Abstract
This article advances a unified, non-tiered faculty model as essential to fulfilling the mission of the California Community Colleges (CCC) system. Although the system is charged with realizing open access and educational equity, nearly 70% of faculty serve in part-time or contingent roles—often without proportional compensation, institutional stability, or meaningful participation in governance. Drawing on research demonstrating that faculty working conditions shape student learning conditions, the article argues that structural employment inequities undermine the system’s democratic promise. Situating the proposal within national “One Faculty” efforts and recent legislative attention to pay parity in California, it demonstrates that reform is both conceptually sound and administratively feasible. Examples from collective bargaining agreements and comparative institutional models demonstrate viable pathways toward equity within public higher education systems. The Unified Faculty Model offers a phased, resource-conscious roadmap for implementation, aligning employment practices with the system’s stated educational mission. Faculty equity and student success are inseparable; a unified faculty structure is therefore necessary to renew both educational quality and the California Community Colleges’ democratic mission.
Recommended Citation
Klein, Debbie
(2026)
"One Faculty, One Mission: A Unified Faculty Model for California Community Colleges,"
Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy: Vol. 17, Article 2.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.58188/1941-8043.1936
Available at:
https://thekeep.eiu.edu/jcba/vol17/iss1/2
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.58188/1941-8043.1936
Included in
Collective Bargaining Commons, Community College Leadership Commons, Educational Leadership Commons, Education Policy Commons, Higher Education and Teaching Commons, Public Policy Commons, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Commons, Social Justice Commons
