Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/1360078
C H R I S H O L L A N D has been teaching c ommuni cation studi e s p ar t tim e in Bakersfield College for a decade, hoping it might lead to a full-time tenured position. Recently, classes that she was scheduled to teach were eliminated, leaving her with just three units. So Holland, who is a pro- fessor and has a master's degree, works for Instacart to pay the bills. Community college part-timers like Holland are known as adjunct faculty. e Community College Association (CCA) members struggle to survive in regular times, but life in a pandemic has become even more stressful , as some colleges have cut classes and side jobs have dried up. Before the pandemic, many adjuncts spent hours driving from college to col- lege as " freeway f lyers," but most work online now. Adjuncts are paid much less than what full-time fac- ulty make, and by law must have the same minimum qualifications. e salary gap varies from campus to campus; some adjuncts make half the salary of full-time instructors. Noushin Seddighzadeh, a part-time math teacher at five campuses — includ- ing Saddleback, Orange Coast and Santa Ana colleges — has a master's degree in math and finance. But she makes so little money from all her part-time jobs that she can't support her children without driving for Amazon delivering groceries. Chantel Perales has a teaching load of 18 units this semester between her classes at Los Rios C CD (Community College District), Contra Costa CCD, and San Joaquin Delta College. The English professor has a master's degree but makes half of a full-time professor's salary at the colleges where she teaches. Survival, she says, is a struggle. Some adjuncts, like Holland and Seddighzadeh, can't afford health insurance. When Holland was injured in a Adjunct community college faculty face big challenges By Sherry Posnick-Goodwin "We are afraid to speak up, because we are at-will employees." —Chris Holland, Kern CCD/CCA When Chris Holland's classes were eliminated, she had to take on a job with Instacart to make ends meet. Part-Timers Part-Timers Parity for 32 cta.org Advocacy