Happy holidays, part-time faculty, from this column dedicated exclusively to covering part-time faculty issues and concerns!

FA Membership Drive
Please check your mailboxes in your Division Ð you will find FA application forms there. In order to help the FA work for you, give it your support. Please be sure that you join the FA now! By officially joining (the application form is also on the website), you can:
– Vote on the contract;
– Vote for FA Board officers;
– Run for a position on the FA Board.

We need many more part-time faculty members at PCC to become FA members and to get involved. Join and participate. Together, we are stronger and we achieve more!

Thank You to those who attended the October 12 Part-Time Faculty Meet and Greet Information Meeting! We hope that you found the presentation and discussions on Article 18 re-employment rights and other topics to be informative, and that you enjoyed the opportunity to meet other part-time faculty and FA directors. We hope that it generated renewed interest in part-time issues and will increase activism and participation.

Thank you also to part-time faculty who completed the survey of your priorities that was e-mailed to you all. We will discuss your input in the next newsletter as the negotiations for the new contract resume.

State Unemployment Benefits
You might be eligible for unemployment benefits if you are not teaching in Winter Intersession. Please contact the FA at facultyassociation@gmail.com if you are unclear of the procedure for filing a claim. Further information is also here: http://www.edd.ca.gov/Unemployment/Filing_a_Claim.htm

Legislative Update:
At the state level, there are efforts to increase the current cap for part-time instruction load, currently set at 67% of full-time load (at PCC, 10 units for credit faculty), to 80% each semester averaged over a two-semester academic year (excluding summer and winter intersessions). California Education Code 87482.5 has been known as the “67% law” since passed into law as Assembly Bill 591 in 2008. We will inform you about what happens with this legislation.