Call for Information on Ghost Students

Ghost students are a problem for students & student opportunity, faculty workload, enrollment growth, and financial stability for the college. Having ghost students registered in our classes makes it extremely difficult for faculty to assess the actual demand for the class and how many real students might be trying to enroll. It is clear that ghost registrations blocked real students from being able to get into needed classes or even on the waitlist. AFT is gathering information about the challenges that ghost students present and possible solutions. As part of that, we need to hear directly from affected faculty.

Specifically, we are seeking information on how ghost student registration has affected enrollment in your classes this semester. For example, we’ve received one report of a class that was about 50% ghost students. It was an in-person class, and thankfully others who tried to enroll but were blocked by fraudulent registrations knew to show up the first day. Within a week, the class was filled with real students, despite the difficulties caused by the ghost students. Another report has a much less happy ending – ghost students were over 60% of the enrollment of an in-person class. This class historically has healthy enrollment, but students who were trying to get in didn’t know to come in person. Because the ghost students kept real students from even being able to get on the waitlist, the instructor had no way to reach out to students who may have been interested. That class currently has very low enrollment.

Has your enrollment been impacted by ghost students? Did ghost students block real students from getting into your class? If so, at what stage of the process? Do you have any sense of the numbers of students involved – real and fake? Were real students eventually able to register? Please share your experience by emailing information to aft@aft2121.org about the specific section(s) that were affected and details about how students trying to take your class were impacted.

Social Security Fairness Act FAQ

After years of union organizing, the Social Security Fairness Act of 2023 was signed into law on January 5, 2025. The legislation repeals two provisions under Social Security—the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP)—for monthly social security benefits payable after December 2023.

This is good news for those of us who paid into social security before joining CALSTRS: upon retirement, we will now receive our full social security amount, no longer reduced by the WEP. In response to the many questions about the implementation and effect of the legislation, our union siblings at AFT 1521 have put together a FAQ with specific information for California teachers.

Delegate Assembly Meeting, Tuesday 2/18, 3-5 PM

We hope your semester is getting off to a good start! We have a full agenda for our February DA meeting, including time for DA reps and faculty to share what’s going on in our precincts and departments. What’s going well? What issues are you facing? What are your concerns? We want to hear from you. All members are encouraged to attend. You can read the full agenda here.

You can use the same link as for other DA meetings – follow this link from your computer or smartphone. Meeting ID: 810 1671 8065, Password: 783119.

AFT 1521 Members Hurt by LA Fires

The message below from James McKeever, President of the Los Angeles College Faculty Guild, was recently shared with a group of community college locals and it felt right to share this with our broader faculty community. We know many of you have already taken action to help those impacted by our recent fires in Southern California, and will continue to do so. Here is another opportunity.

At times like this, we must remember that we are family. We are deeply saddened to announce that several members of our AFT 1521 community have lost their homes due to the recent fires. To support these members during this challenging time, we have compiled a list of their GoFundMe pages. Our chapter presidents have diligently verified that these pages belong to our members, ensuring that your donations will directly reach those in need. We will be posting this information on our website and offering our support to these individuals. Please visit the GoFundMe(s) to help a CFT member in need. Together, we can make a difference in their lives and help them rebuild their homes. Thank you and I am proud to be a member of such a caring community.