60% RULE HAS CHANGED—A LITTLE

NEW 67% RULE WILL BENEFIT PART-TIME FOREIGN LANGUAGE , MATH, AND ESL FACULTY

 

The California Legislature passed and the Governor signed on July 11 AB591. The new law changes the old 60% Rule by raising the maximum percentage of a full time load that a part time faculty member can work from 60% to 67%. The law will go into effect on January 1, 2009. This change most immediately affects faculty teaching 5 hour classes. With the new rule, these instructors will be able to teach two classes at the same college without exceeding their maximum allowed teaching load. Many foreign language, mathematics, and ESL instructors who teach 5 hour classes will benefit from this change.  Some part-time counselors and librarians will be able to work more hours as well.

The Faculty Association of Pasadena City College will negotiate with the Administration to introduce contract language that will implement this change into the faculty contract. The Faculty Association expects that part time faculty will begin teaching up to a maximum of 10 hours beginning in the Winter 2009 Intersession. Previous rulings make it clear that the new 67% Rule, like the former 60% Rule, applies only to classroom teaching in regular classes. Part time faculty can substitute, receive stipends, and work in all other capacities at the same college and in the same department without limit and still not violate the 67% Rule.

The old 60% rule, originally imposed more than twenty years ago, allowed part time faculty to teach no more than “60%” of a full time load. For example, in most departments at PCC, a full time faculty load is 15 classroom hours, so a part time faculty member could only teach 60% of that load, or 9 classroom hours. Those part time faculty who taught in departments that offered 5 hour classes were only able to teach one class per district. Raising the ceiling to 67% will allow them to teach two classes in the same district, thus reducing their need to commute and allowing them to work at a smaller number of colleges.

Originally, the sponsors of this bill, most notably the California Part Time Faculty Association, wanted to eliminate the ceiling entirely, allowing part time faculty to teach 80% or even 100% of a full time load at a single college. Other faculty advocates opposed this idea, arguing among other things that raising the allowable teaching level would encourage colleges to hire “part time” faculty to do full time teaching and would not gain part time faculty any additional benefits, such as parity pay or rights of rehire or access to benefits, while discouraging colleges from hiring more full time tenure track faculty. These arguments prevailed, so the compromise of 67% was finally agreed upon to correct at least one inequity of the present system. The future of the 67% Rule remains controversial, and most part time faculty still face work hardships and inconvenience as a result of the 67% Rule.