CSUN University News Clippings

Part-timers hit hardest by community college faculty cuts

(November 6, 2009)

By Jean Cowden Moore

Part-time college faculty members, usually called adjuncts or lecturers, are being hit the hardest by layoffs prompted by state budget cuts.

Local community colleges have laid off at least 100 part-time faculty members but none of their full-time colleagues. CSU Channel Islands in Camarillo might have to lay off adjuncts next semester if the state imposes midyear budget cuts, officials said.

“We just don’t know what the budget numbers are going to be,” said Nancy Deans, a chemistry adjunct at Channel Islands and vice president of lecturers for the California Faculty Association. “People are very nervous.”

The layoffs come on top of already challenging job conditions for part-time instructors, who often receive no benefits, have little job security and usually are paid less than full-time professors.

I cross my fingers and just hope.” Some work at several campuses, trying to cobble together a teaching schedule that provides a decent living, earning them the nickname “freeway fliers.” If they have offices at all, they share them with other people.

Publication: Ventura County Star