College Salaries

I wish our union could honestly claim credit for negotiating a three-year, 22.5% salary increase for L.A. Community College District faculty, the figure incorrectly reported in “L.A. Community Colleges Face Dire Budget Crunch” (Jan. 31). Alas, we can’t. Our actual average increase was much closer to the 12% figure that the article accurately reports for administrators and support staff. When a negotiated 20% reduction in faculty summer school pay is figured in, the faculty, administrator and staff three-year salary increases all turn out to be in the 12%-14% range. It’s still a good increase, so I’m not complaining, even though L.A. still has a long way to go to reach even the statewide median.

I wonder if the primary goal of district fiscal managers is solving the district’s serious financial problems or attacking the faculty union. When these managers bemoan the “waste” of resources at the colleges and refuse to cut the district office to address the fiscal problems, my suspicions grow. Jim Heinselman, the new interim chancellor, is a fair-minded man. Let’s hope that he can bring some objectivity to the discussion and engage all the constituency groups in the process of solving the district’s financial problems.

CARL FRIEDLANDER, President

AFT College Guild, Local 1521

Los Angeles