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San José/Evergreen Federation Of Teachers AFT 6157 Faculty Matters May 2017 A Look Inside Spring Four www.fa-aft6157.org (408) 288-3106 fax (408) 295-7482 213 Student Center San José City College Acacia 1-205 Evergreen Valley College San José City College 2100 Moorpark Avenue San José, CA 95128 Prez Sez By Paul Fong PAGE 1-2 Introducing Edna Dolatre By Marylin Crawford PAGE 3 ACCJC Part Deux By David Yancey PAGE 4 Can Noncredit Education Increase Our Enrollment? By Kathy Jasper PAGE 5 Faculty Voices Count! PAGE 6-7 Affirming Science in Silicon Valley on Earth Day 2017 By Hasan Rahim PAGE 8-9 Statements from EVC Representatives By Andres Quintero and Elaine Ortiz-Kristich PAGE 10 What Has the Union Done for You Lately? By Barbara Hanfling PAGE 11 A Great Saturday By Bill Jacobs PAGE 12 Prez Sez Solidarity March Noncredit offerings should be treated the same as credit courses - continued on page 3 By Paul Fong, AFT 6157 President Members of the AFT 6157 participated in several important events in late April and early May. Bowling for Change, sponsored by the South Bay Labor Council, was a lot of fun, watching teammate Mayra Cruz with her per- fect form, bowling impressive games; Barbara Hanfling bowling a strike and Andres Quintero improving tremen- dously from last year’s score, breaking the century mark. Thank you to Jory Segal and husband Joel, Andres Quintero, Barbara and Mayra Cruz for joining AFT 6157. And thank you to Frank and Janina Espinoza for being our cheerleaders. The entire 4th Street bowl was full of labor groups, supporting the SBLC in its mission of providing services to more than 100,000 working families in the South Bay. The other notable event was the May Day March. Some Executive Board members and rank-and-file members marched in the May 1 march and rally in downtown San Jose. It was great that Andres Quintero helped us carry our AFT 6157 banner through the entire march of more than three miles. Andres truly believes in “Organize and Resist” the Trump agenda. Thanks also to Fabio Gonzalez, Kathy Jasper, Erika Lawson On May 9th, faculty members from SJCC and EVC gathered at the SJECCD Board of Trustees meeting to express their dissatisfaction with the District’s latest contract proposal. Standing left to right: Kathy Jasper, Paul Fong, Eric Narveson, Linda Ferrell, Jessica Breheny, Phil Crawford, Leslie Rice, Rosemary Bautista, Randy Pratt, Jesus Covarrubius. Seated in front: Jory Segal.

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Page 1: Faculty A Loo Inside Matters - AFT6157aft6157.org › wp-content › uploads › 2017 › 08 › FacultyMatters_2017-05.pdf · San José/Evergreen Federation Of Teachers AFT 6157

San José/Evergreen Federation Of Teachers AFT 6157

Faculty Matters

May 2017

A Look Inside

Spring Four

www.fa-aft6157.org

(408) 288-3106fax (408) 295-7482

213 Student CenterSan José City College

Acacia 1-205Evergreen Valley College

San José City College 2100 Moorpark Avenue

San José, CA 95128

Prez Sez By Paul Fong

PAGE 1-2

Introducing Edna Dolatre By Marylin Crawford

PAGE 3

ACCJC Part Deux By David Yancey

PAGE 4

Can Noncredit Education Increase Our Enrollment?

By Kathy Jasper PAGE 5

Faculty Voices Count! PAGE 6-7

Affirming Science in Silicon Valley on Earth Day 2017

By Hasan Rahim PAGE 8-9

Statements from EVC Representatives

By Andres Quintero and Elaine Ortiz-Kristich

PAGE 10

What Has the Union Done for You Lately?

By Barbara Hanfling PAGE 11

A Great Saturday By Bill Jacobs

PAGE 12

Prez SezSolidarity MarchNoncredit offerings should be treated the same as credit courses

- continued on page 3

By Paul Fong, AFT 6157 President

Members of the AFT 6157 participated in several important events in late April and early May. Bowling for Change, sponsored by the South Bay Labor Council, was a lot of fun, watching teammate Mayra Cruz with her per-fect form, bowling impressive games; Barbara Hanfling bowling a strike and Andres Quintero improving tremen-dously from last year’s score, breaking the century mark.

Thank you to Jory Segal and husband Joel, Andres Quintero, Barbara and Mayra Cruz for joining AFT 6157. And thank you to Frank and Janina Espinoza for being our cheerleaders.

The entire 4th Street bowl was full of labor groups, supporting the SBLC in its mission of providing services to more than 100,000 working families in the South Bay.

The other notable event was the May Day March. Some Executive Board members and rank-and-file members marched in the May 1 march and rally in downtown San Jose. It was great that Andres Quintero helped us carry our AFT 6157 banner through the entire march of more than three miles. Andres truly believes in “Organize and Resist” the Trump agenda. Thanks also to Fabio Gonzalez, Kathy Jasper, Erika Lawson

On May 9th, faculty members from SJCC and EVC gathered at the SJECCD Board of Trustees meeting to express their dissatisfaction with the District’s latest contract proposal. Standing left to right: Kathy Jasper, Paul Fong, Eric Narveson, Linda Ferrell, Jessica Breheny, Phil Crawford, Leslie Rice, Rosemary Bautista, Randy Pratt, Jesus Covarrubius. Seated in front: Jory Segal.

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Faculty Matters ♦ May 2017

2

and Barbara Hanfling for joining us. May is a busy month with many events scheduled including graduation offered at both EVC and SJCC. It has also been declared Asian Pacific American Heri-tage month by Congress.

Negotiations-Pitting our Most Vul-nerable Students against our Most Vulnerable Adjunct FacultyThe District has a proposal that counters its mission of social justice for all. They have offered a much needed 10th step for our adjunct faculty in exchange to load our noncredit instructors with 25 hours as opposed to the current 15 hours for lecture and 20 hours for lab.

Noncredit faculty work with our most vulnerable students and therefore it is usually much more difficult to teach such classes.

When I served on the State Legislature, the officials also knew this fact, which is why the legislature funded credit and noncredit for CD/CP classes (Career Development/College Prep) with the identical same funding.

SJECCD is increasing our noncredit offerings in our District, and these class-es should be treated the same as credit courses. Creating this second-class instructor is unfair to our noncredit faculty.

We at the AFT 6157 have rejected the noncredit teaching load of 25 hours. The Executive Board has created important arguments to oppose the differential treatment of our credit and noncredit faculty. (See below) We are extremely blessed to have this group of social justice advocates on our Execu-tive Board.

1. Noncredit teaching includes work-ing with our most vulnerable stu-dents and needs full-time and adjunct faculty as qualified as for every other

course we teach. If we pay them less per course by requiring more time in the classroom, we are robbing our students of the very best.

2. As the District values social justice and equity, we don’t want a lower classification of faculty so we will have two tiers of faculty. Those who teach credit and spend 15-20 hours in the classroom; and those who teach noncredit and spend 25 hours in the classroom.

3. Based on the commitment the Dis-trict made last year in negotiations to treat noncredit faculty identi-cally to credit faculty, departments were energized to create the new curriculum for noncredit. This en-ergy to serve our most vulnerable and needy students will not be sustained.

4. SB 860 equalized funding for non-credit classes. Why? Because the legislature believed that these CD/CP classes should be paid at the same level and at the same load. The Legislators recognized that non-credit is the key to success through strong workforce, student success and the noncredit consortium.

5. What do most other colleges do? Most other colleges bargained non-credit when state apportionment was only paying half of what it paid for credit. Therefore they agreed to 25 hours per week. Now the state has determined the CD/CP noncredit, which is all we will teach, is equiva-lent in pay to credit. Therefore there is no reason why we shouldn’t pay and load them identically to credit.

Executive Board MembersPresident Paul Fong x6018Vice-President Randy Pratt* x6592Fiscal Officer Linda Ferrell x3231

AFT 6157 Representatives EVC Full-time Nasreen Rahim x6246 EVC Full-time Elaine Ortiz-Kristich x6680 EVC Adjunct Andres Quintero x3779

SJCC Full-time Michael Berke x3307 SJCC Full-time Fabio Gonzalez* x3168 SJCC Adjunct Phil Crawford x3779

At Large Adjunct Jory Segal*# x3779

Ex-Officio Past President David Yancey x3873 Grievance Officer Mark Newton#* x3989 Retiree President Bill Jacobs x3779 ___________ #Grievance Officers *Negotiations Team

Council of Division Representatives

San José City College

Math and Science Jose Cabrera x3983 Guillermo Castilla x6674

Humanities and Social Sciences Hung Trieu x3064

Applied Science Jonathan Cronan x3779 Pat Space x3782 Isai Ulate x3836 Business/Service Careers Clem Lundie x3236 Carol Ramirez x3974

Language Arts Rebecca Gamez x3308 Jessica Breheny x3072

Instructional Tech/Learning Resources, Counseling and Athletics/PE Elena Dutra x3943 Carlton Connor x3847 Tuan Ngo x3651 Bob Wing x3945

Evergreen Valley College

Business, Applied Technology RJ Ruppenthal x6619

Counseling Mirella Burton x6014 Charlie Kahn Lomax x6666

Language Arts Sravani Banerjee x6697 Ken Jardin x6695

Technology/Instructional Services Shelly Blackman x6660 Lorena Mata x6743

Math/Science Teck Ky x6877

Nursing Elaine Kafle x6056 Garry Johnson x6264

Social Science/Humanities/Arts/PE Minerva Duke x6663 Frank Espinoza x6062 Steven Graham x3779 Arturo Villarreal x6245

Prez Sez- continued from page 1

is pleased to support

The South Bay Labor Council Committee on Political Education

2017 Bowling for Change

THAT’S HOW WE ROLL!

UNITY

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Edna’s vision for the Den-tal Assisting Program: The SJCC Den-tal Assisting program will provide the community with competent dental assis-tants and serve as catalyst for individuals and businesses to excel in providing the best dental care.

Edna said she loves to teach Dental Ma-terials and Chairside Assisting. Dental assisting students must master these skills before going into practice. It was great to share Edna’s passion with my information about the college and our union AFT 6157.

Edna is passionate about traveling. She has travelled to various cities in Asia and Europe. Her most recent experienc-es are shopping in Guangzhou, China, and swimming with whale sharks and sea turtles in Dumaguete, Philippines. Edna is planning to take her parents on a religious pilgrimage to Israel and visit the Holy Land and Jordan this summer.

The AFT 6157 COPE supported the South Bay Labor Council’s “Bowling for Change” fundraiser. Left to right: SJECCD Trustee Mayra Cruz, Andres Quin-tero, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, Paul Fong, Jory Segal, Daryl Hemen-way (CFT), and Jessica Ulstad (CFT). Photo by Barbara Hanfling.

Andres Quintero, Barbara Hanfling, and Paul Fong joined thousands of workers across the country for the May Day “Shut it Down” March on May 1st. The San Jose march began at the Mexican Heritage Plaza and ended at the SAP Center.

Introducing Edna DolatreDental assisting instructor, with more than 30 years of experience, is a ‘mover and shaker’By Marylin Crawford, AFT 6157 Mentor and SJCC WIN/CalWORKs Counselor/Educational Therapist

I am delighted to have the pleasure of introducing Edna Dolatre to our AFT community and to serve as her mentor. The AFT Mentorship Program was designed to provide support for new full-time faculty members and to also present the opportunity for us to become acquainted with our newest faculty member.

I was first introduced to Edna through an email she sent requesting that we schedule a time to meet – to get the semester started in an orderly manner.

During our first meeting, I learned that Edna is a “Mover and Shaker” – she gets things done. Edna jumped right into the new semester by developing relationships within her department, asking questions, scheduling meetings and stepping immediately into the class-room with her lesson plans ready to go.

Edna enthusiastically embraced the opportunity to bring her education, ex-perience, knowledge, passion and vision to San Jose City College’s long-stand-ing and well- respected Dental Assisting Program. Edna radiates professionalism, confidence and an eagerness to help students succeed. Her energy is exciting – like a breath of fresh air.

Edna has extensive experience as an in-structor and a professional expert in the field of Dental Assisting. She completed her degree in Dentistry at Centro Esco-lar University in Manila, Philippines. Edna has worked in the dental field for more than 30 years.

Prior to moving to the United States, Edna practiced dentistry in her own office in the Philippines. She is also a practicing RDA (registered dental assistant) that specializes in orthodontia. She has been an educator for various dental assisting programs in the Bay Area. Edna has taught and coordinated programs at Heald and Unitek colleges.

Edna Dolatre, Dental Assist-ing Instructor at SJCC

Mentorship Program Success

The AFT 6157 Mentorship Program focuses on identifying professional and work-related needs of new faculty members by providing support and guidance in their first year of employment in the San José/Evergreen Community College District (SJECCD). Faculty mentors are to serve as positive role models, guides, and initial contact between new faculty and the union, the various college entities and the district as a whole.

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ACCJC Part DeuxIs It Real Change or a Trojan Horse?By David Yancey, AFT 6157 Past President, SJCC History Faculty

When bullies finally get their nose bloodied by someone they thought they could intimidate and when they realize they have met their match and finally learned that some people or groups just won’t back down or be victimized, they can experience a moment of clarity

The ACCJC had that experience when they tried to bully CFT and its members by attacking our brothers and sisters at City College of San Francisco (CCSF). There is an old saying: “It isn’t the size of the dog in the fight; it is the size of the fight in the dog that matters.”

It is clear now that the ACCJC was the biggest dog in this fight but the CFT and the CCSF certainly had the most fight in them. So six years later, defeat after defeat, we hope this bully (ACCJC) has indeed experienced that moment of clarity. Time will tell.

This rebirth of the ACCJC began at the 2017 CFT Convention in Sacramento. Attendees were introduced to the new version of the ACCJC in the person of Dr. Richard Winn, Interim President of the ACCJC.

Interim ACCJC Executive Officer Visits CFTDr. Winn was there at the invitation of Jim Mahler, the President of the Community College Council regularly scheduled at each convention. Many were surprised Dr. Winn accepted the invitation, given the combative history between the CFT and especially the Community College Council.

It was this same ACCJC that viciously attacked CCSF in 2011, trying to close that wonderful college. At the same time, it levied sanctions on most of the other com-munity colleges in California, including both colleges of the San Jose/Evergreen Community College District. And let us not forget that Dr. Winn was a Vice Presi-dent of the ACCJC at that time.

But everyone seemed willing to at least

listen and hear what Dr. Winn had to say. Dr. Winn’s tone was calm and his demeanor open and not as defensive as many expected. He stated he would stay and hear all the concerns in the room and there was no limit to the length of the Q&A section. His tone and manner seemed conciliatory and even had the hint of an olive branch type gesture or peace offering.

He listened to the many concerns of the community college members in atten-dance. He absorbed strong and valid criticisms, not only from the CCSF faculty, led by Tim Killikelly, their pres-ident, but also from the President of the L.A College Guild, Joanne Waddell, who rebutted the perception that community colleges were opposed to accreditation. She said we are opposed to the abusive responses from the ACCJC and the more than $1 million cost to comply with ACCJC demands.

Taking on the ACCJC Nothing Changes MuchOur own AFT 6157 President Paul Fong spoke strongly as well as our Executive Director Barbara Hanfling, who outlined the abuses our District had suffered, de-tailing how the ACCJC, illegally intrud-ed into the area of Collective Bargaining by forcing districts to accept SLOs in their contracts. Dr. Winn did not try to defend the previous actions of the AC-CJC that had resulted in their losing one lawsuit with the City of San Francisco and being put on sanctions from “their” accrediting agency in the Department of Education.

His mission seemed to be to reach out to the community college community at large and ask for another chance. He did not apologize directly for the ACCJC’s egre-gious acts against CCSF and he would not admit the agency had made legal mistakes (fearing liability lawsuits still pending by CFT against the ACCJC).

Dr. Winn stated the ACCJC was review-ing its priorities and its processes in an effort to revise and restructure how it would conduct its work in the future. Some of the ideas he expressed seemed positive in nature: • Being clear what they are looking for in

accreditation visits.• Training visiting teams to look for the

right things. • Moving away from a “gotcha mentali-

ty.”• Avoiding mixed communications be-

tween visiting teams and colleges.• Reviewing which standards “really”

matter, such as “student earning and institutional stability.”

• Importantly he also said that the ACCJC will focus on “educational and NOT SLOs, finances or governance.” This last statement will be huge if that is indeed what they do.

• And finally trying to “take the fear out of the system.”

He acknowledged there had been a significant straining of mutual respect and trust between the ACCJC and the community colleges and that the future plans of the ACCJC is to send smaller teams to the institutions and grant full accreditation of seven years unless there were egregious problems. Minor prob-lems could be covered in an 18-month review if necessary.

During the Q&A, he repeatedly resisted going back and reengaging in the many disputes between the ACCJC and the various colleges in our system that were victimized by the abuses of power by the ACCJC.

But by the end of the evening – and this debate and discussion went for the entire length of the three-hour meeting – most people were still skeptical of Dr. Winn’s answers, but to all it was certainly a better conversation than most had antic-ipated.

It is appropriate to thank Jim Mahler for bringing Dr. Winn to this meeting and it is also appropriate to thank Dr. Winn for enduring a long and often conten-tious discussion about this most difficult and painful time for our “community of colleges” and the faculty and students who suffered at the hands of this out-of-control agency.

David Yancey at the CFT Convention. Photo by Barbara Hanfling.

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Can Noncredit Education Increase Our Enrollment?By Kathy Jasper, EVC Adjunct ESL Faculty

As enrollment decreases in our colleges, the District is looking for ways to attract new students. One way to do that is to create “bridge” classes to bridge the gap for students who are not quite ready for college level credit classes. The hope is the students would take these free classes and then continue on through our credit program.

Many of these students would come from one of the five adult education program in our South Bay Consortium for Adult Education (SBCAE). As part of this consortium, San Jose-Evergreen gets $1,526,235 annually for the three years beginning in 2015-16 to work with members of the consortium and create these classes.

When Kishan Vujjeni of the Workforce Development Institute came to our Evergreen English Division and ESL Department meetings to propose switch-ing some credit classes to Noncredit and adding new Noncredit classes, he was met with a barrage of questions and con-cerns. The questions were: Would these teachers need to have master’s degrees like the other credit faculty? Would Noncredit instructors get paid the same as credit faculty? Would the Noncred-it classes take students away from the credit program?

Because of a change in California law as of 2015-2016, districts get reimbursed at the same rate for most Noncredit classes as they do for credit classes, so last year the District agreed to pay and load Noncredit instructors at the same rate as credit instructors. It is thought that be-cause the classes are free, college would be accessible to more students.

How Is That Money Being Used?Evergreen is offering a bridge to engi-neering program, which includes four Noncredit engineering related classes, a bridge to surveying/Geomatics pro-gram, also four classes and English for automotive technology class. There is a committee of ESL teachers who will be working over the summer to devel-op curriculum to add four to eight new Noncredit ESL classes that would bridge to our credit ESL program.

San Jose City College will offer 12 Noncredit ESL classes in the fall. In career technical education, SJCC is also offering a very popular bridge to medical careers program, which includes four classes.

The District has used the money to create several new positions. It has hired an As-sociate Dean of Noncredit Adult Educa-tion and Basic Skills, Julie Vo, at Ever-green. The District is looking for a Dean of Noncredit at San Jose City College.

There are two new transition specialists, Gina Riccitelli at Evergreen and Maura Esquivel-Lozano at San Jose City Col-lege, whose jobs are to provide a “warm handoff” from the adult school to com-munity college. Evergreen also hired Ali Arid for instructional support, Teneka Cornish as a staff assistant and Andrew Nguyen for marketing and outreach.

This money is being used to send instructors to professional development opportunities, send instruc-tors to regular meetings of the consortium, and for faculty working togeth-er on collabora-tive projects between South Bay Consor-tium for Adult Education members.

Free classes will attract students who may have thought community college was financially out of reach. Bridge classes will attract lower level students who thought they were not college ma-terial. Hopefully, these programs attract students and increase our enrollment.

Kathy Jasper at the CFT Convention. Photo by Bar-bara Hanfling.

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Executive Board Meetings and Other Important Meetings Fall 2016

Date Time Campus LocationFri Sept 15th 9:30a-12:30p SJCC SC 104Fri Sept 29th 9:30a-12:30p EVC Appi Mishra - LCFri Oct 20th 9:30a-12:30p SJCC SC 104Fri Nov 3rd 9:30a-12:30p EVC Appi Mishra - LC Council of Div Reps 1:00p-3:00p EVC Appi Mishra - LCFri Nov 17th 9:30a-12:30p SJCC SC 104Friday Dec 8th 9:30a-12:30p EVC Appi Mishra - LCFall Adjunct Meetings - TBD

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FACULTY VOICES COUNT!AFT 6157 members mobilized to attend the May 9th Board of Trustees meeting, to express their dissatisfaction with the Dis-trict’s latest contract proposal. Their actions resulted in a new proposal being offered on May 10th and a tentative agreement on May 11th. Photos by Barbara Hanfling and Helen Han.

Leslie Rice and Dong Mei Cao.Rosemary Bautista

Sravani Banerjee, Nita Martin, and Kathy Jasper. Paul Fong and Phil Crawford.

Kathy Jasper, Helen Han, Sravani Banerjee, Brad Carothers, Minerva Duke, Dong Mei Cao, Felicia Perez, Lisa Bell, Sterling Warner, Jessica Breheny

Barbara Hanfling and Helen Han.

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Linda Ferrell and Jory Segal prepare signs.The trustees were greeted with a sea of protest signs.

Fabio Gonzalez and Frank Espinoza.

Lisa Bell Adrian Crawford

Alex Lopez and Michael Berke. Olga Morales-Anaya brought her children to support faculty rights.

Randy Pratt Sravani Banerjee

Kelly Nguyen-Jardin, Leslie Takei, Dong Mei Cao, Jessica Breheny and Leslie Rice.

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Affirming Science in Silicon Valley on Earth Day 2017Nobel Chemistry Prize winner joins ‘March for Science’ in San JoseBy Hasan Rahim, SJCC Math Faculty

“I was 26 years old when my mother died of breast cancer,” said Dr. William Moerner, a professor at Stanford and the winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize in chemistry “for the development of su-per-resolved fluorescence microscopy.” He marveled at how far the treatment of breast cancer had come, thanks to sci-ence, compared to the painful and crude treatment his mother had to endure in the ’70s.

Moerner was one of the several speak-ers at the “March for Science” rally in downtown San Jose at the Plaza de Cesar Chavez on Earth Day, Saturday, April 22. Addressing climate-change deniers, he said, “Science is true whether or not you believe it,” drawing vigorous applause from his listeners who had come together to protest the policies of the “Denier-in-Chief” in the White House.

About 10,000 of us – scientists, artists, students, teachers, mothers, fathers, daughters, sons and concerned citizens of every stripe and persuasion – had gathered in San Jose to affirm our faith in the importance of science in shap-ing our lives and in keeping our planet healthy. Similar rallies had taken place in all 50 states and in more than 500 cities around the world in seven conti-nents.

I looked around. The posters, many made of recycled papers as befitting an Earth Day celebration, were pithy, thought-provoking, forceful, factual and witty in a nerdy way.“The oceans are rising and so are we.”“Evidence-based policy, not policy-based evidence, a.k.a. alternative facts.”“No Science, Art or Humanities. No Freedom.”

“Super callow. Fragile ego. Trump you are atrocious.”“The ‘upside’ of climate change: Mara-a-Lago under water.”“Atoms make up everything. So does he.”The combination of outrage and passion – outrage at Trump’s destructive policies and passion for the health of the earth (“There is no planet B”) – was ineffably inspiring.

Dr. Jose Cabrera, a chemistry profes-sor at San Jose City College, elicited roars of approval when he identified the critical role community colleges play in America’s educational system and his impassioned plea to young people to consider STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields as careers.

“We are seeing the spread of pseu-do-science in our country,” said Dr. Cabrera who was my mentor at City College during my tenure process as a math faculty. “We must distinguish between science and pseudo-science and learn to see the extraordinary in the seemingly ordinary.”

The math-themed signs were especially fascinating. Charles, a biophysics Ph.D. from UCSF wanted everyone to know why the irrational number Pi matters: “3.14159 makes everything just so fine!” But the most incisive message came from Dora and her 6th-grader son, Adrian, who had designed posters praising the contributions of 8th-century mathematician al-Khwarizmi, consid-ered the father of algebra.

Married to an American, Dora is a Bulgarian who was praising a Muslim mathematician from olden times! Only in immigrant-rich America was this possible.

Tracy Van Houten, a rocket scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), also extolled the value of STEM, particularly for girls and minorities.

“Scientists are underrepresented in our government,” she said. Of the 535 members of the Two Houses of Con-gress, only 11 are scientists. “That’s less than 2 percent! We have to not only protect science but also scientists,” she

Dr. William Moerner addressed the crowd at the March for Science rally in dowtown San Jose on April 22. Photo by Hasan Rahim.

A mother and daughter participate in the March for Science. Photo by Hasan Rahim.

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AFT 6157 Annual PicnicSave the Date! Sat. Oct. 7thHellyer Park 11am - 3pm

14-year-old Justin, a sophomore at Bellarmine College Preparatory. Photo by Hasan Rahim.

A father and son at the March for Science in San Jose. Photo by Hasan Rahim.

said. “We will prevail because Trump fears facts, and facts are on our side.”

Houten had to recently make a wrench-ing decision after Trump’s election. She quit her JPL job and is now running to represent the 34th Congressional Dis-trict of California in the Congress.

The rally was billed not as a protest but as a march to affirm the value of science and to demand that the Trump adminis-tration use facts rather than polarizing and paralyzing ideologies to frame pol-icies. We have a president who ignores evidence in favor of opinion, who has picked a man who denies that carbon

dioxide is a primary source of global warming, as administrator of the Envi-ronmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Trump’s proposed budget would cut $12.6 billion from the Department of Health and Human Services, including $5.8 billion from the National Insti-tute of Health alone, with potentially disastrous consequences for medical research. His ban on immigration threatens our scientific institutions like MIT, where a significant percentage of the faculty is foreign-born.

What will it mean for America if Trump has his way? Byron a marine biologist, shared his perspective at the rally.

“I don’t believe Trump will succeed,” Byron said. “He will probably be neu-tered by divisions within his own party. His policies are likely to grind to a halt. But we can never be sure, so we have to keep up the momentum.”

The Council of Division Representatives met on April 28th. Back row, left to right: Paul Fong, Garry Johnson, Sravani Banerjee, Frank Espinoza, Shelly Blackman, Randy Pratt, Barbara Hanfling. Front row, left to right: Tuan Ngo, Lorena Mata, Jory Segal, Hung Trieu, Jonathon Cronan.

The AFT 6157 Retiree Spring Meeting was held on April 4th. Bill Jacobs surrounded by other retirees.

Spring Meetings

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Faculty Matters ♦ May 2017

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For the last two years, I have had the privilege of representing the adjunct faculty of Ev-ergreen Valley College on the Execu-tive Board of

the San Jose/Evergreen Federation of Teachers, AFT 6157. As a proud free-way flier, I bring the perspective that only those of us, who work at multiple

colleges, juggle various schedules and sometimes hold office hours out of the back of our trunks, can really under-stand.

The previous affords me the perspective to properly advocate for positions that benefit those of us who, as adjuncts, do not have the assurances that tenure provides. Over the course of my previous term, I have heard the concerns of my colleagues and effectively advocated for measures that seek to bring us closer to parity.

As adjuncts, we face peculiar cir-cumstances that come with the job. I

Andres QuinteroAFT 6157 EVC Adjunct Representative

Congratulations to our Two AFT 6157 Candidates Who Were Elected by White Ballot

My name is Elaine Ortiz Kristich, a counselor at EVC hired in 2001. My interest to continue being an EVC Ex-ecutive Board Member

includes a strong interest to uphold the AFT 6157 San José/Evergreen Federa-tion of Teachers’ statement of purpose.

“To represent faculty in all matters relating to employment conditions and employer-employee relations includ-ing, but not limited to wages, benefits, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment covered in the collective

bargaining agreement,” Article One states.

As a graduate from EVC, this campus is very special for me. It is filled with memories of laughter, as well as hope for the future. In addition to having CCC experience as a student, I earned an Elementary Teacher Credential, Masters of Art degree in counseling/psychology from SJSU, which has enriched my work as the Teaching and Learning Coordinator for the last eight years at EVC.

As early as 2002-2003, some of you may recall how there was a big push to lay off several counseling faculty members. At least 300 faculty, staff, students and community members, including myself, attended the SJEC-

CD Board of Trustee meeting to speak against the layoffs and how this would be detrimental for our faculty, students and community. As a result from several testimonials against the layoffs, the attempt was dismissed.

Since that time, I have actively served on the EVC Academic Senate for 10 years, as a Senator and the Vice Presi-dent, and as the Chair of the All College Council for five years and worked with faculty constituents to review/update the Shared Governance Handbook.

For several years I have served as one of the AFT 6157 Council of Division Representatives for the EVC Coun-seling Faculty and now because of the current political climate in our country it is imperative to support and advocate for our union and its members.

Elaine Ortiz KristichAFT 6157 EVC Full Time Representative

therefore pledge to continue to advocate for policies that allow us to move to full-time status, all the while continuing to propose and support measures that alleviate the pressures and stresses that adjuncts endure.

Unfortunately, the 75/25 ratio of full-time to part-time faculty, set forth in AB 1725, does not seem to be materializing anytime soon. We therefore must work to address the very real issues that we as adjuncts currently face and unfortunate-ly will continue to face until funding priorities change.

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Faculty Matters ♦ May 2017

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Tenure Celebration

By Barbara Hanfling, AFT 6157 Executive Director

1. Pay for Work Done: EVC Transla-tion and Interpretation Program

Full-time faculty in the Translation and Interpretation Program were informed by their dean Merryl Kravitz that they had to grade exams taken by students who were newly entering the program. Originally the adjunct faculty who taught the program had been paid. The full-time faculty were told there was no money to pay them (out of a $106 million budget).

The Union immediately contacted Hu-man Resources, and we both agreed that grading and assessing in addition to the work related to your own students was extra work and needed to be paid. But EVC was still not convinced and acting VP Mark Gonzales maintained that it was a responsibility of the full-time faculty.

The full-timers received emails after emails to pick up these tests. Finally the Union stepped in again and informed the full-time faculty not to do the work without compensation. After more con-

What Has the Union Done for You Lately?versation with the EVC administration, they finally backed down. Congratula-tions to EVC faculty who will now be paid for the additional work.

2. Union Fights and Wins at Least One Additional Full-Time Faculty to be Hired at EVC

At the Board of Trustee meeting on a Tuesday evening in March, a letter was read by VP of Student Services Adela Swinson from EVC President Henry Yong. For about three months there had been rumors around that Student Success money (SSSP) had been mis-spent, but nothing concrete. Faculty in counseling were told to cut their hours; adjunct were afraid of losing their jobs. It seemed incredulous to the Union that with the rollover of SSSP money and Equity money that there would be concerns about lack of work and filling positions.

But some of the money had been supplanted (meaning taking already existing Fund 10 positions) and mak-ing them into SSSP positions. These positions were again transferred back to Fund 10.

Therefore the President and administra-tion took the position that they would only hire two, out of the five new posi-tions to be hired. That was outrageous and Executive Director Barbara Han-fling immediately spoke up at the BOT meeting. She stated that two positions was not enough and would violate the funds given by the state to hire three full-time faculty.

At first EVC Administration tried to convince the Union and the Chancellor that the third position had been hired last year. That was not the truth; The Case Manager position at EVC had been hired as an additional full-time po-sition agreed to by then Interim Chan-cellor Hendrickson.

Shortly thereafter, President Yong met with the Union — Barbara Hanfling, Paul Fong and Randy Pratt — and agreed that at least one more position would be hired — chemistry. He also committed to hiring two more full-time counselors. This is a tremendous victory for the faculty at EVC and for full-time faculty. We look forward to seeing that new position posted.

AFT 6157 honored the newly tenured faculty with a reception at The Brit on Friday, May 12th. From left: Alex Lopez and family, Linda Ferrell, Jagrup Kahlon with mother and son, Nasreen Rahim and Hasan Rahim, Bill Jacobs (back), Lucas Randall and spouse (back), Fabio Gonzalez, Janice Assadi and spouse (back), Barbara Hanfling, Paul Fong and Phil Crawford.

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Faculty MattersProduction Team

Editor/Lead Writer: Barbara HanflingAssistant Editor: Farideh DadaCopy Edit/Layout: Susan Yuen

Content Contributions and Guidance from the San José/Evergreen Federation of Teachers AFT 6157 Executive Board and Faculty Members12

Faculty Matters ♦ April 2017

A Great SaturdayDavid Yancey Receives Ben Rust Award; ‘Faculty Matters’ Wins 8 Communications AwardsBy Bill Jacobs, AFT 6157-Retiree Chair

David Yancey was awarded the pres-tigious Ben Rust award at the CFT conference in Sacramento, Saturday, April 1.

“Nothing tops that, for both David and our local 6157,” I thought, as I walked to the prime-time general session on Saturday afternoon, the session where the preeminent speaker always makes it worth our while to attend. I wasn’t disappointed.

Tom Steyer, the visionary progressive philanthropist, gave an insightful and interesting update on his political activi-ties — something positive for a change. Nice luncheon, good food shared with good friends, the Ben Rust award to David, and positive news from a posi-tive progressive; I was really starting to enjoy the day.

My warm thoughts were interrupted when the bright room lights began to dim, music rose to fill the room, and attention-grabbing visuals flashed onto the mega screen behind the stage. All talking ceased around me, and the music softened as a sonorous baritone voice announced that the Communica-tions Awards were about to be present-ed. And so they began.

The first category was read aloud, fol-lowed by instructions for local presi-dents or representatives to come up and collect announced awards. San Jose/Ev-ergreen was a winner in the first catego-ry, and Paul Fong hurried to the front to collect the award. During the ceremony, about 15 categories were announced, and seven more times, on his path back to his seat, Paul was turned around to collect the next prize. Altogether, San Jose/Evergreen won eight awards in the 15 categories.

AFT 6157 typically wins three or four awards, which is excellent, but we have never come close to winning eight. Paul got a workout hurrying to the front, and AFT attendees went away even more proud of Faculty Matters.

I was right that nothing tops Mark’s or David’s winning a Ben Rust award, but eight Communications Awards was definitely icing on the proverbial cake. The credit for the newsletter “Faculty Matters” goes to the people who really make it happen: Barbara Hanfling, Fari-deh Dada and Susan Yuen.

The awards were:• Best Editorial or Column, third

place, David Yancey, Prez Says: “Beware the TRUMPet of the Carnival Barker”

• Best Feature Writing, third place, Michelle Blair, “Instructor Becomes Student Again”

• Best Six or More Page Newsletter for Locals with More Than 500 Members, second place

• Best Bulletin Series, second place, AFT Negotiation News 2015-16, 2016-17. 6157 Negotiation Team

• Best Original Art or Photograph, honorable mention, Barbara Hanfling Photographer: “Annual Picnic: We keep on Celebrating”

• Best Newswriting, honorable men-tion, Frank Espinoza, Sociology, “Council of Division Reps”

• Best Single Effort for Locals with More Than 500 Unit Members, third place, for: Mentorship Program Success: By Shelley Blackman, Henry Liem, Minerva Duke, Kevin McCand-less, Dorothy Pucay, Sravani Banerjee, Huma Saleem, Elaine Kafle, Linda Ferrell and Randy Pratt

• Best Flyer or Poster for Locals with More 500 members, third place, Pic-nic Flyer by Susan Yuen

David Yancey poses with Paul Fong after receiving the Ben Rust Award at the annual CFT Convention in Sacramento. Photo by CFT/Sharon Beals.