The CCA Fall Conference focused on all matters pertaining to bargaining, including an overview and bargaining implications around Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA).

CFA President Cindy Carney

Calbright Faculty Association (CFA) President Cindy Carney attended “Changes to Title V to Include DEIA Standards in Faculty Evaluation: Overview and Bargaining Implications,” led by CTA Staff Tom Pinkava. “I learned about the changes for DEIA when it comes to our evaluations and how we need to bargain it into our evaluation process. We just want to make sure that our students are treated respectfully in our content, whether it’s their pronouns, having accessibility to content or just recognizing that everybody learns differently. We want to make sure we are meeting the students where they are at with the types of resources,” said Carney.

Veronica Njoku-Carter, LBCCFA Negotiations

“It helped to be able to hear what other colleges are doing as far as how they are implementing DEIA,” said Veronica Njoku-Carter, who is on the negotiations team at the Long Beach City College Faculty Association (LBCCFA).

“Some colleges haven’t started, and some have already completed the process. I appreciate being able to collaborate and hear from others to collect information, so that we can look at some of the examples and possibly incorporate that into our agreement at our campus. We know that we work with a very diverse population. When we talk about diversity, it’s not just race and ethnicity. We’re also talking about ability levels and gender identities. There are so many different parts of our identities that make up our student population as well as our staff and employee population. I think DEIA is something we should all be committed to, and I feel like our faculty are committed.”

– Veronica Njoku-Carter, LBCCFA Negotiaions

The conference included the graduation of members who participated in the Building Strong Locals Academy (BSL), which is a program focused on strengthening local chapters, with the primary goal of educating members to serve effectively at the local chapter level with confidence and a working knowledge of their rights and responsibilities. Approximately 20 faculty members from local CCA chapters are chosen annually to participate in the Academy. The graduates began their exclusive training at the CCA Winter Conference and then participated in training sessions parallel to the CCA Spring and Fall conferences. The Academy was initially funded by a grant from NEA but is currently funded solely by CCA. Congratulations to the BSL Class of 2023!

• Sam Abbas, South Orange County Community College District Faculty Association
• Wonderful Nancy Allah, South Orange County Community College District Faculty Association
• Karen Beck, Rio Hondo College Faculty Association
• Dean Caivano, Merced College Faculty Association
• Suzanne Engelhardt, Long Beach City College Faculty Association
• Adam Fong, Merced College Faculty Association
• Megan Igo, Merced College Faculty Association
• Kelvin Leeds, Faculty Association of Rancho Santiago Community College District
• Timothy Linehan, College of the Sequoias Teachers Association
• Marina McLaughlin, Mt. San Antonio College Faculty Association
• Sierra Moussatche, Coast Community College Association
• Kim-Leiloni Nguyen, Mt. San Antonio College Faculty Association
• David Rentz, Chaffey College Faculty Association
• Dennis Sandoval, San Bernardino Community College District Teachers Association
• Kirk Thomsen, College of the Siskiyous CHEA CHPT
• Amber Wallick, San Bernardino Community College District Teachers Association

BSL Class of 2023

“I always like coming to [CCA conferences] because there are things that I don’t know about that come to light or what’s going on with advocacy or legislation that I don’t have access to or wouldn’t know where to look,” said Connie Isais, who is the Communications Chair for the Rio Hondo College Faculty Association (RHCFA). Isais attended “Digital Tools and Social Media to Support Local Bargaining Campaigns,” led by CTA Staff Gabriella Landeros.

RHCFA Communications Chair Connie Isais

CCA Northern Part-Time Faculty At-large Director Justin Bell and CCA Southern Part-Time Faculty At-large Director Geoffrey Johnson gave an overview of issues impacting part-time faculty. They support chapters as they are navigating these issues at their bargaining tables. “The big thing we are trying to talk about now is getting equal pay for equal job responsibilities. We’re trying to get equal inclusion of adjunct contingent faculty and trying to secure their job security, simply because of the record $200 million ongoing funding for part-time health care. What we need to do now is negotiate so that all adjuncts statewide, particularly for CCA, are getting the same medical coverage as their full-time colleagues with the same premiums. For chapters who have achieved this, my hope is that we can take what we’ve learned from looking at the tentative agreements that were later signed and the language put together there and use that to move this forward,” said Johnson. Both Johnson (directorspt@cca4us.org) and Bell (directornpt@cca4us.org) are available for any chapters looking for support on this.

CCA Southern Part-Time Faculty At-large Director Geoffrey Johnson and CCA Northern Part-Time Faculty At-large Director Justin Bell

The CCA Fall Conference ended with Council, where the new mission statement was approved: The Community College Association, with CTA and NEA as our partners, advocates for California’s public community college faculty, staff and students; empowers locals; builds strong and effective coalitions; promotes equity, inclusion, anti-racism, social justice and part-time faculty equality; and strives to preserve universal access to quality public education.