Did you know: ASCCC has put out their Senate Rostrum for July 2020? The focus is on race, with stories of our colleagues and their personal experiences, insights into being a person of color in academia, and recommendations for moving forward.
Facts:
‘Collegiality’ can be an exclusionary term. According to author Adrienne C. Brown in her article, “Deconstructing Collegiality and Constructing Courageous Conversations,” even the term ‘collegiality’ was historically meant to exclude people (those outside the college) from the conversation. Today it can sometimes be used as a cloak to keep us from discussing difficult issues.
Percentages of faculty of color are higher in part-time than full-time positions. Ms. Brown recommends getting involved with your Union and fighting for adjunct faculty and staff, especially around areas such as health care coverage, because faculty of color are more likely to be teaching in the adjunct ranks. Here at Palomar College, our District has established a two-tiered system where a hard monetary cap, set at a low and non-increasing amount, is placed on health insurance for our part-time faculty, while no cap exists for-full time faculty. This creates systematic and institutional inequity.
Diversity and equity are not the same thing. Dr. Nyree Berry, in his article titled, “Do They Really Care about Us; The Civil Rights Act 1964: Diversity, and Equity,” discusses the premise that achieving diversity is not the same thing as achieving equity. And that diversity can even be used as a cover to prevent the elimination of systematic racism.
There is a bias against women of color and part-time instructors. In “Do I Matter,” part-time instructor Dr. Elizabeth Craig Walker takes us along with her personal journey from college into community college professorship, where she confronts the multitudes of bias against women of color and part-time instructors. She talks about her internal debate concerning whether or not to leave the profession.
Bottom line: The entire Rostrum is an excellent read. In the spirit of striving for equity at many levels, please consider taking some time with it. Your campus Union is actively discussing our role on campus in promoting social justice in the face of institutional racism and inequities, and hope you will join us in that conversation.
The PFF will be providing textbooks for PFF members who enroll in the newly created section of AS 101- African American History at Palomar for the Fall 2020 semester. This online section is reserved for Faculty and Staff at Palomar College to learn about the origins of systemic racism and how Africans became African Americans. Please visit this page for more information and steps to sign up! Faculty can receive Salary Scale Credit for enrolling in and completing this course- this will be a great opportunity for Palomar employees to be students together and advance their understanding of the origins of our country.
PFF also approved support of up to $5,000 for the Palomar Equity and Inclusion workgroup’s multi pronged efforts to combat bias and inequity on our campus in the upcoming school year.
If you have not yet had the opportunity to become a Union member, please visit us at https://www.palomarfacfed.org/belong.