S-5190.1

SENATE BILL 6405

BySenators Stanford, Liias, Wilson, C., Hasegawa, Hunt, Nguyen, Randall, Frockt, and Saldaña

AN ACT Relating to supporting student success at community and technical colleges by increasing full-time faculty and stabilizing the use of part-time faculty; adding a new section to chapter 28B.50 RCW; creating a new section; and declaring an emergency.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 28B.50 RCW to read as follows:

(1) By December 31, 2020, the college board must create a plan, to be implemented in phases, to make seventy percent of all faculty employed in the community and technical college system be full-time tenured or tenure-track positions by the end of the 2027-28 school year. The plan must:

(a) Include as nontenure track faculty all academic employees who are not tenured or on the tenure track, including all associate, adjunct, contingent, and part-time faculty;

(b) Create new, full-time tenure-track faculty positions and create more opportunities for nontenure track faculty;

(c) Include recommendations for new standards, assessment tools, and data systems that permit the community and technical colleges and the legislature to evaluate whether or not the programs, supports, instructional opportunities, and staffing levels for each institution adequately reflect the characteristics, background, and educational needs of its students and the educational needs of the community it serves;

(d) Include recommendations for achieving equal pay for equal work as the standard for minimum compensation of nontenure track faculty employed in the community and technical colleges. The standards used to determine equal pay for equal work must be based on the instructional work of the faculty, including direct student support, time in class, preparation for class, grading and assessment, and office hours equivalent to those required for full-time tenure-track faculty under the relevant collective bargaining agreement. The standards must recognize that, at a minimum, instructional work accounts for approximately eighty-five percent of the full-time tenure-track workload. Additional work such as committee work, department or college meetings, and curriculum development are noninstructional and must be compensated in addition to instructional work in accordance with the relevant collective bargaining agreement; and

(e) Establish a timeline and benchmarks for allocation of funding to achieve equal pay for equal work.

(2) In developing the plan, the college board must work collaboratively with each of the community and technical colleges, collective bargaining representatives, and the legislature.

(3) The first phase-in implementation of the plan must begin by the community and technical college system's 2021 fall quarter. Seventy percent target compliance must be met both systemwide and at each of the individual community and technical colleges by the end of the 2027-28 school year.

(4) The college board shall report to the higher education committees of the legislature by December 1, 2020, and by December 1st every two years thereafter until 2028, regarding updated faculty conversion cost information and information regarding the colleges' progress in increasing the percentage of full-time tenured or tenure-track employees and progress in achieving pay equity for nontenure track faculty.

(5) For purposes of this section, "academic employee" has the same meaning as in RCW 28B.50.489.

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