Community College Union Elects Leader

The teachers union for the Ventura County Community College District on Friday elected a Moorpark College biology instructor as its new leader.

Larry Miller, a Moorpark teacher for 25 years, ran unopposed in the mail-ballot election to represent the district’s approximately 1,000 instructors for the next two years.

He replaced Barbara Hoffman, a Ventura College counselor, who had served as president for the past four years.

Miller said one of his chief concerns will be to bring the college into the 21st Century by supporting technological improvements and new teaching methods.

“In terms of how we teach, we are 300 years behind,” he said. “We get up and lecture to the class. They write down notes. We give a test and give them a grade.”

In addition, Miller said, he would like to focus the district’s attention on part-time instructors, who he says are overworked and underpaid.

“A part-time teacher comes in and teaches the same number of students, the same courses,” he said. “But they are getting paid half of what the full-timer was.”

As a result of past budget cuts, all three of the district’s schools have begun to rely more and more on part-time instructors.

Miller, who holds a doctorate in biology, has been active in the union as its budget analyst and chief negotiator from 1987 to 1994. He has also served as Moorpark College’s academic senate president for three one-year terms.