Yadith Sepulveda fears for her husband's safety when he leaves for his 14-hour work day--he could fall asleep while driving or an accident might befall him as he rides his motorcycle on California's crowded freeways.

Is this man a high-speed courier? No, just another exploited freeway flier serving California's community college system.

Part-timers recognize George Sepulveda's plight in "Teachers on Wheels," Linda Janakos' documentary on the personnel crisis in California's community colleges. Janakos, a community college English professor in Santa Monica, was moved by the lack of respect, compensation and rights that California part-timers have, and she decided to self-finance the documentary to inform the public.

The film details the lack of tangible benefits and equitable pay in part-timers' jobs. In the film, George Sepulveda takes a grim view of the inadequate compensation. "I just work as much as I can and hope that I can save enough money to retire so I don't have to eat dog food when I'm old," he deadpans.

The lack of respect accorded these professionals is another focus of the film. Their "offices" often are either vehicles or common mailrooms; they receive the summons to teach on the first day of some classes, and most adjuncts willingly accept the work--teaching at three, four, or even five colleges simultaneously to maintain a living wage. Even after teaching multiple semesters, they must continuously search for new work--because they are seldom offered short-term contracts.

The state chancellor and community college presidents are shown in the film explaining how they understand the plight of adjuncts but just don't have the funding to compensate the part-timers. Although the state promotes community colleges as being the "gateway to the workplace," the Legislature funds the UC system at five times the per-pupil rate of community colleges.

For part-timers, the only path to equity is through the state Capitol. The film shows students, adjuncts, and concerned citizens participating in grass-roots publicity efforts like distributing the "scholar dollar," which explains how part-timers earn 37 cents for every dollar a full-time faculty member earns, and dressing up as the notorious "Freeway Flier." The video also showcases the California Federation of Teachers' "Part-Time Equity Week," which broadcast the slogan "Equal Pay for Equal Work" in hundreds of educational institutions. In a protest rally at the state Capitol in 2000, adjuncts delivered 45,000 signed petitions to Gov. Gray Davis asking him to address part-time equity in the state's budget; Janakos' camera later showed the petitions in a trash can.

"That's exactly the way we've been treated for 20 years," says Linda Cushing, an AFT national representative who had helped organize the rally before she went to work for the union.

The adjuncts achieved an important victory last year, when the governor proposed and the Legislature appropriated $57 million in funds dedicated to addressing part-time faculty salary inequities. Whether that funding will continue given the state's deficit problems is unclear. While some legislators have signed on to equity, many have not--and the fight must continue.

"The teachers have to enlighten the status quo into understanding that position may equal power, but it does not equal right," Janakos says.

The documentarian hopes to turn Teachers on Wheels into a full-length film. In the meantime, copies of the documentary can be purchased at www.Rabble-A. com. [Mark Henson / AFT On Campus]

[September 2003]