REASSIGNED TIME.
(From The Dissenter’s Dictionary, 1999)
Whatever else might be said about reassigned time--or "released time" as it is sometimes called--it is a crucial support of faculty involvement in college and district governance, for it frees academic senate officers to devote their energies to that endeavor by reducing their teaching loads by some fraction.
Nevertheless, the faculty contract ratified in March of 1998--the result of length negotiations between the Faculty Association team and district representatives, including John Williams (who, naturally, was beholden to the Faculty Association)--eliminated reassigned time for everyone except a few union officers. According to the contract, the work of senate officers could only be compensated with stipends--a system that requires that senate officers do senate work in addition to a full teaching load. This was a terrible blow to the academic senates and to shared governance, worse than the reduction of reassigned time for senate officers that occurred back in December of ’96.
Following a pattern typical of the Old Guard, at first, union leaders simply denied that they were seeking the elimination of reassigned time. For instance, on KPFK's "The Lawyers' Guild" radio program in February, when guests Jan Horn and Roy Bauer noted that the union was negotiating away faculty reassigned time, another guest, union negotiator Ken Woodward, responded by saying, "What they said about reassigned time being eliminated is completely false." In fact, what Horn and Bauer said was completely true, which became clear when, not long after, the "Tentative Contract Agreement" surfaced.
The union Old Guard's hatred of reassigned time had already been expressed in no uncertain terms a few months earlier. During the "public comments" portion of the August '97 Board meeting, Tony Garcia--accompanied by a shout of "Amen!" by union president Miller-White, herself a major reassigned time recipient--praised the “courageous moralist” "Dr. Raghu" (sic) for his "condemnation" of "the obscene and immoral practice of release time." Said Garcia, the "community should erect a statue to [Raghu]" for his "courage" and "fortitude in confronting this specific problem." The Old Guard's Bill Heffernin then spoke, praising Raghu and condemning reassigned time as "faculty welfare." Said he: "Some of us--and that includes Raghu--say this scandalous system for the favored few is over."
A few minutes later, IVC instructor Jan H stated what everyone at IVC knew: that "[Raghu's] position [as an opponent of reassigned time] is new and surprising," for "he has had 100%--or close to it--reassigned time for a number of years...."
As of writing, reassigned time for senate officers has not been restored, hampering the two senates’ efforts to represent the faculty in professional and academic matters.
(From The Dissenter’s Dictionary, 1999)
Nevertheless, the faculty contract ratified in March of 1998--the result of length negotiations between the Faculty Association team and district representatives, including John Williams (who, naturally, was beholden to the Faculty Association)--eliminated reassigned time for everyone except a few union officers. According to the contract, the work of senate officers could only be compensated with stipends--a system that requires that senate officers do senate work in addition to a full teaching load. This was a terrible blow to the academic senates and to shared governance, worse than the reduction of reassigned time for senate officers that occurred back in December of ’96.
Following a pattern typical of the Old Guard, at first, union leaders simply denied that they were seeking the elimination of reassigned time. For instance, on KPFK's "The Lawyers' Guild" radio program in February, when guests Jan Horn and Roy Bauer noted that the union was negotiating away faculty reassigned time, another guest, union negotiator Ken Woodward, responded by saying, "What they said about reassigned time being eliminated is completely false." In fact, what Horn and Bauer said was completely true, which became clear when, not long after, the "Tentative Contract Agreement" surfaced.
The union Old Guard's hatred of reassigned time had already been expressed in no uncertain terms a few months earlier. During the "public comments" portion of the August '97 Board meeting, Tony Garcia--accompanied by a shout of "Amen!" by union president Miller-White, herself a major reassigned time recipient--praised the “courageous moralist” "Dr. Raghu" (sic) for his "condemnation" of "the obscene and immoral practice of release time." Said Garcia, the "community should erect a statue to [Raghu]" for his "courage" and "fortitude in confronting this specific problem." The Old Guard's Bill Heffernin then spoke, praising Raghu and condemning reassigned time as "faculty welfare." Said he: "Some of us--and that includes Raghu--say this scandalous system for the favored few is over."
A few minutes later, IVC instructor Jan H stated what everyone at IVC knew: that "[Raghu's] position [as an opponent of reassigned time] is new and surprising," for "he has had 100%--or close to it--reassigned time for a number of years...."
As of writing, reassigned time for senate officers has not been restored, hampering the two senates’ efforts to represent the faculty in professional and academic matters.
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