Community College or Corporate U?

For the past two years the Ventura County Community College Board of Trustees and Chancellor Philip Westin have been moving to centralize the governance of our college district in the hands of themselves and top management in spite of California law mandating shared governance between faculty and administration.

One of the keystones of this movement is the steady increase in the number of part-time hourly faculty. These instructors are paid only for the hours they teach and, unlike full-time faculty, are not expected to participate in the college community. They have no offices, no job security, no benefits and no say in matters beyond the classrooms in which they teach.

Most are splendid instructors, and nothing said here is meant in any way to detract from the outstanding work they do. They are not the problem, but the increase in their numbers is, for it signals our college district’s intentional movement toward a kind of corporate structure based on low pay and lack of employee input.

But colleges are not corporations. Rather, they are transitional institutions, between the world of the family and the so-called real world (which naturally includes corporations).

We faculty do our best when we are able to devote our time, energies and intellects to our students and to our colleges. To accomplish this requires a level of commitment far beyond the walls of the classroom. It requires our active participation in productions and on committees such as peer evaluation, budget development, curriculum and hiring. The list goes on and on and finally adds up to what every good college is: a community based on full-time faculty, full-time staff and full-time administrators working together to provide what is best for students.

We full-time faculty take part in these essential activities for many reasons. Fundamental to all of them is our desire to be part of--and proud of--our college by doing our part to help ensure its existence as a community in which we all have a say, in which all manner of expertise is enlisted in service of excellence.

We view what we do as expressions of shared governance, something we must have if we are to believe in all that we do, and in what we say when we tell our students that everyone can make a difference.

Naturally, some contribute more than others. Be that as it may, the point remains that to play a meaningful role in this community requires full-time status.

Recently, however, we have reached the point where most courses offered in the Ventura Community College District are taught by part-time instructors. So the unmistakable drift away from community continues as we follow in the footsteps of many corporations, hiring increasing numbers of part-time employees and independent contractors.

Does it make it easier for teachers to instill in students a love of learning, the hope of realizing their potential and the attainability of the good life, if most instructors who stand before them in their classes are part-time instructors, in spite of having earned bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees?

This is becoming a “do as I say” rather than “see what I am” situation. Think of the message students are getting: Continue your education and you might become a part-time employee. Where is the incentive for students to do their best when those who have done and are doing their best have so little to show for it?

Our chancellor’s recent remarks make it clear that he is intrigued, even fascinated, by the business community. As such, he appears to base his view of our community college district’s future on a business model.

However, no matter how much the board and the chancellor might wish it, a college is not a corporation. If they try to make it one, they will destroy it.

Most of what a college offers its students comes from the dedication, sense of purpose and good will of its full-time employees who, working together, create its community.

The ever-increasing dependency on part-time instruction is rapidly becoming a defining characteristic of our college district and a major threat to shared governance. This is a sad trend and one that must be stopped.

The board and chancellor must reverse direction and give the highest possible priority to funding full-time positions even if it means--as it should--shared governance.