Politics & Culture

America, This is Your Chance

Our democracy hangs in the balance. This is not an overstatement. As protests, riots, and police violence roiled the nation last week, the president vowed to send the military to quell persistent rebellions and looting, whether governors wanted a military occupation or not. John Allen, a retired four-star Marine general, wrote that we may be witnessing the “beginning of the end of the American experiment” because of President Trump’s catastrophic failures. Please click here or below to read Michelle Alexander's recent piece in the NY Times.

Great Article on Coronaviruses

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COVID-19 and the virus that causes it, SARS-CoV-2, have focused the public’s attention on coronaviruses like never before. But medical researchers have more than half a century of experience with this family of viruses — by the time they identified the first human version in 1965, multiple animal coronaviruses were already known to exist. Since then, dozens of additional coronaviruses have been discovered in wildlife, livestock and humans.

The 1619 Project

The 1619 Project is a major initiative from The New York Times observing the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history, understanding 1619 as our true founding, and placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are.

Race & America's Long War

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Historian Nikhil Singh and Journalist Jeremy Scahill discuss why it's risky to erase the line between the horrible things Trump does and the horrible things the U.S. has done for a long time. It’s a complicated conversation. It means exploring the roots of white supremacy in the U.S., the way American wars are constantly put through a laundering process to make them seem noble and brave, the way “real American” has been defined and continues to be defined in our society.

Congresswoman Ihan Omar Models Change

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Mehdi Hasan: A lot of people aren’t aware of the kind of crazy racist, Islamophobic abuse that you and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan have received since arriving here in Congress.
Ilhan Omar: It sort of feels like it comes with the territory. I mean, we’re shifting the idea of who should have a seat at the table. These systems really weren’t built for people like Rashida and myself. I think we can focus on the doors that we have to open and keep open or let this deter us...

Angélique Kidjo sings
"A Change is Gonna Come"at the
Women's March on Washington

California Community Colleges

FACCC President Dr. Debbie Klein
​End-of-Year Message

Support Part-time Faculty &
​Defund Calbright College

Just as the coronavirus crisis magnifies systemic inequities in societies across the globe, it also magnifies systemic absurdities. Now the absurdity of pouring taxpayer dollars into Calbright, a project that is fiscally wasteful, is impossible to ignore. As taxpayers who love and benefit from the community colleges, we have an opportunity to address such absurd spending. When people’s lives are in jeopardy, this kind of spending should be called out and redirected into educationally and ethically sound investments. Please click below for more...

Please sign this letter to Governor Newsom to take action!

FACCC Expresses Solidarity with Protestors

“I am outraged and deeply saddened by the recent death of George Floyd and the deaths of Breonna Taylor, Ahmed Aubrey, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, and too many others. As the president of the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges, I will be working with our People of Color Committee, the rest of our membership, and our broader coalition to strategize around ways to stop this violence that has been plaguing the United States. FACCC advocates for an educational environment that is equitable and accessible led by a diverse and empowered faculty. We uphold the ideals of equal justice under the law, racial justice, and human dignity for all of our students. As community college faculty, we are on the front lines of challenging and defeating institutional racism in our country."
~ President Dr. Debbie Klein 

Governor's 2020 Budget Proposal

Governor Gavin Newsom announced his proposal for the 2020-21 Budget on January 10. Significant adjustments to the budget included: 
  • $167.2 million Proposition 98 funding for a 2.29% cost-of-living adjustment 
  • $15 million one-time Proposition 98 funding for a pilot fellowship program for improving faculty diversity at community colleges 
  • $10 million one-time Proposition 98 funding for part-time faculty office hours 
  • $11.4 million Proposition 98 funding to establish or support food pantries at community college campuses. 
  • $10 million one-time Proposition 98 funding to develop and implement zero-textbook-cost degrees using open educational resources 
  • $83.2 million Proposition 98 funding for Apprenticeship Programs 
  • $5.8 million for AB 1645 (Rubio) Dreamer Resource Liaisons
  • $125 million to create a "CCC System Support Program" which would consolidate categorical set-asides and statewide programs to a new system 
Advocacy work is necessary to influence the final version of the budget that will be signed in June. Please join FACCC to engage in the process to increase resources for faculty priorities and push back against the flaws of the funding formula and Calbright!

Governor Newsom Signs Budget

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Governor Gavin Newsom signed the 2019-20 budget and achieved his goal of providing support for community college students by funding two years of free community college tuition for first-time, full-time students. The budget keeps last year’s $50 million in ongoing funding appropriated for hiring new full-time faculty but failed to do the same for the $50 million increase in one-time funding for part-time faculty. Part-time faculty compensation incurred no changes and will remain just under $25 million.
The student success allocation of the Student-Centered Funding Formula will be held at 10 percent indefinitely under the final budget. FACCC has already started its advocacy for the 2020-21 budget cycle.

Vision for Success: 
A Faculty Perspective

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.”​
—Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world.”
—Dolores Huerta
​California Community College students achieve their dreams regardless of any educational, social, or economic challenge. Each college works hard to provide an academically robust, diverse, inclusive, and innovative learning environment that engages students of every background to develop their intellect, character, and abilities; to explore, define, and achieve their goals; and to be socially responsible community members and leaders.

Why Faculty Matter:
​The Role of Faculty in the Success of Community College Students

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Across the United States over the past 50 years, there has been a coordinated movement to divest in public education, faculty, and labor unions. Until fairly recently, the California Community College system has resisted pressure to change its funding structure to a performance-based funding model that has proven to harm students. Until fairly recently, the California Community College system has honored and benefited from a shared governance model of decision-making. Until fairly recently, the California Community College system recognized the need to invest in its faculty because faculty/student interaction is the key to students' success in college and beyond.

FACCC sponsored the research and writing of this paper, which argues the following:
  • Faculty/student interaction is the key ingredient for student success.
  • Investment in faculty correlates with increases in student success rates. Divestment from faculty correlates with decreases in student success rates.
  • The importance of investment in faculty was embraced in AB 1725 (Vasconcellos, 1988), which included the adoption of the goal that 75% of all credit instruction should be taught by full-time faculty. The current percentage of credit instruction taught by full-time faculty is around 56% and has been declining over the past decade. The full-time faculty headcount is around 30% and has not changed in the past decade. 
  • Along with investing in full-time faculty, the system must empower and compensate part-time faculty to perform all faculty duties. Full support for part-time faculty would include pay parity, medical benefits, paid office hours, and compensation for out-of-classroom duties.
  • An ethnically and racially diverse faculty leads to increased rates of student success.

© 2021 Debbie Klein