Desert Community College District
Board of Trustees Meeting
CODAA Report
Mister Chair, Madam Superintendent/President, Members of the Board and College Community,
In honor of Faculty Appreciation Week, the College of the Desert Adjunct Association joins the COD community to applaud all faculty, and honor their dedication, hard work, and continued success. We keep in mind COD’s Mission Statement that “College of the Desert provides excellent educational programs and services that contribute to the success of our students and the vitality of the communities we serve.” None of that can happen without our full-time and part-time faculty.
CODAA is pleased to report an agreement with the District in a Memo of Understanding, which brings Board Policy 7120 on hiring, and our Collective Bargaining Agreement, into alignment with the California Education Code.
At issue was the definition of an academic temporary employee, which Ed Code Section 87482.5 defines as “a person who is employed to teach adult or community college classes for not more than 67 percent of the hours per week considered a full-time assignment for regular employees”. The MOU acknowledges that Adjunct Faculty are hired on a semester-by-semester basis, and are described as either Adjunct Counselors, Adjunct Librarians, Adjunct Faculty, or Part-time Faculty.
So, what has changed? From now on, Adjunct Employees who are assigned more than 67% of a full-time load will automatically change bargaining units and will be covered by their CBAs as full-time employees. The agreement also makes clear that there is no such thing as “adjunct overload”, an unfortunate practice that was taking advantage of adjunct faculty and denying them their rights. The MOU states that there is no authorization for balancing load over two semesters in an Academic Year. In other words, the 67% requirement must be applied each semester.
Adjunct Counselor Señorina Saldivar has been chosen to represent adjuncts for a one-year term on the All-Faculty Academic Senate, and Christina Dodough for a two-year term. Congratulations, Señorina and Christina! Congratulations are also in order for our 2022 Adjunct of the Year, Christina Corrales-Cotto. Also, a new cohort of faculty is completing Peer Online Course Review training, otherwise known as POCR training, under the expert guidance of Donna Greene. A majority of this POCR training cohort are adjuncts.
Finally, CODAA offers a reminder that we, as faculty, are one faculty that happens to be paid differently, part-time and full-time. We are not two faculties, adjunct faculty and full-time faculty; we shouldn’t be seen as “separate but equal”. We are one faculty sharing a common commitment to a Vision of the Future to make our college “a center of collaborations, educational enrichment, economic development, and quality of life in the Coachella Valley and surrounding communities.” And, CODAA would add to that Vision, a commitment to diversity and inclusion, equity and parity.
And that concludes Dr. Levitt’s report. Thank you.
Submitted respectfully,
Dr. Catherine Levitt, President of CODAA
