Friday, September 11, 2015

This just in: "Community colleges gearing up for major hiring spree"

FILE: Professor David Thomas helps a student in a Fullerton College architecture class.LINDA BRINEY/COURTESY OF FULLERTON COLLEGE
via NPR:

Campuses across the state are speeding up the process to use $62.3 million in additional state funding in this year's budget to hire more faculty for the coming school year.
Gov. Jerry Brown's office estimates that California community colleges will hire 670 new professors with the funds.
“It’s a huge deal,” said Albert Roman, a vice-chancellor at the nine-campus Los Angeles Community College District. “It’s probably the largest number of full-time faculty positions that we’ve hired in the history of this district.”
This year and next, Roman said, the campuses in his district will hire242 faculty through new hires and replacement of retiring instructors.
Officials at East Los Angeles College, the campus with the most students in the L.A. district, said the hiring spree will transform the campus. The college expects to have 60 new full-time professors in place by fall 2016.
“We have an endless, bottomless pit of need in English and math,” said Academic Affairs Dean Kerrin McMahan.

To read the rest, click here.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I heard this on the radio too, on KPCC. Can we get any of this money? Is it possible to "speed-up" the process in our district as well? You would think all the governance groups would buy into a plan that seeks to address seriously impacted areas that prevent students from transferring. I think the admin use not only lack of money as an excuse not to hire big but also the process as well. Clearly there is precedent to suspend the process when there is a need and opportunity. Where is the leadership on this? Can the Academic Senate make a proposal?

Anonymous said...

I don't think the SOCCCD qualifies for these funds.

Anonymous said...

Can't someone find out?

Anonymous said...

I think it has something to do with basic aid status but surely the Senates and union can inquire.

Bob Cosgrove said...

Having taught FT at 3 universities before coming to Saddleback College, I was pleased to find community college students comparable to students I had encountered elsewhere. That was in 1981. That has changed. CC districts have grasped the 50% rule with a tenacity that has harmed curriculum and program review, the work of making departments run efficiently, and stretched faculty by the increased demands place on faculty to serve on committees. Some 60 percent of our classes in some divisions are taught by out part time colleagues. When I came to Saddleback we had 32 full time faculty in the English Department with a student complement of about 20,000; we now have a student body in the upper 30,000s but only 18 FT faculty to serve them. Many of the thoughtful ideas to make Student Success work is seriously hobbled by the lack of Full Time faculty in our labs, counseling centers, libraries and classrooms. If part time work is so helpful to reducing college costs, we should move to have part time administrators to save money. Perhaps some of that money can be moved to where students are--in our classrooms and labs.

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

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