Advocate Online
On the Road
with Mark Smith
In November, I attended the Iowa State Education Association Community College Faculty Conference in Ankeny, Iowa, on the campus of the Des Moines Area Community College. Faculty leaders from community colleges across the state attended workshops covering such topics as dual-credit classes, assessment, technology, and legislative strategies.
Raising a good deal of excitement at the conference was ISEA’s campaign to increase community college faculty salaries. The faculty salary for 2005-06 was on average $44,973, about $10,000 below the national figure, placing them 32nd among the states, while as recently as 1994, Iowa ranked 24th.
The union has adopted a slogan— “Community College Faculty: We’re Worth It!—25th”—to emphasize the goal of the campaign, which is to bring Iowa’s ranking back to 25th place among the states. ISEA will be stressing three points in the campaign:
Iowa community college salaries must be competitive to attract and retain top-quality faculty.
Iowa needs a well-educated workforce to grow and thrive in the global marketplace.
Teaching at a community college is a calling, but it should not be a sacrifice.
“It’s embarrassing to be from a state that says it values education but where community college faculty salaries rank in the bottom third of the nation,” said ISEA President Linda Nelson. ISEA will spend the next few months lobbying legislators for an $8 million appropriation over two years to improve community college faculty salaries, and calling on next January’s political party caucuses to pass resolutions supporting the community college salary raise.
— Mark Smith coordinates NEA higher ed activities
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