Our contract for faculty working part-time is a model admired and emulated in community colleges across the state. It protects you and our profession. We’re proud of it – and we want to improve it further.
Get Involved
• Get to know your precinct representative.
• All PTers are encouraged to attend AFT 2121 DA meetings and join the part-timers committee. See the AFT calendar (add link) for DA and PTer committee meeting dates.
• Discuss issues related to PT employment here: email ccsf.pt@gmail.com, or log in to google groups and send a join request to the group ccsf-pt-faculty. Note: this is an unmoderated google group not hosted by AFT2121.
Pay
Part-time faculty payscales are currently pinned to 86% of the full-time payscale. That difference represents the extra requirements of a full-time position, such as serving on committees. (There are concerns with this system, as many contingent faculty volunteer to do this “service work”.. . There are other pay discrepancies as well, notably that part-time faculty have fewer salary steps than full-timers, and go up the steps more slowly.)
At the same time, getting our payscales to 86% has taken solidarity and organizing. Even as we fight for further improvement, we cannot take for granted that we will keep what we have unless we keep our union strong.
Assignment
We are restricted by state law to 67% of a full-time load. There are a few exceptions, but you should generally expect that 67% will be the most you can work. More details about load here.
When classes and assignments are cut, part-timers are the first to lose work. Some faculty refer to us as “contingent” or “precarious” faculty because those terms reflect the reality of our work. Fighting for the rights of part-time faculty means fighting to maintain our classes and programs – and therefore means fighting for our students.
Yet we have won some rights to continued assignment, roughly based on seniority but with some twists and turns. Please see:
• Our contract, Articles 13 and 13-1
Benefits
We are eligible for medical, dental, and vision benefits in any semester where we work 40% or more of a full-time load. We are also eligible if we work 40% or more, averaged between the current and previous semesters. That means we can gain and lose benefits each semester as our loads change. AFT won healthcare coverage for PT faculty with a 40% load in 2023–for more information on that expansion, see this 1-pager on PT medical insurance.
More information on our Benefits page.
Retirement Options
Read about your different options for retirement plans at this link.
Unemployment
Faculty who work part-time are eligible for unemployment benefits in between semesters. In effect, we get laid off at the end of each semester, even if we don’t get an official pink slip. That’s still true even if we have likely assignments for the following semester that work isn’t guaranteed.
More information on our Unemployment page.
Other Organizations
• The California Federation of Teachers (CFT) is our statewide affiliate. Their part-time faculty page has great resources and links. They also publish the Part-Timer newsletter. The CFT Part-Time Faculty Committee is active on state-wide issues.
• California Part-Time Faculty Association (CPFA) advocates for part-time faculty across CA. They publish a journal and readers can contribute to their blog.
• The Faculty Association of California Community Colleges (FACCC) has resources and a listserv for part-timers here.
• Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor (COCAL) is a national coalition of higher education activists. You can sign up for their listserv and read their Contingent Faculty Bill of Rights.
• Adjunct Nation publishes news for adjunct and contingent faculty.
• Higher Education Workers United (HELU) is a national organization advocating for all education workers, including part-time, full-time, staff, and student workers.• Contingent World is a website maintained by a faculty union leader at Cabrillo College. They have many resources including great details on unemployment insurance. They say: “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”
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