Administration says there’s not enough in the budget to accommodate a COLA for faculty. Meanwhile, the district approves raises for administration and classified workers.
By Max Taves / Special to The Malibu Times
Santa Monica College faculty rejected the college district’s most recent salary proposal last week in a facultywide advisory election by a vote of 393 to 25.
At issue is a 2 percent retroactive raise for the 2004-2005 school year that would cost approximately half a million dollars. The Faculty Association, an independent union representing full- and part-time SMC faculty, has demanded the same raise that the SMC administration will receive. SMC administration claims that current budget projections preclude the Faculty Association’s demands.
The district has successfully brokered a deal with administration and classified workers, a category of employees that ranges from janitors to secretaries. The deal pledges a 2 percent cost of living adjustment, or COLA, for the 2004-2005 year and a 3.5 percent raise beginning January 2006. The district has not offered faculty the same 2 percent COLA.
In an internal e-mail to faculty, SMC Business Chair Fran Chandler encouraged resistance to the district’s proposal.
“It is unconscionable that the district would even think about giving part-time and full-time faculty less than they have already given themselves,” she wrote. “Therefore, it is VERY IMPORTANT [sic] that we make sure our negotiators know that this is NOT ACCEPTABLE to us.”
The 2 percent COLA would be the first raise since the 2002-2003 school year for faculty. The statewide budget crisis beginning in 2002 forced drastic budget cuts throughout state institutions and did not spare the college. Hundreds of employees were cut and dozens of courses canceled throughout the 2003-2004 school year.
Despite the first budget cuts of 2002, faculty at SMC received a 2 percent COLA. Administration and classified employees did not receive the adjustment that year because their contract had expired. When the budget crisis continued in 2003-2004, no employees received a raise.
Interim SMC President Thomas Donner defended the district’s pledge not to extend to faculty the same 2 percent COLA as administration and classified employees will receive.
“If we give it to you [the faculty] for ’04-’05, then we will have given it to you twice and the classified will come back and say, ‘Wait a minute. You gave it to them twice. We want 2 percent more too,'” Donner said. “The amount that the classified and administration got in ’04-’05 was the 2 percent that you got in ’02-’03.”
Mitra Moassessi, the chief negotiator for the Faculty Association, disputed this argument.
“What year do we start? Why are we starting in the year 2002?” Moassessi asked. “We can go back and say, ‘Two years before that, for example, administrators got X percent and faculty got Y percent.’ The whole argument is a false argument because you can … change your starting year and change the argument to one side or the other.”
A sudden and unexpected increase in California’s budget beginning last year has increased SMC’s budget by approximately $8.3 million. This new income has allowed SMC to repair the problems created by the earlier crisis but has also incited a fight over its distribution.
Donner said the new money has been used to rejuvenate the college in the wake of the budget cuts, leaving little money for a faculty raise.
“All the money that they [the faculty] talk about, the college has used it to bring its programs back again,” he said.
Donner cites the projected $3 million end-of-the-year budget as evidence of the college’s tight financial situation. The state of California suggests that community colleges maintain a reserve fund of $6 million, but ultimately leaves college administrators with the responsibility over its exact size and distribution.
A study by the Faculty Association, however, disputes the size of the projected budget. Lantz Simpson, Faculty Association president, said, “They [the district] always overstate expenses and understate revenue, so that is what Tom [Donner] is doing right now. Historically, their budget is going to come in a lot better than what Tom is saying now.”
According to the study that examines 10 years of SMC budgets, the difference between projected expenses and revenue has been overestimated by 133 percent. If this trend continues this year, then the budget would have an additional $661,992.
The next bargaining session is scheduled for Dec. 19. State regulations make a legal strike for community college faculty unlikely. If a contract were signed, it would be the faculty’s first since August 2004.
Dr. Chui L. Tsang, president of San Jose City College, was named Superintendent/President of Santa Monica College, effective Feb. 27. It is uncertain what effect this will have on the current negotiations.