June 3, 2024
The new budget biennium is coming next year! This means that in February 2025, the state legislature will be making big decisions about how the state will distribute funds for community colleges. Before those decisions are made, legislators will receive a list of recommendations from the Governor, who will receive recommendations from the State Board of Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) and the Washington State AFT. These recommendation processes take time, so we need to start showing our support now if we want the SBCTC and Governor Inslee to ask the legislature for what our colleges need.
To organize this effort, the AFT has assembled a list of issues that need to be addressed in the next budget cycle. Let’s talk about the continuity of benefits for our associate faculty.
Associate faculty at Edmonds College are sometimes referred to as “part-time faculty” or “contingent faculty” at other colleges. Associate faculty are sometimes offered non-instructional work at their college. However, under the current state law, this work does not count towards benefits eligibility; only instructional work (teaching) counts for qualification.
This non-instructional work includes implementing racial equity and inclusion programs, retention and completion programs such as SBCTC’s guided pathways system, researching and preparing documents for the renewal of college accreditation status, departmental administrative functions, etc. This is crucial work on which colleges depend. As the number of full-time tenured faculty has dropped and the need for non-instructional work has increased, colleges have increasingly turned to part-time faculty to perform this work. Two-thirds of part-time faculty in the state’s two-year college system currently earn state-mandated benefits. This change will help to maintain benefits for associate faculty who already have them.
We believe the number of contingent faculty who are doing this work, and not doing enough instructional work to otherwise secure benefits is small. Nevertheless, for this small number, experiencing the loss of benefits, such as healthcare, is devastating. Some part-time faculty may become eligible for benefits through this bill, but it will likely be a small number, and consequently a low cost to the state. Still, even if this happens, it will mean that more Washingtonians will have state-mandated benefits, such as healthcare insurance, a goal our state has sought for many years.
What can you do to help?
We need you to ask the state legislature to change the state laws so that non-instructional work counts towards benefits eligibility. To learn how to take action, see our Budget Biennium Action page for suggestions on who to contact and how. Also consider joining your fellow union members at the Lobby Days in early 2025, where we can speak directly to legislators about what our colleges and our students need to be successful.