By Billy Gunn, FA President On August 20, the Faculty Assembly spoke at a Board of Trustees meeting for the first time in a long time. The goal was simple: welcome our new College President, Dr. Lennor Johnson, and signal that the FA intends to be more of a presence at Board meetings going forward. In the past, the FA and the Board kept each other at arm's length. We want to turn that page by showing up and being present as partners. Ahead of the meeting, we coordinated with

by dara, Faculty Assembly Vice President Just in case the reminder is useful, FACCC is the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges, and their mission statement is, “To inform, educate, empower, and advocate for faculty in service to the students and the communities of California.” MiraCosta is now a Contract District, with FA Immediate Past President Mary Gross as our full-time representation on the FACCC Governing Board. On Friday, 9/25, The FA, in conjunction

by Jeanine Sepulveda, FA Executive Board Member The Academic Senate is leading a collaborative effort to revise AP 4021, our college’s academic procedure for educational program initiation, modification, revitalization, and discontinuance. As part of my role on the task force working on these revisions alongside Jim and colleagues from across the college, I’m sharing an update on our progress. Our goal is to create a clearer and more transparent set of procedures that outline

By Mary Gross, FA Immediate Past President As you may know, the Faculty Assembly, after a unanimous Council vote, entered into an agreement with the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges (FACCC) to become a Contract District. This means that the FA now fully funds the FACCC membership of each of its dues-paying members. But being a Contract District also comes with many more outstanding benefits that we are currently enjoying. First, we have a seat at FACCC’s

The FA is seeking recommendations for candidates for Board of Trustees Area 5.

By Luke Lara, FA Ombudsperson Academic Freedom has been long regarded as essential to ensuring quality education in US colleges and universities. The American Association of University Professors (AAUP), founded in 1915, developed standards and principles that shaped higher education, including defining Academic Freedom. About three-quarters of colleges and universities with a tenure system have incorporated the language of the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom

By Mary Gross, FA President So much has happened these last couple months, closing the loop on some final issues and reaching set goals as my role as FA President comes to an end. Most notably, we successfully concluded negotiations on completely new contractual language for both Academic Freedom and Intellectual Property. We now have solid language in the contract that affords us clear rights in both these areas, and because they are now embedded in the contract, the languag

by dara, Faculty Assembly Vice President On April 23-25, Mary, Billy, Michelle Farnam, and I attended the California Community College Independent Unions’ (CCCI) Spring Conference in Berkeley. This was Michelle’s first time attending this conference, and it was a terrific one for a first-timer. For the past few conferences, I have helped organize and plan the days’ activities and discussions. We had a mix of information and fun group work with some levity to break up the many

By Luke Lara, FA Ombudsperson The Faculty Assembly Council has voted to join the Faculty Association for California Community Colleges (FACCC) as a contract district starting July 1, 2026. As a Faculty Assembly (FA) member, if you were already a dues-paying member of FACCC, the membership costs will now be covered by the FA for our dues-paying members. This designation comes with many benefits for all FA members, including enhanced representation, strengthened advocacy, incre

by Michelle Farnam My first semester on the Faculty Assembly Exec team has been informative and engaging. I was busy attending FA Exec meetings and negotiation meetings with the team, reviewing MOU’s and AP’s, and learning more about FACCC and CCCI, to name a few tasks. There was definitely a learning curve to figuring out the process of how the Faculty Assembly functions. I am happy to say this semester ended on a high note with the finalization of Academic Freedom and Intel