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MCCFA LogoMaricopa Community College Faculty Association

Prop 486 Must Pass!

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As you know, passage of Prop 486 is CRITICAL to our colleges, our students, our success.  If it were to fail, the Maricopa Colleges would face a $100,000,000, or one-fifth of our total annual budget, loss.  That could mean eliminating programs, massive tuition increases for students, or even the closure of one or more of our colleges.  It would certainly mean job losses on a scale never before seen in the history of the Maricopa Colleges.

We CANNOT allow that to happen.  We must see that Prop 486 passes in November.

The Faculty Association is working with Elevate Maricopa and other groups to ensure the passage of 486.  But each one of us must also TAKE ACTION!

We have created a short text message video designed to be shared by each and every one of you with your friends, family, neighbors and anyone who is a citizen of Maricopa County.*

Very soon you will receive this video as a text message on your phone.  We ask that you share the video with everyone in your “contacts” list who lives in Maricopa County, as well as with Facebook, Instagram, X and any other social media you use.**

Ballots are scheduled to be mailed out on October 9.  To be maximally efficient with our impact, we need the video to be sent out at least once before then (Monday the 7th would be ideal), again on Friday 11 October, and again on Monday 4 November (election-day eve).

We have also created a Google drive folder where you can download the video as well as a PDF flyer you can email and text to anyone you know in Maricopa County (as well as post to social media)  You can also visit the Prop 486 Information page on the DO website if you need to review details of the proposition and its impact.

Finally, there are other things you can do to help pass this voter initiative.  Use chalk markers to say, “Yes on 486″, and “Support Community Colleges” on the windows of your cars.  Talk to your neighbors, friends and family about the importance of 486.  And, you can make a contribution to Elevate Maricopa to help in them spread the word as well.

* “Personal” contacts, not “work” contacts.  Only post to people or social media that you control in your personal capacity.

** You cannot use work time or resources on any of these items.  Nor can you use your official position to advocate for 486 passage.  For example, you cannot say, “I’m a professor at Mesa Community College, let me tell you how important this is”. You CAN say, “I’m a professor at a community college and I know how important this is.”  It is a subtle but essential distinction.

MCCFA LogoMaricopa Community College Faculty Association

Freedom of Speech in the Classroom Brown Bag

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The Faculty Association (FA) hosted their second brown bag hosted by the FA legal counsel, Barton Mendez Soto, this past Friday. Below is the information:

Here is the recording to the first one:

There will be two more brown bag sessions (12pm to 1pm) this semester:

The sessions are open to ALL Maricopa faculty.

MCCFA LogoMaricopa Community College Faculty Association

FA Brown Bag Sessions

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The Faculty Association (FA) hosted their first brown bag hosted by the FA legal counsel, Barton Mendez Soto, this past Friday. The brown bag was on free speech and the classroom with a focus on political speech:

The FA is hosting 3 more brown bag sessions (12pm to 1pm) this semester:

The sessions are open to ALL Maricopa faculty.

MCCFA LogoMaricopa Community College Faculty Association

Welcome Back!

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Faculty Colleagues:

First, I’d like to extend a warm welcome back to the fall semester. I hope your summer was reinvigorating, and I have no doubt you are ready to offer our students what we are known for: excellence!

Now for some serious talk. We’re facing challenging times.

In addition to dealing with the June 5 series of leadership changes that significantly impacted the district, we are facing underfunded colleges, a $45 million lawsuit loss, and the existential threat of the failure to pass Proposition 486 (to raise the District’s spending cap under the Expenditure Limit).  These challenges, however, are opportunities to demonstrate our ability to take initiative and work collaboratively to solve problems.

Despite the challenges we have faced thus far, the faculty has had some significant gains:

  • Faculty Association advocacy made sure that our Governing Board candidates running for reelection got on the ballot and are running unopposed.
  • Faculty received a 4.12% salary increase this year.
  • The Faculty Association is working toward collaborating with Chancellor Gonzales on the design of a more efficient and effective hiring process for administrators.
  • The Faculty Association is working toward collaborating with Chancellor Gonzales on a process to provide meaningful feedback about the effectiveness of administrators at each college.

Moving forward, how do we address our challenges?  We do it together.

We all must be involved in educating ourselves and our community about the impact of Prop 486 and the threat of the current Expenditure Limitation to students, the faculty, and the District.  The Faculty Association has plans to actively lead this effort. In order to do this, we must have your personal information. Please complete our Personal Contact Information Form so that we can reach out with important information and messages to share about Prop 486.

We partner with administration to craft solutions to the District’s financial challenges. The Faculty Association has representatives on all key committees to preserve fiscal responsibility – without sacrificing faculty rights – by developing long-term plans that address the potential outcomes of the current challenges and prepare for future uncertainties.

The Faculty Association fights battles on behalf of our whole community – faculty, staff, and students alike. When it succeeds, everyone benefits; when it fails, everyone suffers. But it is important to remember that the strength of the Faculty Association comes from its members – we are stronger when we all stand together. Larger membership gives greater weight to our influence by demonstrating that we speak on behalf of the group. It also gives us the resources we need to advocate effectively.

Our fight is your fight. Our success is your success. Our story is your story. Every member increases our ability to keep winning victories for you.

We sincerely thank all of our current members for their support. If you have not had the opportunity to join or renew your membership, please consider standing with your colleagues. To join the Faculty Association or to renew your membership (for anyone not currently paying dues), please go to https://mccfa.org/become-a-member → Become a Member → and select your preferred dues payment schedule and method. You may select from:

  • Annual = one-time payment (Debit Card, Credit Card, or Check)
  • Monthly = twelve payments (Debit or Credit Card)

Additionally, if you wish to join or renew your membership via personal check, select Pay by Check upon checkout and send your completed check via USPS to:

Maricopa Community Colleges Faculty Association
520 East Southern Avenue
Tempe, AZ 85282

Visit Membership Benefits to learn more about the benefits of being a Faculty Association member.

Thank you for all you have done and continue to do in support of our students and each other. We wish you a successful semester.

Ramona Goth
Faculty Association President 2024-2025

MCCFA LogoMaricopa Community College Faculty Association

Governing Board Address 05/28/24

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I am Ramona Goth, and it is my privilege to represent the Residential faculty as the 2024-2025 Faculty Executive Council President.

I don’t speak Spanish or Latin, and while I enjoy music, I have a difficult time recalling song titles. However, I do appreciate a good turn of phrase, so tonight I’d like to begin with a quotation from H. E. Luccock: “No one can whistle a symphony.”

At Scottsdale Community College’s 2024 commencement ceremony, Chancellor Gonzalez exhorted graduates to “honor the power of community.” Tonight, I would like to spotlight faculty who did just this and worked across departments, across disciplines, across colleges, and across the District to provide enriched learning experiences for students.

Literary journals are not new in the District, but it was not until a group of Scottsdale Community College English teachers met for happy hour that the idea for an academic journal for community college students was born. Anyone can have a good idea, especially at happy hour, but two dedicated English professors, Dr. Jaraed Aragona and Professor Matthew Bloom, made that idea a reality. They collaborated with English faculty to curate quality student essays and worked together to edit and publish an online journal– the Two Waters Review. Next year, the Two Waters Review will be expanded outside the English department to include essays from students in the life and physical sciences departments.

This spring, Dr. Aragona and Professor Bloom partnered with Graphic Arts Professors Peggy Deal and Bernie Fritts to involve visual arts students in the creation of a print version of the Two Waters Review. SCC has provided each of the members of the Governing Board with a copy of our literary journal, Vortex, and our academic journal, Two Waters Review–publications that through cross-disciplinary collaboration are entirely written by students, designed by students, and printed by students.

In fall of 2023 and spring of 2024, faculty from Paradise Valley Community College and Scottsdale Community College engaged in a cross-campus collaboration to host community dialogues on race, gender and class. Led by Dr. Michael Noschka, Dr. Kaitlin Southerly, and Dr. Jeff Butcher, these dialogue days were designed to sharpen learner’s critical thinking and communication skills while strengthening civic engagement and building more inclusive communities.

The Literacy Partners Program, led by Stacy Wilson and Alex Arreguin, reached across disciplines and campuses to promote student success through reflective teaching, continuous learning, and collaboration among faculty. The Literacy Partners Program begins with a summer workshop introducing faculty from across the District to high-impact practices for addressing student success challenges in their disciplines. Faculty then design projects to address these challenges while. The program provides wrap-around support for these projects, and it fosters community connections through networking opportunities and social gatherings. On May 23, Mesa Community College hosted the Literacy Partners Project Showcase that spotlighted projects from Nursing, Exercise Science, Communications, Chemistry, Biology, English, Dental Hygiene, and Theater. Each project was designed to foster a deeper engagement with course materials and to create a more inclusive learning environment for students across the District.

MCC District Service Learning is a shining example of the power of community. In 2023-2024, service-learning projects across the District engaged a total of 2857 student participants in service experiences that positively impacted their campuses and communities. Students, staff, and faculty performed a total of 16,540 service hours during the academic year. Recently the volunteer investment rate estimated that each volunteer hour invested in a community was valued at $33 an hour. This would mean that a total of $545, 820 dollars was invested in the community by District Service Learning.

From Glendale Community College where students, staff, and faculty created 300+ coloring packets for children waiting in the Phoenix Children’s Hospital ER…

To Gateway Community College where students, staff, and faculty worked with the Center for Native and Urban Wildlife to collect and package native seeds for distribution to community members…

To Mesa Community College where the Random Acts of Kindness Week and Pay It Forward campaigns were successful student-led initiatives…

faculty are helping to foster active citizenship, promote community well-being, and prepare students to be compassionate and responsible members of society.