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Union weighs in on teacher-ed plans Regents panel postpones decision on full-time faculty, master's degree 
November 18, 2004 At higher ed council meeting are, from left, Maria Neira of NYSUT, Steve London of PSC-CUNY, Ellen Schuler Mauk of Suffolk CC, and William Scheuerman of UUP-SUNY. It is time to inundate the State Education Department with statements opposing a plan to cut requirements for full-time faculty in teacher ed programs at New York's colleges and universities. That was the course urged by New York State United Teachers Second Vice President Maria Neira, speaking to the union's Higher Education Council in October. The state Board of Regents is considering amending a six-year-old regulation that requires a majority of the credit-bearing courses in teacher ed programs be taught by full-time faculty. If approved, the measure would let colleges develop their own staffing plans if at least 80 percent of their graduates pass teacher certification exams and the schools maintain new Regents-required accreditation for their teacher ed programs. The plan would also remove existing limits on the number of hours teacher ed faculty could teach. In November, the Regents Higher Education Committee debated - then deferred until January - a recommendation to the full board, which sets education policy in New York. Neira asked public and private higher education unions and faculty senates to join NYSUT in making phone calls and sending e-mails opposing the plan to alter the regulation. "Colleges that have problems meeting the requirement already have the power to seek a waiver of the regulation," Neira said. The regulation governing the use of full-time faculty in teacher education was adopted in 1998 by Regents, looking to improve the quality of programs that are training the next generation of teachers. The plan to change that regulation comes "even as we press for a 70-30 percent" ratio of full- to part-time faculty, said Steve London, vice president of the Professional Staff Congress at the City University of New York. With the number of adjuncts and part-timers mushrooming as colleges grow more creative in cutting costs, higher education unions have been pushing for legislation requiring at least 70 percent full-time faculty at public colleges and universities. NYSUT's higher ed affiliates negotiate for contractual protections for both full- and part-time members. But many colleges are stepping up the use of part-timers to trim salaries, health benefits and other expenses, said William Scheuerman, president of United University Professions at the State University of New York. In addition to teaching and advising students, governance and committee work, teacher ed faculty supervise, place and coordinate student-teachers, who now have more state-mandated requirements for hours spent student-teaching. Strong letter In a September letter to SED on behalf of NYSUT's 30,000 higher ed members, then-NYSUT Vice President Antonia Cortese strongly opposed any measure that would weaken full-time faculty mandates for teacher ed programs. Cortese, now executive vice president of the American Federation of Teachers (NYSUT's national affiliate), pointed out that the Board of Regents itself concluded that institutions must devote more of their resources to teacher ed, and "defined what was a reasonable minimum staffing level for all colleges to meet in order to have faculty 'sufficient to maintain stability and continuity in teacher training programs.'" - Liza Frenette and John Strachan |
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