FACULTY: UNION RIGHTS, FAIR SALARY, ACADEMIC FREEDOM

By Dana Rose Crystal

Our faculty must be "fed" --if they starve, we starve. Not only students need a healthy, happy faculty, but so, too, does the community at large.

Part-time teachers need enough money --increase their health benefits, and allocate enough money to promote part-timers to full-timers.

Full-timers sometimes feel constricted by lack of funds to buy equipment for their classes. One astute teacher of mine said "it isn't that deans are dumb...they just know teachers are creative" when it comes to figuring out how to work with a paltry budget.

Many of the older people who enroll in community colleges these days are trying to gain skills for a new career, because they were downsized. Vocational programs need enough funding, and also more respect. At FC, the student video editors are stressed for time and space due to strictures imposed by an ignorant dean's council (so I was told ).

Smart students value their teachers and support them! Teachers with a grip can come to me --in fact, many already have, because I am the sort of person to whom people come, since I commiserate with woes and troubles.

Some journalism teachers feel concerned their papers will be censored. I personally have experienced censorship, which was illegal, and will have to be dealt with ASAP. Recent procedures have been passed by campus committees to ensure academic freedom. Well, words are cheap, freedom is not. Let's see the administrators live up to their promises.

UNION RIGHTS MUST BE UPHELD! The actual accomplishments I expect and hope to achieve within the district will be: greater transparency and accountability; money allocated responsibly; the rights of the unions will be upheld ( unlike the disgraceful episode with the FC president holding up approval of curriculum in defiance of the teacher's union agreement, and the board backing her up --which brought the matter to point of lawsuit! ).

I will be prompt, devoted, dedicated, efficient, caring. I am a fast learner, which is what makes me such an excellent student --whatever I don't know, I will apply great effort to learning and gaining expertise. To be honest, this job does not require a rocket-scientist. Really? Most elected jobs DO NOT --which is evident by the looks of most elected officials! The job of Trustee of the NOCCCD does require someone who cares about the district and the people who work in it. It requires someone who thinks outside of the normal box and who is not afraid to challenge the status quo, because most of the problems are generated due to intimidation.