BP BHEAD INT S [atlas:bill]

AN ACT Relating to higher education; adding new sections to chapter 28B.50 RCW; creating new sections; and making appropriations.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. (1) The legislature finds that:

(a) Increasing reliance of the community and technical colleges on part-time, low-paid, low-benefit faculty is excessive and damaging to the quality of education and undermines the original mission of the state's community and technical colleges.

(b) Such reliance has a negative impact on our community and technical colleges, insofar as it limits student access to faculty on campus, unnecessarily increases the work load of full-time faculty, decreases faculty morale and involvement in college governance, and negatively affects academic freedom on our state's colleges.

(c) The current ratio of part-time to full-time faculty is seventy-five percent to twenty-five percent in numbers, with forty-eight percent of full-time equivalent positions being taught by part-time faculty.

(d) The current disparity between part-time and full-time faculty salaries, excluding benefits, is seventy million dollars, ninety-nine million dollars if corrected over ten years.

(2) The legislature intends to:

(a) Reverse this practice by defining the use of part-time faculty, establishing ratios for part-time and full-time faculty, creating a new affiliate professor position, and eliminating the inequitable pay disparity between full-time and part-time faculty, over the next five biennia;

(b) Reverse the ratio of part-time to full-time faculty to twenty-five percent part-time to seventy-five percent full-time faculty in numbers, with no more than twenty-five percent of full-time equivalent positions being taught by part-time faculty, within ten years.

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

(1) A board of trustees may use part-time faculty only if:

(a) Qualified full-time faculty cannot be found due to a shortage of qualified applicants in the field;

(b) The experience of a faculty member who is employed full-time in another field is relevant to his or her teaching credentials;

(d) It is too late in the year to conduct a national search for a full-time faculty member.

(2) If a college department anticipates needing someone to teach one annual full-time equivalent position, forty-five credits or more on an ongoing basis for one year or more, a full-time faculty member must be hired.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. A new section is added to chapter 28B.50 RCW to read as follows:

(1) Each board of trustees shall create a new annual part-time position called "affiliate faculty." Twelve months from their original appointment date, part-time faculty are eligible for such positions if they have taught the equivalent of five or more courses, or twenty-three or more credits, within the state system and after a review of their performance by their peers. Affiliate faculty must receive annual contracts, with annual fringe benefits, including state-paid health and dental insurance, cumulative sick leave, and retirement. Affiliate faculty must be paid on a pro rata basis of a full-time equivalent salary, fifteen credit hours per quarter being set as the standard full-time teaching load, based upon equivalent credentials and teaching experience.

(2) Affiliate faculty have priority in choosing courses over affiliate faculty who are appointed in their department at a later date, and over nonaffiliate faculty.

(3) Affiliate faculty must be granted all the privileges and responsibilities of full-time faculty in the governance of the college, prorated for the number of affiliate and full-time faculty. Affiliate faculty must be evaluated by their peers annually, are entitled to due process and academic freedom, and may only be dismissed for just cause and after appropriate hearings, as with full-time tenure-track faculty.

(4) Thirty-six months from their original appointment date, part-time faculty who have taught sixty-nine credits and who have previously attained affiliate status, are eligible for tenure as affiliate faculty. Such faculty shall have all the privileges and rights afforded full-time faculty members with tenure.

(5) Current part-time faculty, who meet the definition of affiliate faculty in this section by June 30, 1997, and who have previously received satisfactory performance evaluations must be granted affiliate faculty status.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. A new section is added to chapter 28B.50 RCW to read as follows:

Nothing in this act is to be interpreted as giving cause to a technical or community college to have rules, formal or informal, restricting the amount of teaching part-time faculty may do. If a college is found guilty of arbitrarily limiting the work load of part-time faculty to deny them benefits, or keep them from earning affiliate status, the college shall lose ten percent of its annual allotment from the general fund for one year, and for every year thereafter until the college is in compliance.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. A new section is added to chapter 28B.50 RCW to read as follows:

Funds appropriated for part-time faculty must be dedicated to equalizing the salaries of current part-time faculty. Part-time faculty must be given priority in the filling of any new full-time faculty positions in the next ten years, which must be made available as promotions for current part-time faculty. Justification for hiring nonpart-time faculty for new full-time positions must be made on a case-by-case basis.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. The sum of nineteen million eight hundred thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 1999, from the general fund to the state board for community and technical colleges to equalize salary disparities between part-time and full-time faculty at community and technical colleges.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 7. The sum of nineteen million eight hundred thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 2001, from the general fund to the state board for community and technical colleges to equalize salary disparities between part-time and full-time faculty at community and technical colleges.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 8. The sum of nineteen million eight hundred thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 2003, from the general fund to the state board for community and technical colleges to equalize salary disparities between part-time and full-time faculty at community and technical colleges.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 9. The sum of nineteen million eight hundred thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 2005, from the general fund to the state board for community and technical colleges to equalize salary disparities between part-time and full-time faculty at community and technical colleges.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 10. The sum of nineteen million eight hundred thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 2007, from the general fund to the state board for community and technical colleges to equalize salary disparities between part-time and full-time faculty at community and technical colleges.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 11. If by June 30, 2007, a community college is below the mandated twenty-five percent to seventy-five percent ratio of part-time to full-time faculty, ten percent of its annual allotment of the general fund shall be withheld until the college is in compliance.