By Charles Loiacono     

What a Year!

When this year finally came to an end, I couldn’t help but wonder what would have been the fate of the adjunct faculty if there were no union. This was a year when the administration came to the conclusion that they couldn’t handle peace. It was not within their ken.

            It started out well enough when two members of the Board of Trustees reached out to me in an effort to settle the ELI arbitration that was pending. There was a meeting of the minds, the arbitration was withdrawn, and we were ready to move forward with a new understanding and a first time one-on-one relationship with the trustees.

            That was a bit much for the administration. They decided to stall implementation of the agreement while they figured out a way to inveigle the trustees to renege. While that scheme was cooking, they signed an agreement with the NCCFT that held back a side-letter that denied the full-time members of the AFA their right to teach day adjunct classes. The administration used the side-letter idea because they did not want the members of the NCCFT that taught as adjuncts to know of the deal. They, of course, would have rejected it. So, the administration had to fool them.

            That little machination just happened to be a violation of AFA jurisdiction, and we made that fact known in no uncertain terms. Caught

cold-handed, the administration had no choice but to recall the side-letter which would have had the same force as the contract.

            Once again, we thought to move forward. But again, the administration was having trouble living with peace. They found a way to convince the Board of Trustees to give them a chance at getting a better deal then the trustees had gotten when they made an agreement with the AFA. All the trustees had to do was renege on the deal by dancing around the word “jurisdiction.” The college president went so far as to say that he didn’t know what the word meant. The result of that perfidy was to spend thousand of dollars litigating the ELI violation, losing the case, incurring a debt of more than $300,000, and “pulling the plug” (there expression) on the ELI program.   

            Quite a year for an administration hell bent on creating havoc and determined to violate the AFA contract whenever it suits them.

            When I wondered about the fate of the adjunct faculty if there were no AFA, I knew the answer. Their exploitation would be exacerbated. The rights they now enjoy as a result of the AFA contract would be trampled on by those who have no respect for the excellence the adjunct faculty brings to this college, and no respect for the fact that they make it possible for this administration to exist