By DON McINTOSH, Associate Editor

Backed by their union, college teaching faculty are pushing a political fix that they hope will halt decades of downward mobility.

Members of American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Higher Education Division say the the ivory tower of popular legend is turning into an academic factory that exploits its workforce. To cope with tight budgets, public colleges and universities around the country have shifted much of their class load to lower-paid part-time faculty who work without benefits on term-by-term, credit-by-credit contracts.

To turn that around, AFT, an affiliate of the AFL-CIO, has launched a campaign called FACE — Faculty and College Excellence — which is promoting a bill in 10 state legislatures this year.

The Oregon version is House Bill 2578. HB 2578 would require that at least 75 percent of classes be taught by full-time tenure-track faculty, and that part-timers be paid the same prorated salary and benefits as full-timers — to eliminate schools’ economic incentive to favor part-time instructors. HB 2578 would also give existing part-time teachers first crack at permanent full-time positions when they open up. And it would make staffing levels a mandatory subject of collective bargaining.

AFT-Oregon lobbyist Rob Wagner acknowledges the union is shooting for the moon the first time out, but if even part of HB 2578 passes, it will make a difference for members.

Some parts of the bill were contained in a bill introduced by then- State Rep. Dan Gardner, (D-Portland), in the late 1990s, but his union-backed bill didn’t go far in Republican-controlled House.

This time, the bill was introduced by Rep. Peter Buckley, (D-Ashland), assigned to the House Education Subcommittee on Higher Education and got a public hearing March 28.

At the hearing, college teachers and union leaders told lawmakers what’s been happening. In 1970, 80 percent of classes were taught by full time permanent faculty members, testified Bill Scheuerman, chair of the AFT Higher Ed Policy Council. Today, the figure is 54 percent. And as part-time instructors shuttle from school to school to cobble together a full-time job, students can lose out, Scheuerman said: It becomes harder for students to meet with instructors or get a letter of recommendation, or find out what classes favorite teachers will teach the next term in a timely way.

Sociology instructor Stephanie Blackman is one such “road scholar,” teaching six classes at four Portland-area colleges. Blackman told lawmakers she’s too busy flying down freeways to attend faculty meetings or mentor students. And, Blackman said, it’s not fair that people teaching the same class get less pay and benefits.

It’s not clear what chance HB 2578 has of passage this year.

The independent Oregon Education Association, the other large teachers union in Oregon, supports it. But college administrators oppose it, saying it would tie their hands and limit their flexibility in meeting students’ needs.