CCCI 2024 Fall Conference Update

By Luke Lara, FA Ombudsperson

As an independent collective bargaining unit, the MiraCosta College Faculty Assembly (FA) is one of 13 member colleges that belong to The California Community College Independents (CCCI). The CCCI gathers its member colleges biannually during the fall and spring semesters to share best practices, strategies, and experiences around contract negotiations, grievances, and legislative advocacy.

The entire FA executive team was able to attend this event in San Diego where we engaged in a dynamic three-day conference. Under the leadership of President K. Frindell Teusher, the conference has become more engaging, welcoming, and inclusive of all union leadership. Of course, many of the cool activities were planned by our very own dara, who is also the elected Vice President of the South for the CCCI.

Conference Highlights

Some topics of interest included:

The unveiling of the new CCCI website (www.ccciunions.org). The CCCI contracted Evan Hawkins of W. Strategies to create a new website to serve as a dynamic resource site for member colleges with the new advocacy tools (CCCI Legislative Tracker), contracts page, and members only resources. The site is still being developed, but will hopefully be complete by the spring semester. Thanks to dara and Sally Sanger (part-time instructor at Santa Barbara Community college) who provided significant input for the development of the new CCCI website.
The creation of a legislative committee. It was announced that the executive committee of the CCCI wants to empower member colleges and faculty to drive legislative advocacy going forward. The legislative committee will form this January.
FACCC President, Wendy Brill-Wyncoop reiterated the importance of legislative advocacy and discussed FACCC’s recent position paper on AB 1705.
Breakout discussions around various topics: evaluation processes; negotiation strategies; grievance officer consultations; budget analysis; and communications, membership, and outreach. These breakout sessions allowed for intermingling, sharing best practices, asking questions, and learning from each other.
District reports that allowed each union to share updates on current issues, trends, successes, grievances, negotiations, and other union matters.
Presentation from Attorney David Conway. Member colleges were able to submit questions beforehand and get detailed answers to current concerns and issues impacting many of the CCCI member colleges. Topics included: best practices for request for information; when board policy contradicts a CBA; whether a faculty investigation file can be sealed; recovering an underpayment and paying (or fighting) an alleged overpayment; accessibility/accommodation issues; the “right of assignment”; and AI and intellectual property rights and authorship and plagiarism in student assignments.
And much more.

Executive Board’s Personal Insights

We learned so much at this CCCI conference. After hearing the legal presentation Mary shared, “with the growth of AI use in student assignments, as an institution, we should develop policies that can dictate how authorship and plagiarism are defined in this context.” There is nothing like a legal expert to help point out areas of improvement!

During the breakout session on evaluations, dara indicated that she “learned about other districts’ tenured faculty professional review and about different types/levels of admin involvement.” Learning from other districts helps us gain perspective and to develop a negotiation strategy that is informed.

As the FA Ombudsperson, I personally appreciated the breakout session where I could engage other grievance officers. I always walk away with new perspectives on how to deal with conflict. A faculty member from another college shared, “sometimes it's important to remember the other 99% of the faculty that don’t have issues when you are deeply involved in a grievance matter.” That really helps put into perspective the importance of my work and to remember the power of gratitude when facing challenges.

It is not all business, of course. Some of the best moments for me about this conference was breaking bread with other faculty, sharing stories, and having some fun in Little Italy and at the Coin-op Game Room in the Gaslamp. A highlight for dara was when she realized, “I am apparently decent at arcade basketball. 🙂” I think she hustled us, since she was the one that coordinated the event at the Coin-op in the first place. 😂

Conclusion

The CCCI’s biannual conference provides a forum for discussion, information sharing, and learning. It is important for the FA to belong to the CCCI because,

Just like our MCCFA, we are stronger when we align and work together for common interests and contribute monetarily to ensure a strong organization that has connections with FACCC and our own Independent voice represented in Sacramento. - Mary, FA President

The bottom line is as dara said, “We’re not in this work alone.” To that end, the FA is committed to the mission of CCCI and collaborating with and learning from the other member districts. The next CCCI conference will take place in spring 2025 in Northern California.