by Chris Cumo

Chuck Whitten never expected to be in the eye of a hurricane. A 25-year broadcast journalist, he had come to the College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, California as an adjunct to share his passion for journalism. He enjoyed the teaching, but had neither the time nor the interest to become politically active on campus. Union activism held no appeal; Whitten had always been a conservative, anti-union man. All this changed in October 2001 when he learned that the College of the Canyons Faculty Association (COCFA), the union representing full-time faculty at the college, had enrolled him along with 380 other part-time faculty in the union. He was stunned; the COCFA had acted by fiat.

Whitten wasn’t alone in his astonishment. Michael Ward, who teaches history part-time at the college, never thought the union had any interest in adjuncts. More than at the other community colleges where he teaches, Ward is aware of class divisions between full- and part-time faculty, a divide that the college has institutionalized by issuing different color parking permits to each group, a practice that doesn’t exist at the others colleges where he teaches.

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