Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) is committed to the participation of part-time faculty in all academic and professional matters, as evidenced by the inclusion and recognition of part-time faculty though committee appointments, numerous resolutions, position papers, and the adoption of Resolution 01.01 S23 Add a Designated At-Large Part-time Representative to the Executive Committee [1];
Whereas, The ASCCC “recognize[s] open educational resources as the preferred and most sustainable mechanism for eliminating course costs” as stated in Resolution 03.05 F21 Zero Means Zero Textbook Cost [2];
Whereas, In the creation of new open educational resources (OER), the Open Educational Resources Initiative has awarded projects to teams of faculty that include part-time faculty authors, showing that adequately compensating part-time faculty supports their involvement in the creation and adaptation of OER; and
Whereas, As of Fall 2022, the California Community Colleges system employs 36,305 (67.2%) part-time faculty—labeled as “academic, temporary” in the dashboard--in comparison to 17,727 (32.8%) full time faculty [3], indicating that part-time faculty teach the majority of classes and can have a substantial influence in helping colleges create zero-textbook-cost pathways by adapting and adopting open educational resources as instructional materials for their classes;
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges urge local academic senates to review their local policies and practices related to part-time faculty participating in open educational resources and zero-textbook-cost efforts to ensure that they do not create barriers for efforts that require a long-term commitment;
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges urge local academic senates to work in partnership with their administrative colleagues to ensure the inclusion of part-time faculty in all local open educational resources and zero-textbook-cost pathway efforts; and
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges urge local academic senates to work in partnership with their unions and administrative colleagues to secure the participation of part-time faculty in adopting and adapting open educational resources and in the creation of zero-textbook-cost pathways by adequately compensating them for their work.
MSU
1. https://www.asccc.org/resolutions/add-designated-large-part-time-representative-executive-committee
2. https://www.asccc.org/resolutions/zero-means-zero-textbook-cost
3. California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. Management Information Systems Datamart. “Faculty & Staff Demographics Report.” Retrieved September 21, 2023, from https://datamart.cccco.edu/Faculty-Staff/Staff_Demo.aspx