Professional Relations Committee: What We’re About

By Luke Lara, FA Ombudsperson

The Professional Relations Committee (PRC) chaired by Luke Lara, is a subset of the Faculty Assembly Council and includes the Academic Senate Vice President/President-Elect, as liaison, and several Faculty Assembly Council (FAC) members. The purpose of the committee is to improve communication and work collaboratively on issues that affect the FA and/or issues other groups may have that we can help support. The committee is concerned with relations and areas of overlap between the FA and other groups, including the Academic Senate, Budget and Planning Committee, Board of Trustees, Associate Faculty Union, Classified Senate, Administration, and non-MiraCosta faculty unions. 

---

The objective of the PRC is to identify issues that may impact FA interest (info gathering); inform FAC of areas of collaboration and potential challenges (info sharing); and, strengthen relationships with other groups (collaborating). Some of the major working conditions issues PRC has tackled during the past three years include collaborating with, 

• Academic Senate leadership to develop a HyFlex survey to define HyFlex and establish clear guidelines and standards at MiraCosta College;

• student services administrators to address the rise of student conduct issues and to develop better support and training for faculty;

• administration and Student Accessibility Services to address the increasingly complex SAS accommodations and improve communication channels, support,and training for faculty; and,

• Human Resource administrators to develop resources around employee housing assistance.

In addition, the PRC spearheaded the development of a political endorsement process that will eventually entail collaborating with non-MiraCosta College faculty unions to establish a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on reciprocal endorsement processes. 

For the 2025-2026 academic year, the committee has identified several projects to work on with various entities. For example, the PRC will continue to work with the Academic Senate on mutual areas of interest including faculty leadership development and the flexible calendar impacts. The committee will also begin working more closely with the Classified Senate to open channels of communication to improve relationships between classified professionals and faculty. Also, the PRC will explore the possibility of MiraCosta College becoming a member of the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges (FACCC) as a contract district. Lastly, the PRC will further develop the political endorsement process.

Reach out to Luke Lara if you have any questions.