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SB 114 Thank You-Sample Letter

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Dear Senator Yee,

As a part-time faculty member I wanted to thank you for agreeing to carry Senate Bill 114 into this year's legislative session. While this bill is not meant to change the compensation of adjunct faculty it does allow a clear tranparent way for them to compare themselves to other academic faculty.

This bill means a lot to adjunct faculty around the state who have been denied their rightful position on community college salary schedules that represent the educational attainment and years of teaching experience of contract employees. Many districts give adjunct faculty no salary placement credit for multiple Masters Degrees, PHD and or further professional development study beyond the required state minimum qualifications. This kind of denial of professional progress inhibits adjunct faculty from investing time and money in seeking higher degrees or furthering their professional training. If adjunct faculty were to at least be placed on salary matrixes that recognized this investment it would encourage them to spend the time and money to further their professional growth.

As a member of the CalSTRS retirement program I am concerned that I am not receiving the proper service credit for my work hours and yet, because of the difference between part-time and full-time salary schedules I cannot even check to see if it is correct. I have asked CalSTRS to look into this matter and they also have told that they are unable to tell me how much service credit I have accrued because salary schedules differ. Since STRS bases its calculation on the percentage of a full-time salary that I earn in each district there  are constant mistakes. The districts are unable to clearly relate my pay to that of a full-time faculty member because our salaries are derived from different salary schedules. SB114 will help correct this problem and allow adjunct faculty to make clearer decisions regarding their retirement choices. 

Human Resource administrators may decry the time and effort necessary to rate all adjunct faculty onto a mirrored salary schedule (as they did when we tried to negotiate this issue locally in one of my districts). However Offices of Human Resources are not busy right now with new hiring or processing of new employees. With the state budget providing little funding for new hiring this is an opportune time for districts to put these salary rating systems into place.

I thank you for your support in the effort to allow adjunct faculty to receive the same clear recognition of their professional achievement, retirement service credit and importance as faculty to community colleges through a similar salary schedule - despite the present lack of funding for equal remuneration.

Phyllis Eckler, Asst. Adjunct Professor

Glendale Community College

L.A. City College

L.A. Mission College