Q NAME CHANGE Is it right or is it wrong? OPINION / PAGE 3
CityTimes www.sdcitytimes.com
Covering the San Diego City College community since 1945
Volume 63, Number 2
September 9, 2008
Teachers union calls district out over staff cutbacks David McAtee City Times A district-wide conflict erupted this week as allegations broke that the San Diego Community College District has been reorganizing non-faculty in order to terminate hourly employees since mid August. According to the American Federation of Teachers’ Local 1931 President Jim Mahler, a memo outlining district hiring guidelines that violate the Education Code was sent to all district managers and supervisors. The memo, sent Aug. 14, misstates the requirements for “short-term” employees and allows for a situation where a person employed in two consecutive years could be exempt from the classified service and therefore eligible for termination, according to the union. Mahler responded to the memo, sent by district President of Human Resources Kim Myer, on Aug. 26 and outlined the alleged violations in full. In addition to confronting a misstatement outlining hourly employee hiring practices, the response addressed the problem of replacing formerly classified employees with those enrolled in a work experience program, which compensates workers with academic credit, not wage. Classified employees are defined as any hired employees that are not faculty. They perform a number of services on campuses around the district such as secretarial work, technical work and support services. The American Federation of Teachers protects classified employees’ legal rights,
such as collective bargaining agreements, vacation time and sick time. Over the last 50 years, according to Mahler, the district has inappropriately employed hourly employees and, when notified of the AFT’s awareness of the district’s hiring practices, put together a quick-fix solution that has caused more confusion and damage in its wake. The district had not responded as of press time but according to City College President Terrence Burgess, no employees at City College have been terminated. “We’re dealing with this on a case by case basis, and the idea is to keep [temporary hourly employees] employed until we get this all resolved,” Burgess said in an interview. Burgess said the district is in the process of reviewing its hiring practices and stretching the definition of what is considered “continuous work”. As continuous work cannot be assigned to a temporary employee, this stretching will change the employment assignment of short term employees. “We need to create classified positions to accommodate hourly employees that are working on a continuous basis, year round,” he said. The AFT is still worried about the impact between now and the resolution. “As an example of the scope of this,” Mahler said in an interview, “the AFT represents all of the contract staff of the district. There are 700 of those contracted staff members at the moment, but there are over 1,000 hourly staff. That’s how many are at risk.”
Carlos Maia City Times
Faculty piece blends Mayan myths and String Theory Marcela Villasenor stands under her sculpture entitled Mayan Wormhole II at the Sadville Theatre. Villasenor’s conceptual sculpture installation correlates the Mayan calendar and String Theory, with the sand rings on the ground represent different layers of the universe. For more information, visit www.sdcity.edu/savilletheater/
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The F word: Student group’s name stirs controversy Nailah Edmondson City Times Shimmery glitter-covered posters with the phrase “the F.A.G.S. are back” have caused a heated topic of discussion amongst City College staff and administration. “If the campus is making a big deal, perhaps it is due to the controversy caused by restrictions of
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our freedom of speech,” President Jason Frye-Kolarik said, “and the fact that someone actually made them think outside the box for 2 seconds.” Last spring semester the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Student Union opted for a name change, now known as the Fellowship of Associated Gay students. Frye-Kolarik. The president of
both City and Mesa’s FAGS introduced the name change to his fellow members during the past spring semester. “By a show of hands we went from alphabet soup to FAGS and experienced some difficulty from upstairs,” Frye-Kolarik said. “After a wonderful meeting with Gerald Ramsey later in the semester we received approval and yet
Take Note Q STREET SCENE Adjacent to Petco Park. Sept. 9th & 20th WWW.STREET-SCENE.COM
again we are having trouble.” What does “the F.A.G.S. are back” mean? “We use humor to attract attention and for the enjoyment of our audience,” the president said there is no ulterior motive in letting people know “the F.A.G.S. are back”. The outcome of the situation is now in the hands of City College’s
Compliance Officer Mary Cole. At this time the club is entitled to keep the name. The question is how the name can be displayed. Many are against the name change all together. “I think the administration that approved this should have recognized that it’s not going to
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