Re “Culver Crest Bitterness Over Rocha Hardly Has Abated”
[Editor’s Note: Turbulence on the Pasadena City College campus over widespread student and faculty dissatisfaction with President Dr. Mark Rocha, is not the only ongoing dispute. This editorial appeared in the Pasadena Sun, a community newspaper, over the weekend.]
[img]1769|right|Dr. Mark Rocha||no_popup[/img]Nine months after its previous contract expired, the Pasadena City College Faculty Assn. remains without a new one — and there are no signs that the union’s leadership, which is arguing that PCC is in great financial shape, is willing to budge.
In particular, the union is complaining about the decision last summer to cancel the abbreviated winter session courses and move to a three-semester academic calendar.
The union and student groups claim the move thwarts students’ abilities to earn credits for transfers to four-year institutions within reasonable time frames.
But, according to the college president, Mark Rocha, a mere handful of students have reported any issues with transfers, and all been successfully assisted.
While union leaders talk in public about the change’s impacts on students, talk in the negotiation room appears to deal with the impact of winter session’s removal on teacher paychecks.
Payment for teaching extra classes in winter has helped many fulltime faculty with salaries of more than $100,000 per year earn tens of thousands more in extra pay.
Union leaders have asked for $1 million to replace winter earnings, according to PCC General Counsel Gail Cooper, and have also initiated formal unfair labor practices against the college.
Ridiculous. This impasse has been tearing the campus apart. The students and the union leaders need to act like adults. It’s time to put the teachers’ contract to a faculty-wide vote and see if this can’t be resolved now.
