Reedley College needs more tenure-track positions

Regarding recent letters about the State Center Community College District’s Oakhurst center: I offer my heartfelt empathy.

While some SCCCD trustees may have the best intentions, reality remains. Clearly, the system needs to serve students at all facilities more fully, not only with adequate infrastructure, but with enough classes, too. Despite the steadily increasing enrollment at Reedley College, for example, the trustees refuse to open the necessary full-time, tenure-track positions that would enable a greater amount of classes offered.

Instead, SCCCD employs hundreds of adjuncts and repeatedly opens one-year temporary positions in all disciplines, as students hopelessly flock to classes already filled beyond capacity. Obviously, this saves the district millions, no doubt. When an instructor at Reedley College retires at one site, that position often opens at either Fresno City College or at Clovis Community College Center instead.

And finally, the number of adjunct faculty outnumbers full-time, tenured teachers by at least 200%. Adjunct faculty are not salaried employees — they are paid by the unit, on a semester-by-semester basis, instead, without any regard for the countless hours spent grading, preparing and tutoring.

Should adjuncts move on to other careers? Maybe. I guess another hopeful adjunct will always come along.

This story was originally published July 22, 2015 at 6:46 AM with the headline "Reedley College needs more tenure-track positions."