California’s community colleges are lacking in full-time faculty, according to a recent report from California’s state auditor. The state-ordered audit looked at hiring and state funds spending practices for full-time faculty at four community college districts: Foothill-De Anza, Kern, Los Rios and San Diego.
Evan Hawkins
The district with the highest amount of instruction taught by full-time faculty was Los Rios with 63%, falling short of the state’s goal that 75% of community college classes be taught by full-time faculty.
The audit also found that sometimes, districts were spending state funds for said faculty on too many part-time adjuncts instead. In 2021, the state legislature had given millions of dollars to help districts hire more full-time faculty.
In 35 of the California’s 73 community college districts, part-time faculty – they are less expensive to hire – make up 70% or more of teaching roles, according to EdSource.
“We did the audit for a reason,” said Evan Hawkins, executive director of the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges. “We had heard from our local members that the full-time faculty funding that had been allocated was not actually going to full-time faculty hiring. And that’s what the audit showed.”
The audit also found that the community colleges were not doing enough to hire racially and ethnically diverse faculty, with 18% of faculty identifying as Hispanic compared with 47% of community college students. To note, the share of Black faculty did match up with the student body.
“The draft audit report presents a misleading picture of California’s community college governance and the role of the Chancellor’s Office — both by minimizing the responsibility of districts to comply with laws that are directed toward their own hiring practices and by implying that the Chancellor’s Office is governed only by its own discretion,” Dr. Daisy Gonzales, interim chancellor of the California Community Colleges system, wrote in a letter to the state auditor.
