Today, the District issued layoff notices to 58 full-time faculty. The board of trustees approved 50 notices, but David Martin issued 58. You can see the list on our FAQ. Their excuse for this is that some faculty will “bump” into other departments, so extra layoff notices are needed to make sure the District is really getting rid of people.
This is an unwarranted attack on our community. The real long term solution to the under-funding of CCSF is more support, not downsizing. We reject the austerity logic driving this decision, and demand that the Trustees step up in defense of our students, our faculty, and our community.
Our hearts break for the full-time faculty who are receiving this news, and the part-time faculty who fear the consequences for their jobs. We recognize the stress and pain this causes, and the fear and anxiety this gives your students, your families, and your communities. We see you. We hear you. And we will fight together to stop this.
These layoff notices do not necessarily mean an actual layoff. We still have time to fight. If you receive a notice, you have the right to request an appeal. The notice you receive should include instructions to request a hearing. Please see our FAQ about this process, and join your colleagues, students, and community in taking action this Tuesday.
RSVP now (https://bit.ly/
1. 11:00-12:00 In-Person Action in front of Conlan Hall, Ocean Campus
2. 12:00 -1:00 Virtual Press Conference on Zoom: https://bit.ly/March15CCSF
Share the flyer: https://bit.ly/3HTb76G
Join a phonebank to bring your colleagues to the action.
Other important information: Keep your eyes on the department budgets. If FTE is there for assignments, you will not be laid off, even if you receive a pink slip. That’s true for part-timers as well as full-timers. However, administration could still change the available FTE. Having an assignment now doesn’t guarantee you will have one in the fall. FTE can be added as well as reduced, so we can organize to save classes and programs.
These layoffs were planned with the explicit intention of backfilling those positions with part-time faculty. That’s why David was able to go to the board and say that the cuts wouldn’t devastate the departments. But now things have changed. David (although not everyone in his administration) has acknowledged that he cannot legally assign part-timers, and he cannot convert FT faculty to PT. That means the impact on departments and programs will be dramatic – they would have to get rid of the part-time faculty in those departments. When we spoke to David on Wednesday, he acknowledged this reality, but made it clear that it would not change his layoff plans.
It’s hard to get our heads around the serious threat our college is facing. These cuts would close hundreds of fully enrolled classes and devastate student services. I’d like to provide a window into one specific department for today: Counseling. I hope to write about other departments over the next few weeks. Hopefully, this will help us think about the specific impacts to the real people involved. Please keep reading for one window into the threat we’re facing.
In unity,
Malaika Finkelstein
Focus on Counseling
The board of trustees voted to send nine layoff notices to full-time Counseling faculty. The following information was compiled based on that. But the District actually issued ten, making the threat even worse.
On Wednesday 3/9, counselors made a presentation to the Academic Senate. They explained that 88% of the counselors laid off under this plan would be people of color. They also presented the following slide, summarizing the impacts on students of nine layoffs in New Student Counseling and Continuing Student Counseling. They include only reductions in FT faculty, because all counselors in New and Continuing Counseling are full-time. The part-timers were laid off a few years ago.
In addition to the ten notices issued in New and Continuing Counseling, the District issued three more, two in EOPS and one in DSPS. The idea is that counselors will bump into those specialities. These additional layoffs, if implemented, would ensure that a full-timer actually gets laid off rather than just moved. This is especially egregious in DSPS, where the department is currently understaffed and has just completed interviews for two full-time counseling positions. This makes it clear, once again, that the goal is not to grow or even maintain current levels of serving students, but to shrink.
Next up: Focus on Business
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