As you know, Old Guard critics of the recently proposed faculty contract objected to adjustments that benefited all but the highest paid faculty. They seemed to view that as unfair. (See What's their beef?)
I found a computer file of old newspaper articles (etc.) and came across several from 1997-8 that concerned the faculty contract. They reveal that, at the time, critics of the Old Guard's then-proposed contract emphasized that contract's concentration of benefit on senior full-time faculty to the detriment of junior faculty:
• South O.C. College District Salaries Are State's Highest Los Angeles Times, September 15, 1997
According to figures published in June by the Sacramento-based Community College Assn., the South Orange County district is truly No. 1. As one professor put it, "We're the Nebraska Cornhuskers of community college salaries.". . .
Kate Clark, a professor of English at Irvine Valley College, lists her salary at more than $70,000 a year, which she finds "embarrassing." More and more, Clark said, district salaries are also a story of have-nots helping to sustain the haves.
"It's not a healthy circumstance when you have people on the upper end making disproportionately high salaries, compared to those on the lower end, who in my view are increasingly underpaid," she said.
For those on the high end, [Wendy] Phillips said, district salaries are comparable even to those at UC Irvine, which as part of the elite UC system pays the best of any Orange County college.. . .
In terms of salaries as a whole, [Bill] Hewitt said the highest go to professors with 30 or more years experience, constituting, in his opinion, about a quarter of the faculty or even less.. . .
Phillips said the board is enthusiastically supported by the district's faculty labor union, which bankrolled the past campaigns of the current board majority—Frogue, Williams, Teddi Lorch and Dorothy Fortune.
In return, the board has consistently voted pay raises that account for the district's No. 1 ranking.
"Our union is incredibly strong," said Phillips, who makes $65,000 a year, "and they've consistently negotiated one of the best salary and benefit packages in the state. But it's come through buying board members, and now they're in each other's pockets."
Irvine Valley philosophy professor Roy Bauer, who makes about $50,000 a year, said the union and the board share "a quid pro quo" relationship.
"The union gives them the money to get reelected and they vote pay raises in return," Bauer said. "In recent years, the board has cut things to the bone and now talks of more cuts to come, but have they touched faculty salaries? Of course not, and they won't."
While those in the top quarter are making $80,000 to $100,000 a year, those on the lower end are being paid much less, Bauer said, resulting in what he called an average salary districtwide that falls somewhere between $60,000 and $65,000 a year.
Figures released late Friday by the district support Bauer's claim. Taking all salaries as a whole, the average for the 1996-97 school year was $60,969 at Irvine Valley and $69,097 at Saddleback. But average salaries for "academic administrators" who also teach were considerably higher: $91,966 at Irvine Valley and $91,664 at Saddleback.
High salaries among the top one-quarter of the faculty have necessitated the hiring of hundreds of part-timers, with that group now making up about half the district payroll, according to Bauer and various faculty senate members on both campuses.
"It's the union's strategy of rewarding those on the high end that's led to the wave of part-timers," Phillips said….
March 8, 1998
Dorothy Fortune's Bankrupt Views [Times' title]
I am a mathematics professor at Irvine Valley College who is very concerned about the proposed faculty contract.
In a district full of faculty members who earn at the top end of the pay scale, administrative positions have recently been cut under the guise of financial necessity.
In what smacks of payback, we are offering even more to certain faculty whose base salary is easily in excess of $80,000. Beyond that, more salary is earned for choosing to teach the two sections of summer school.
The base salary is for 10 months of teaching 15 hours of class per week and attending one committee hour per week. Many of these faculty then choose to teach large lecture classes in excess of 45 students and also overload (beyond 15 hours per week) to greatly augment their salaries to be well in excess of $100,000 per 10 months—in some cases, in excess of $120,000. It is my contention that this faculty greed is at the expense of the students.
A look at the new contract proposal shows the balance of the increased pay at the top end of the salary scale. The benefits to new hires have been reduced.
Newly hired faculty members will be able to transfer in only five years of teaching experience, not the current 11 years. How do we attract the best and the brightest if we don't allow their experience to count? This new contract is irresponsible on many levels and certainly greedy.
NANCY EVANS• Orange County Register
Irvine
April 1, 1998
EDUCATION: Some say the raises put South Orange County Community College District in jeopardy.
By KIMBERLY KINDY
…Under the new contract, pay raises will not begin until July 1. They will include an annual $2,500 stipend for 75 professors who have doctorates.
It also would allow additional raises for 23 longtime professors who are reaching the top of the salary schedule, and commit the district to dividing all the money it receives for professors' annual cost-of-living increases as long as the district has 3 percent of its budget in reserve. That is 2 percent lower than the state chancellor's office requires for the district to be removed from the watch list.
It also would allow professors who are teaching more than 15 hours a week to bank their time over 2 1/2 years and then take a paid sabbatical in lieu of overtime pay. About 66 percent of the faculty would qualify….
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Please note that I have provided a link to the entire Times article. No link to the Reg article is available (as far as I know).As always, do feel free to provide enlightening comments re context, etc.
Cause I need something to forget,
What got me in this mess
Feeling less and less
My judgment is not clear
I do things that I fear,
I would never do
