An Open Forum for Faculty at Santa Rosa Junior College
The AFA Dialogue has been created to air concerns of all faculty. The AFA Update is the factual voice of AFA, while the AFA Dialogue encourages conversation and publishes personal opinions about workplace issues and political concerns. We invite any faculty member to submit letters, articles, or opinion pieces. The opinions contained herein are solely those of the writer, and AFA neither condones nor condemns these opinions. AFA reserves editorial prerogatives.
AFA welcomes your feedback!
Submit comments, letters, and/or articles
via email to afa@santarosa.edu or via fax to (707) 524-1762.
AFA members who submit
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will be awarded a Stipend of up to $50.
The Rank 10 Covenant—Why It Matters
by Will Baty, Regular Faculty Member in the Library & Info. Resources Department
With each passing day, the reports from Sacramento confirm that the State's revenues are exceeding expectations. Faculty are reading these positive news reports, and they're asking about salaries and "Rank Ten." These two words represent an ongoing symbol of the collaboration and understanding that have historically existed with regard to faculty salaries at SRJC. Given that fully one-third of contract faculty, and hundreds of adjunct faculty, have been recently hired, it might be useful to provide some historical context.
Long before there was a faculty union, the faculty and the administration recognized the need to establish a means to pay faculty fairly and competitively. Each year, a faculty committee would meet with our Board of Trustees to determine fair salaries and benefits. According to our esteemed colleague Izzy Derkos, who was part of these discussions, the story goes like this:
Al Maggini and Larry Bertolini, longtime members of the Board of Trustees, approached the faculty and said, "We recognize that the SRJC faculty are one of the best in the state. We can't afford to pay you to be number one, but what do you think about being paid the tenth-best, or 'Rank Ten'?" Hence the origins of the phrase—and the origins of a salary measurement that has served the faculty and the College very well through the years.
The methodology used to determine Rank Ten is described in "Article 26: Salaries" of the AFA/District Contract. Every year, AFA conducts a statewide salary study to determine salaries at Steps 1, 16, and 28 of Column C of our contract faculty salary schedule; each of these cells on the salary schedule is the tenth highest in comparison to salaries at the equivalent step and column at other districts. We use these three salaries—Column C, Steps 1, 16, and 28—as the "benchmarks" upon which all the other cells of the salary schedule are based. (To read further, see Article 26.02.G.)
Rank Ten's many virtues can be summarized as follows. Rank Ten:
demonstrates a common agreement about the value of fair compensation for our first-rate faculty;
acknowledges the College's commitment to budgeting strong faculty salaries;
utilizes a quantitative, transparent measurement that is based on statewide salary data;
provides evidence of the College's longstanding culture of cooperation;
allows AFA and the administration to expend their negotiating energies toward resolving other important contractual aspects, which further support students;
clearly shows the faculty's clear commitment to working with the District on financial matters, in good times or bad;
demonstrates the faculty's recognition that the District has multiple financial obligations and shows fiscal restraint; and
allows SRJC to remain competitive with other colleges as we recruit quality faculty members.
This last point about recruitment is critical given the large number of faculty that we will be hiring through the next few years owing to faculty retirements. Rank Ten's effectiveness in attracting a first-rate faculty, many of whom consider multiple job offers before choosing SRJC, is evident. During the recent economic downturn, Rank Ten was suspended by mutual agreement, and the impact on faculty salaries is evident. Even after last year's partial restoration towards Rank 10, fulltime faculty salaries are at Rank 44 statewide.
The College's long-term, shared commitment to Rank Ten can directly impact our ability to offer competitive salaries and maintain our academic excellence.
Originally proposed by the Board and embraced by the faculty, Rank Ten represents a covenant in the best sense of the word. It is a significant part of SRJC's unique history, embodying its distinct culture, values, and spirit of cooperation between faculty and the District. That it has endured for three decades is a testament to the College's continued recognition of the essential role that the faculty plays in Santa Rosa Junior College's first-rate reputation and its legacy of excellence.
