The president of our college wants our ratio of associate faculty to full-time faculty to be 60:40. Dr. Singh said exactly this in a recent meeting with the Faculty Senate and also confirmed that this has been his intent since he was hired. And he’s been successful! He has reduced the percentage of full-time faculty as measured by FTEF to 47%, which is less than many other community colleges in our area.
However, reducing the percentage of full-time faculty that teach classes at our college is the wrong choice for student success. We know that increasing the percentage of full-time faculty leads to better student outcomes and success for students from underserved populations. And the state legislature agrees! That’s why they passed SB 5194 in 2021, which provides funds to community colleges to hire more full-time faculty. Dr. Singh gladly accepted these funds while also believing that we need less full-time faculty at our college. Dr. Singh’s belief that we need fewer full-time faculty at this college rejects the expressed wishes of our own state legislature.
We find Dr. Singh’s attitude towards full-time faculty a little baffling, and it leaves us with a lot of questions.
- Why does Dr. Singh support reducing the percentage of full-time faculty in defiance of the state legislature?
- If Dr. Singh believed at the time that we needed fewer full-time faculty at this college, why did he accept the funds that the legislature gave to the college to increase the number of full-time faculty?
- If Dr. Singh believes strongly that the ratio of associate faculty to full-time faculty should be 60:40, how far would he go to make it happen?
If you have the same questions we do, we recommend that you ask him in the form of a public comment to the Edmonds College Board of Trustees that will be read at their next meeting on Thursday, March 21st at 3:30 pm. Here are the rules for submitting a public comment.
- Comments must be submitted via email to publiccomment@edmonds.edu no later than 5 pm on Wednesday, March 20th.
- Comments must be kept to 300 words or fewer.
- The commenter's name and affiliation with the college must be included with the comment.
Public comments may also be made in person at the meeting. All virtual participants who wish to make a public comment should submit one in writing as outlined above.