September 19, 2019

Dear Colleagues,

In early August, I was pleased to share with you information about AB 1466, legislation that will classify all educators in California as exempt employees. I write to update you on the status of this legislation and ask your assistance in supporting our adjunct faculty colleagues.  

As you may recall, the need to transition our quarterly and semester adjunct faculty to non-exempt status was tied to the fact that the per-course payment structure has recently been challenged in California, impacting only private, non-profit universities (public universities as well as K-12 teachers in both private and public schools are exempt from this requirement). This situation was also a consideration in moving our academic year adjunct lecturers (AYALs) to 10-month contracts, allowing us to maintain our AYALs’ exempt status as challenges to California state wage law continue. 

If implemented, AB 1466 would provide a structure so that our adjunct faculty can be classified as exempt employees. The good news is that AB 1466 passed the California Senate 40-0 and the Assembly 78-0. The legislation is now with Governor Newsom.  

The Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities (AICCU) developed AB 1466 in partnership with SEIU for California. The legislation includes per-course rates that have been endorsed by the SEIU.  

AICCU is coordinating efforts to pass AB 1466. We provided an institutional support letter to AICCU. If you would like to also show your support for the legislation, you can email a letter of support (draft below) to Alex Graves at AICCU.  

Thank you as we seek support for a fair, respectful, common-sense solution for all of our faculty.

 

Lisa Kloppenberg                                                                                                           Interim Provost

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Draft Email Letter of Support 

 

To: alex.graves@aiccu.edu

RE:  AB 1466 (Irwin)

 

Dear California State Leaders,  

I am a faculty member at Santa Clara University where we employ numerous faculty colleagues who must now be paid by the hour because of confusing, unfairly applied aspects of the California labor code. I am writing to encourage the Governor to sign AB 1466 (Irwin), which has wide support from not only the California State Legislature, but universities such as ours, the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities (AICCU), and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which partnered with AICCU to craft the legislation.  

This legislation will enable institutions like Santa Clara University to respectfully treat all faculty members as exempt professionals under the labor code, provided that their rate of pay meets the minimum floor established by the bill (and endorsed by the SEIU). Without this legislation, Santa Clara University and other private institutions in California are subject to a particular ambiguity in the labor code that only affects adjunct faculty members at private institutions of higher education in California. This aspect of the labor code does not impact public universities or K-12 teachers in both private and public schools.

As state leaders, you understand the deep commitment of all faculty to student learning. Under existing law, some adjunct faculty, who are talented and expert teaching scholars, must be classified as non-exempt because of the number of classes they teach. Many of our adjunct faculty also teach within the UC and Cal State systems - and do not have to track time in those settings - making this even more professionally onerous. This creates an unnecessary division among our faculty and also creates significant operational and financial challenges for our university to pay two different sets of faculty in two different manners.  

We collectively urge the Governor to sign the legislation as soon as possible so that Santa Clara University and other institutions can begin to address the contractual and compensatory logistics involved in converting numerous faculty from one employment category to another. This implementation will take three months, so colleges and universities need as much time as possible to implement the transition by January 1, 2020. 

 

With gratitude for your consideration, 

Name, SCU Faculty Member