxpayer, etc. This situation affects even little attempts at "student engagement", increasing "learner retention", "Achieve the Dream", and other initiatives.

    PT faculty are often not available to attend workshops on our own campus that relate to "assessment", "technology", you name it, and must jump through many hoops to hope to attend conferences (often on their own dime).

    A simple story: a student left a message on my vm and exhibited frustration, "why are you never at your desk to answer the phone?"

    Reply: 1)voicemail is automatic, there are no rings, 2) I'm not in any set office, 3)no paid office times, and oh, it was summertime prior to semester's start.

    Of course, the student somehow found my vm extension but didn't find my email. Had he done that I would have replied in a timely fashion, even in summertime, prior to semester's start.

    I lobby that part of a student's real education comes in learning some of these issues.

    2 years ago

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