> California Extends New Benefits to Part-Time Instructors
> By ERIK LORDS
>
> California Gov. Gray Davis signed a bill last week that will
> provide thousands of part-time instructors at community
> colleges with health insurance and could also compensate them
> for office hours, a move that faculty members at two-year
> institutions see as a crucial victory.
>
> "There's a feeling of delight and relief here," said Elaine
> Johnson, an assistant to the president of the California
> Federation of Teachers, which represents about 100,000
> educators in the state. "This is a major step forward -- the
> most important thing we established here in years."
>
> Under California's current system, part-time faculty members
> are paid less per course than full-timers and are sometimes
> dubbed "roads scholars" because they teach at two and three
> campuses just to stay afloat financially.
>
> The new law has implications for all of California's 29,000
> part-time community-college instructors. In addition to its
> provisions on office hours and benefits, the bill requires the
> California Postsecondary Education Commission to conduct a
> major study of pay disparities between part-time and full-time
> faculty.
>
> Thomas J. Nussbaum, chancellor of California's
> community-college system, said he opposed the bill originally
> because it would have mandated that part-timers be paid
> salaries proportionate to those of full-time instructors.
>
> "That would have cost us between $250-million and $400-million
> a year," he said. "We were concerned about what we would have
> to take from to achieve that."
>
> Mr. Nussbaum said he had adopted a neutral stance on the
> matter and would withhold further judgment until the
> commission had compiled its study.
>
> When the law takes effect in January, it will change the
> criteria under which part-time faculty members may receive
> benefits. Currently, they are eligible only if they work the
> equivalent of a full-time load in two or more
> community-college districts. Under the new law, the
> eligibility requirement will be a 40-per-cent load or greater
> in one district. That could help half of the part-timers in
> the state, according to Tom Tyner, president of the
> community-college council of the state teachers' federation.
>
> Mr. Tyner said the Legislature had already earmarked
> $2-million a year to pay for the health-insurance benefits,
> and the new law includes $500,000 more for health insurance,
> he said.
>
> "The old law was so stringent, and not many part-time
> instructors could qualify," Mr. Tyner said.
>
> On office hours, college districts had been able to pay only
> those instructors who taught a 40-per-cent course load or
> greater. Under the new law, instructors at any level of
> teaching load could qualify for office-hours compensation. The
> law includes some financing for that, but individual
> community-college districts will have to choose whether or
> not to apply for the money. That financing will be adjusted
> each year as part of the annual budget process, and the actual
> amount will be based on the demand.
>
> "It will provide hundreds of thousands of students access to
> instructors they didn't have before," Mr. Tyner said. "That's
> the real educational impact."
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