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Introduction and Orientation to the Almanac

Welcome

Welcome to the LRCFT’s Part-Time Faculty Almanac.

This Almanac, produced by the Los Rios College Federation of Teachers, is designed as a guide to help part-time faculty in the Los Rios Community College District. It includes discussion of your contractual rights and contains information that will help you navigate the sometimes bewildering rules and procedures that govern part-time faculty employment in Los Rios.

This is a revised and expanded edition of the Almanac. The first edition, the Part-Timer’s Almanac, was created in 2017 by the newly formed LRCFT Part-Time Faculty Caucus, taking inspiration from the Los Angeles Faculty Guild’s Adjunct Faculty Survival Guide. The original intent of its creators was to update it regularly, but events conspired to prevent that until recently.

The current edition was created by a small group of LRCFT part-time faculty and LRCFT staff. It reflects some of our post-pandemic realities (more online and remote work, for example), along with changes to our contract and salary schedules that have been negotiated and implemented since 2017.

The Almanac will continue to undergo revisions and additions to keep it current and to make it even more user-friendly for part-time faculty at every stage of their academic careers. We’ll be seeking the input and expertise of part-time faculty throughout the District to make this happen!

In the meantime, we hope you find this updated version useful.

The Los Rios College Federation of Teachers (LRCFT) Part-Time Faculty Caucus and Part-Time Faculty Issues Committee

The LRCFT Part-Time Faculty Caucus was created in 2017 by elected part-time faculty union representatives and other part-time faculty union members who wanted to strengthen our collective voice in all aspects of our working lives in Los Rios, including our own local union. It has done this through a variety of activities: conferences, workshops, supportive social gatherings, negotiations, advocacy and member surveying, and the creation of the first edition of the Almanac. The Caucus’s statement of purpose appears at the beginning of the first edition of the Part-Timer’s Almanac. Caucus activities have historically been undertaken with no monetary compensation from LRCFT or any other body and have been open to all interested faculty.

In 2022, the LRCFT created a standing committee dedicated to advocating for part-time faculty: the Part-Time Faculty Issues Committee. This relatively new body includes elected part-time Union representatives and other members from each of the 4 Los Rios colleges and works to strengthen the Union’s commitment to serving part-time faculty interests. Committee membership and participation carries a stipend paid by LRCFT.

Some Notes on Language Used Throughout the Almanac

The following words and phrases appear interchangeably:

Management ● Administration ● LRCCD (Los Rios Community College District) ● The District. These terms all refer to employees of the Los Rios District who are “managers,” those who are not faculty or classified employees. Sometimes the term “Area Dean” – the dean of your academic division or “area” – is used in discussion of processes that specifically involve this administrator or their office.

LRCFT ● Union ● Your union ● Faculty union ● LRCFT representatives ● We. Your faculty union is the Los Rios College Federation of Teachers (LRCFT), American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Local 2279. The Union consists of elected leaders and all its members. You can find contact information for all elected LRCFT leaders, including those representing faculty at each of the 4 Los Rios colleges, on the LRCFT website.

The contract ● LRCFT-LRCCD contract ● LRCFT contract ● Faculty contract ● Collective bargaining agreement (CBA). This is the set of provisions governing various aspects of faculty working conditions that your faculty Union representatives negotiate with the Los Rios District administration every 3 years. If you work as a faculty member in Los Rios, the LRCFT contract applies to you. Citations of the contract in this Almanac use the word “Article” to refer both to entire articles and to subsections, with identifying alphanumeric detail. Download the current LRCFT Contract.