Imagine being a part-time teacher wanting, perhaps, needing to secure a respected full-time position after years of hard work and educational accomplishment.
And then you hear that 12 full-time instructors are retiring.
 
Finally, some good news?
 
Eh.
 
Six of those 12 positions will be permanently cut to help with the budget crisis, and only three of the remaining six are available for new hires, beginning January 2011.
 
“I may not even be around next year,” one of my part-time professors recently told me.
 
“Really?” I said as I screwed up my face in befuddlement. “But I’ve been hyping your
class to all my friends.”
 
“Tell that to the administration, if they’ll listen;” his last word before he began the lesson.
 
DVC President Judy Walters’ decision to eliminate six full-time positions and delay replacing three others means more classes will be taught by part-timers. These instructors often must teach at two or three colleges or even elementary schools to make ends meet.
 
And it leaves two departments – journalism and electronics – without any full-time professors to teach or serve as department chairs next semester and perhaps for longer.
 
First-class education requires full-time commitment. Grading papers, planning lessons or even running a department of a major commuter school requires many hours of effort outside the time spent actually teaching students.
 
It is not fair to expect full-time work from part-of-the-time compensated staff, faculty or otherwise.
 
Yes, there is definitely a need to balance the school’s budget.
 
But trading full-time teaching positions for black ink is an insult to the hard work and long hours sacrificed by those who we honor as educators.

Contact Christopher C. Long at [email protected]