What are High Demand funds?

What we call High Demand funds were established in Washington State law by HB 2158 in 2019. This law supplies funds to community and technical colleges “solely for increasing high-demand program faculty salaries, including but not limited to nursing educators, other health-related professions, information technology, computer science, and trades, including welding. Contract negotiations relating to salary increases must consider, and to the extent practicable establish, salaries that are comparable to industry professionals, and no less than the average salary

February 8, 2025

The Washington State Legislature is currently considering Senate Bill 5663 (SB 5663), a proposal aimed at creating a statewide virtual campus for community and technical colleges. While this bill seeks to expand online education, it also presents serious concerns for faculty and union members regarding workload, job security, and the potential redistribution of funding away from local institutions.

The full text of the bill can be found [here]. If passed, it would allow community and technical colleges (CTCs) to market online courses beyond their districts, facilitate cross

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 meeting with the Faculty Senate in February 2024 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

In AFT President Randi Weingarten’s latest New York Times  column, she describes what it is exactly that unions do. Though unions are the most popular they have been in decades, anti-union sentiment still thrives in red states and across the nation. “Several years ago, The Atlantic ran a story whose headline made even me, a labor leader, scratch my head: ‘Union Membership: Very Sexy,’” Weingarten writes in the column. “The gist was that higher wages, health benefits and job security—all associated with union membership—boost one’s chances of getting married. Belonging to a union doesn’t actually guarantee happily ever after, but it does help working people have a better life in the here and now.” Click through to read the full column.