Seven years ago, when the Cerritos College union was formed, there was merely a faculty senate.

During the consequential seven years, both the Union and the district have made collective efforts to compromise and come to an agreement on a collective bargaining agreement that both sides seem fit.

The collective bargaining agreement is essentially the bill of rights for the faculty union.

While other community colleges have already had a contract with their respective unions for years, it seems that the time is now for Cerritos College to implement a fair and acceptable contract that would benefit our professors.

The pre-existing faculty handbook, which was pretty much the extent of any kind of contract framework, was also added into the new contract that is expected to be signed within the next few years.

Last spring, the two sides agreed to go into mediation, which means simply that there would be a mediator to assist both sides in coming to a conclusion. This proved to be a great asset to the negotiations.

On Aug. 31, the mediator, with help from the respective sides, finally came up with the framework for an agreement.

“Even though I have only been here for a week, I’ve made a commitment to work openly with the faculty union,” Cerritos College President Linda Lacy said.

Having representatives of the faculty union present during crucial decisions is something that many feel is essential to the well being of the union.

This is something that many feel the past president, Dr. Noelia Vela, did a horrendous job of during her tenure.

“In previous years, the faculty union tended to find out about decisions made, after the fact,” said Ted Stolze, president of the faculty union.

As a result of rigorous planning and negotiating, both sides agreed to establish a safety committee.

The two parties agreed that some of the facilities at Cerritos College were not adequate for either a professor to do his job or a student to learn.

“Our teaching conditions are also the students’ learning conditions,” added Stolze, who has been the president of the union for the past two years.

The new committee allows faculty to bring any safety concerns they may have to be reviewed by the safety committee board.

The board is made up of three members of the union and three representatives of the district.

Although there have been many positive steps taken to get the issues resolved, there are still many obstacles to overcome before a contract is signed.

Perhaps one of the biggest issues is the state of all of the part time professors we have on campus.

During the recent economic cuts, some part-time professors at Cerritos College are beginning to feel a lack of job security.

“We have had to lay off three different professors this semester,” said Dianne Keenan, the chair of Economics & Women’s Studies Department.

With some professors unsure if they would even have a job next semester, it is easy to see the connection to the students.

The lack of the positions that are offered to part-time professors is a direct result of the diminishing number of classes that are going to be offered in the near future.

With the though economic times that don’t seem to have an end in sight.

It is predicted that only half the amount of classes that were offered the second half of the last summer session are going to be available for students this upcoming summer.

Another issue that has materialized is the exact process into which Cerritos faculty would be evaluated, who would evaluate them and under what guidelines.

It is still unclear how exactly this is going to be done, however it is just one of the many issues that have seemed to haunt the two sides in their collective effort.

With both sides agreeing to close negotiations for the year, and with circumstances ever changing. It is truly a large task that lies ahead.