District-Faculty Negotiations

As a 16-year resident of Ventura County and as an educator, I have had nothing but good experiences of the full-time and part-time faculty at our community colleges.

I have taken classes in the Music Department at Moorpark College and have been impressed at the energy and the attention paid by the faculty to the students. I could not work that hard.

When my wife was a part-time teacher at Ventura College and at Moorpark, I occasionally accompanied her to the campuses and experienced firsthand the demanding conditions under which part-timers work, especially the large classes and no offices in which to work or meet students.

My wife competed for and won a full-time position at Moorpark [and] I marvel at the dedication that keeps her and most full-timers like her working six and even seven days a week for the two 17-week semesters per year. Like many of her colleagues, my wife is available to her students by e-mail and by phone at home, and her students take full advantage of this privilege.

My religious tradition underscores the rights of workers to bargain collectively for their wages and conditions, and I can tell you firsthand that these laborers are worthy of their hire (1 Timothy 5:18). I am praying that the negotiators will reach a settlement that is good for the students, respectful of the teachers and careful of the resources of us taxpayers. A just resolution to these negotiations will bring much needed peace to the finest educational resources in our county: our community colleges.

PAUL F. FORD, Professor of Theology and Liturgy, St. John’s Seminary, Camarillo

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Re “College District Talks Continue Amid Strike Concerns,” July 2.

The views expressed by part-time Ventura College instructor Ted Fickel are in the minority among the teachers.

He says that he does not agree with the union’s position because faculty members in the Ventura County district earn more than their counterparts in Los Angeles.

First, he presumes (incorrectly) that salary is the main issue in the stalled negotiations. Second, he ignores the fact that managers in the Ventura County district earn more than their counterparts in most other counties. And third, why assume without argument that if A earns more than B it can only be because A earns too much? Why not entertain the possibility that B earns to little?

JANICE DAURIO, Camarillo