Motion is under review at Faculty Senate.
By Sergio Medina
smedina104@student.alamo.edu
Faculty Senate is revising a proposal to provide paid leave to adjuncts, which would include sick leave, to present to this college’s administration.
The motion, originally raised during the Oct. 19 senate meeting, reads:
“Adjuncts and full-time faculty members teaching overloads should be eligible for three class sessions of paid leave per course per semester. This would mean no deduction from their salary to cover pay for a substitute (about $28 dollars per hour). Furthermore, these hours would be non-accruable and classified as “personal leave,” and would encompass all types of leaves and absences (i.e. illness, bereavement, civic duty, military duty, personal matters and professional development). Leave would be documented when applicable, using the “request for leave” form currently used by Alamo Colleges District employees.”
Overload courses’ pay gets treated the same way adjuncts’ do, getting docked when in leave.
Lennie Irvin, English professor and senate president, and Amanda Martin, English adjunct and chair of Adjunct Faculty Council, met with President Robert Vela Nov. 1 to discuss the issue.
“We, in that discussion, all agreed with Dr. Vela that, probably, the best way forward was to separate these two issues (adjuncts and full-time with overload) and just focus on adjuncts and try to get adjuncts sick leave,” Irvin said in an interview Nov. 5.
He agreed “untangling” those two groups from one another would serve the efficacy of the resolution.
Furthermore, in an interview Nov. 6, Martin said Vela offered those suggestions to better the chances of the proposal passing at district level.
Irvin said, “I think we’re going to take it back to the senate to see if we can get that motion amended.”
Martin said the proposal is anticipated to be revised during the next senate meeting Nov. 16.
Further, Irvin plans to take the proposal to United Faculty Senate.
United Faculty Senate is a body composed of senate presidents from each of the five Alamo Colleges.
“Our plan is, hopefully, to take it to the United Faculty Senate in a month, and hopefully the other colleges, if their senates agree, would maybe adopt a similar resolution and then we would come back to administration,” he said.
Over the summer, the district approved an adjunct and staff emergency leave provision, which encompasses anything requiring immediate action, such as an accident.
“It’s actually a good benefit,” Irvin said. “It’s a great thing — if you have an emergency happen to you — you would get that pay, but it’s not covering the not-so-emergency things.”
He said an adjunct unable to attend class because of the flu or a fever would still be penalized.
“We were all a little bit shocked and a little disappointed when we heard just emergency leave and not sick leave,” Irvin said. “So this is our effort to kind of come back and try to push for sick leave, too.”
“We’re going to keep pressing for that,” he added.
For more information on the proposal and adjunct matters, email Martin at amartin@alamo.edu.