Waiting

Fiscal crisis are the norm all around the country. In California those of us who work in education are anticipating the results of a ballot measure on the November election. For many of us, I would guess that the passage or non-passage of this particular proposition is nearly as important as the presidential race.

If the measure passes, the community colleges will be able to avoid cutting more classes. If it does not pass, the cuts will be devastating to the education of thousands and thousands of students. The reduced class offerings also means layoffs for faculty and staff: a lot of unemployment.

The signs of waiting vary. One school has created two different schedules for spring classes. I haven't heard the particulars yet, but it would seem that we will be given tentative schedules with the understanding that big changes may occur after the election; in other words our classes come with fewer guarantees than usual. Usually we know before mid-October what we are teaching in January so that we have plenty of time to plan and order books, etc. For adjunct instructors, the possibility of a class being cut or taken over by a full-time faculty member is always a possibility until 2 weeks into the semester. Although historically this a rare occurrence, without passage of this tax measure, we could order our books and begin planning in earnest only to find out that no books or syllabi will be needed.

Perhaps the most telling sign of waiting is the types of job openings at this level. There are small surges in schools advertising for adjunct positions. So far there are no postings for full-time positions. None. Even the adjunct positions are vague about start dates and often include language like, "as needed."

I wonder if the measure passes if the collective release of breath will stoke the embers of dying hiring committees enough that a sudden surplus of full time openings will become available. I can actually imagine the hiring frenzy once departments all over the state have the ability to loosen their fiscal belts enough to take in full breaths. Once the oxygen flows to the collective brain power will they begin to fill the void left by retirements, cuts and natural attrition?

From one fiscal point of view, hiring part-time employees is far less expensive than full-time tenure track. We earn considerably less per hour, often contribute, unpaid, to committees and have access to fewer, if any, benefits. We are not required to work unpaid, but many of us attempt to step into the void left by hiring freezes and staffing cuts because we genuinely want to help our colleagues and our students. If we are hoping for full-time work down the road, the committee work looks great on a resume.

The other, more realistic but less discussed, fiscal perspective is that without dedicated, full-time employees completing the work of the college, a great deal of work left undone has negative effects on students. This is as true at the staff level as at the faculty level. Lost or unseen information creates an often unpredictable, and always negative, impact. Losing any students within the system is harmful, for the student and the college.

The landscape of higher education is in the midst of a mutant evolution. Evolution occurs as a response to a change, a mutation. The financial needs of colleges are changing as the funding mechanism changes. California can no longer guarantee open access to higher education; that legacy is about to be taken off life support. One result of the fiscal changes at the community college level is a shift in priority towards students who are focused on specific goals: vocational training, graduation and transfer. The local community college will no longer be the place to go when you want art, jewelry making, dance or exercise classes; personal enrichment and lifelong learning will no longer be viable or supported goals. If you can't make up your mind what to major in, you better get out now. Too many units means you aren't able to register for classes because you clearly aren't goal oriented enough to be here.

Change is change, the colleges we know today are vastly different than what they were a few generations ago. Santa Rosa Junior College is called a junior college because at one time there was a distinct kind of school that needed that label. Ultimately the concept became obsolete and the community college became the new label to fill the new needs, a response to the changes. Community colleges now are shifting their focus from communities to students. The name, the label, may not change, but how the system caters to students is and will continue to change.

In the meantime we wait to see how those changes will play out. Wait for November. Wait for the election results. Wait to see which changes will occur and which will be left behind.