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In a controversial vote, the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) today declared a financial emergency over the protest of faculty leaders throughout the state. A law created in 1981, RCW 28B.50.873, allows presidents at community and technical colleges to expedite the termination of full-time, tenure-track and tenured faculty and modifies some reduction-in-force processes outlined in collective bargaining agreements. This law does not apply to four-year colleges and universities.

 

Many faculty wrote to board members and testified at state board meetings protesting the action. AFT Washington, the union representing faculty at 22 community and technical colleges, is considering a vote of no confidence against Charlie Earl, SBCTC executive director, for his support of the financial emergency declaration.

 

 “We are deeply disappointed in the board’s decision,” said Sandra Schroeder, AFT Washington President. “The financial emergency declaration is an unnecessary blunt object that will allow college presidents an easy way to resolve their bad management decisions on the backs of faculty and will impact the students’ success in achieving their degrees.”

 

Despite record-high student enrollments, a number of colleges had already eliminated classes and laid off adjunct faculty as a result of the state budget deficit.  Most had resolved their budget cuts without terminating full-time faculty.

 

Full-time faculty currently make up only about 40 percent of the college faculty workforce statewide. The remaining 60 percent are “perma-temps” – part-time instructors who are hired to teach from quarter to quarter.

 

Our community and technical colleges are the key to economic recovery for Washington. Supporting them makes economic sense in these tough times. For every dollar spent on higher education in two-year colleges, there is a 7% return on this investment – higher than average for most public investments. Because of the bad economy, over 9,000 additional students have enrolled since last fall, of which 15% are enrolled for the worker retraining programs; 31% are parents; 51% work full- or part-time; and 20% are currently unemployed.

 

Full-time faculty are the core of this recovery effort. Terminating them hurts students.

 

AFT Washington has posted a fact sheet on the financial emergency declaration on their web site at http://tinyurl.com/financial-emergency.

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