Trustees approve raises for Glendale Community College faculty, staff
Glendale Community College officials approved giving raises to adjunct and full-time faculty as well as other employees, in what is seen as a first step toward financial recovery.
Under the agreement, full-time faculty at the college will receive an ongoing 1.75% raise and a one-time 2.75% raise retroactive to July 2015and lasting through June 2016, said Zohara Kaye, president of the college’s faculty guild.
The college’s adjunct faculty will receive a 5.5% raise, Kaye added. However, only 2.75% of that total percentage will be ongoing after the 2015-16 fiscal year concludes.
The cost to provide the raises for adjunct and full-time faculty alone amounts to an annual $2.2 million cost for the college.
The raises are a sign of the campus operating on a stronger financial foothold after years of drastic budget cuts that began in 2008.
By early 2012, the college was reeling after cutting pay for its management, classified and faculty employees, while also anticipating the need to make $2 million more in budget cuts.
By that time, college officials had already eliminated winter and summer sessions and were only authorizing the most critical purchases after implementing a purchasing freeze.
Even as classes were cut and students found themselves on long waiting lists for courses, the college didn’t falter in perhaps what is one of its greatest objectives.
Among the 21 community colleges across Los Angeles County, Glendale Community College reported having the highest percentage of students who transferred to four-year schools between 2008 and 2014.
During those years of unprecedented budget cuts, 47.4% of students at the Glendale campus transferred to four-year universities, followed by 46.5% students who transferred from Pasadena City College and 44.8% transfers from Santa Monica College.
That transfer-rate achievement alone was cited as a reason for the college’s faculty deserving a pay raise, Kaye said during the meeting when the trustees approved the pay increases.
“This raise is a reasonable first step toward restoring our lost purchasing power. After all, our faculty, who continue to maintain [the college’s] status as a premier institution with the highest percent of transfer rates in the county, deserve to be paid a premier salary,” Kaye said. “If we want to stay premier, we need to continue to attract and retain highly qualified faculty, and this is one step toward it.”
College officials said they hope to offer more raises in the future.
“We will work hard, and hopefully the state will be responsive toward us, to make sure we can continue to give you more,” said Tony Tartaglia, trustee board president.
David Viar, the college’s superintendent and president, agreed.
“We’ll continue to do what we can in terms of the future negotiations,” he said.
In a separate agreement, college trustees also approved in December, a 2.25% raise retroactive to July for classified employees and a one-time raise of 2.75% for the 2015-16 fiscal year.
The pay hikes for classified employees result in an ongoing cost to the college of $850,000 per year.
The college’s management employees, including college deans, directors and other managers, received the same raise percentages over the same period of time as the classified employees.
The raises for management employees amount to an ongoing cost of $390,000 annually for the college.
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Kelly Corrigan, kelly.corrigan@latimes.com
Twitter: @kellymcorrigan
