Any other writers out there?

I am an adjunct instructor at Cabrillo College.  I’m 39 years old and I have a PhD from a top-ten-ranked university, plus over 7 years of work experience in academic settings.  I currently earn less than the median income in Santa Cruz county for a person over age 25 with only a high-school diploma; I earn less than half the median income for a person with a graduate or professional degree (according to US Census statistics for 2005-2007, http://www.factfinder.census.gov).  I put up with this because I love teaching, and I love living here.

I (and I suspect dozens if not hundreds more like me in this county) am at risk for losing even more of my meager earnings in the current California state budget crisis.  Classes are being cut, and as an adjunct with only 3 ½ years of teaching at Cabrillo, I’ll be among the first to lose teaching units.

Instructors are not the only ones suffering in this situation.  Cabrillo students are finding it increasingly difficult to get the classes they need, and transfers to the UC and CSU systems are likely to be more difficult.

Teaching is what I love best. But, since I teach only “part-time” in Fall and Spring (admittedly, I probably spend 40-50 hours per week working on things directly related to my job, and I always feel like I should do more), and since I won’t be offered classes to teach in Summer or Winter this year, I do expect have a little time for other projects in the near future.  Again, I suspect there are many other highly-qualified people in a similar situation who have been working in adjunct or lecturer positions at UCSC and Cabrillo.

Proposal

So I propose we take the time to research a solution for ourselves and our students, to help us get out of the short-term crisis, and to provide a longer-term alternative for our employment and our student’s education.  My idea is to develop a small bachelor’s completion college.  Students with AA degrees (or even those working on AA degrees at Cabrillo who have only a few classes to go) can take “upper-division” classes for a BA in “Interdisciplinary Studies” or some such.  Unemployed/underemployed PhDs (or those with Master’s degrees and 5 or more years of college teaching experience) will teach these classes, according to their specialty, their interest and their availability.

For the most part, we could try to run it DIY as instructors, handling a lot of the duties usually managed by staff and administrators, with perhaps one or two staff positions (perhaps even part-time/temp just to help at registration time, especially for students seeking financial aid).  I imagine being able to run this as a kind of co-op, with instructor salaries as a percent of students served, plus some reasonable accounting for time and effort put into development and administration of the college.

The biggest hurdle will be to find a way to gain accreditation through WASC with minimal time, effort and expense.  Can we do this without permanent facilities (just rented space around the county, perhaps even at Cabrillo on weekends)?  Can we do it with few/no permanent positions and little in the way of formal benefits?  Could it perhaps even be a special project through Cabrillo?  Can we develop an acceptable Bachelor’s program without disciplinary boundaries, or even much certainty about what can and will be offered from year to year?  Can we establish guidelines to optimize how the college works and what it offers for students and instructors? How can we assure that our classes or degrees will be accepted for students seeking employment, transferring elsewhere or applying to graduate schools? And of course, where can we find start-up funding?

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