SDAFA opposes the 2025 SDCCD RAF Agreement put forward by the AFT Guild on December 1, 2025

The proposal to change the Resource Allocation Formula in the San Diego Community College District would collapse the Classes on both the FT Tenured/Tenure Track Salary Schedule and the Adjunct/Overload Salary Schedule and give a one-time off-schedule payment to all faculty equivalent to 1.70% of their gross earnings for calendar year 2025. Details of the RAF proposal:

1) Effective 1/1/2026, all faculty will be “frozen” in their current Salary Class.
2) Step movements will continue to occur, but no subsequent Class advancement will take place for any faculty.
3) Professional Development proposals which are approved by your campus Professional Advancement Committee and submitted to the District by the end of this semester will still be credited.
4) Tenured/Tenure-Track Contract Faculty will move in step on January 1st (11/12 month faculty) or February 1st (10-month faculty) as per our current contractual provisions.
5) Adjunct Faculty will continue to move in step for each 450 hours served, as is currently the case, and will bring their accumulated hours with them when they move to their new step in Class 6.
6) All Tenured/Tenure-Track and Adjunct faculty will move to the current Salary Class 6, which will then become the lone salary classification, effective July 1, 2026.  Each employee will move to the step in Class 6 which is closest, but equal to or greater than, their current class and step value, with no loss in pay.  
7) All faculty currently on Class 6 will retain their current Class 6 placement with no changes.
8) New hires will all start on the first step of this new single Salary Class.
9) Overload assignment placement for Tenured/Tenure-Track Contract Faculty will continue to be on the matching step of the Adjunct/Overload salary schedule, up to the top step F, as is currently the case.

***In addition, all faculty will receive a one-time off-schedule payment equivalent to 1.70% of their gross earnings for calendar year 2025.  This one-time off-schedule payment will be reflected on the March 31^st and April 10^th, 2026 pay warrants.***

SDAFA’s Position

SDAFA opposes the 2025 RAF Agreement put forward by the AFT Guild.  We are opposed to both segments of the proposal for the following reasons:

• Changes in the RAF should be a component of a broadly supported plan to move towards equity for all faculty. This RAF process lacks transparency. The proposal was rushed without adequate discussion or explanation, alienating faculty who might otherwise support the principle of equality
• This proposal does not move our faculty toward a “one-tier” system as it maintains separate pay schedules for full-time and part-time faculty
  • Neither the changes in the RAF nor the one-time benefits address the pay disparities between Full-time Tenured/Tenure Track (FTF) and Part-time Faculty (PTF)
    • A true one-tier system would have simplified the pay schedules to make part-time pay proportional to full-time pay based on load
    • An equity-minded RAF would have addressed steps before collapsing classes. PTF only have 6 steps on their pay scale while FTF have 17 steps
      • The pay disparity widens over time as FTF can advance through more steps than PTF
    • The 1.7% across-the-board increase would disproportionately benefit higher-paid faculty, widening the pay gap
      • Real-world examples of the disparity:
        • Part-time Faculty at $30,400/year get $516.80 ($51.68/month for 10-month year)
        • Full-time Faculty at $169,000/year get $2,873 ($287.30/month for 10-month year)
          [Source of Salaries: Transparent California 2023, sampled SDCCD employees]
• PTF are only paid for classroom hours while FTF are paid for preparation time as well
  • PTF teaching 67% at Class 6 Step F earn $38,887/year (two 5 hour classes per semester – 90 hours paid per class) – takes 6.25 years at 67% to reach
  • For teaching the same number of FTE (67%) FTF at Class 6 Step D earn $38,967/year – nearly equal at 1 year of service
  • The disparity grows the longer one is PTF:
  • For teaching the same number of FTE (67%) FTF at Class 6 Step I earn $44,627/year – 6 years of service [$5740 more]
  • For teaching the same number of FTE (67%) FTF at Class 6 Step S earn $58,537/year – 16 years of service [$19,650 more]
  • This is for teaching only; it does not take office hours or shared governance service into account
  • Calculations: FTF required to work 1400 hours per year divided by 10 months = 140 hours per month divided by monthly salary = hourly rate times number of classroom hours times 1.666 (FTF required to teach 15 hrs/week and 10 hrs/wk non-assigned activities, which are primarily prep and grading)

• Eliminating Classes based on education level sends a message that higher education isn’t valued
  • The proposal disincentivizes professional development and advanced education
  • Many faculty have invested time and money to move up the salary schedule through additional education.

SDAFA held an open forum on Tuesday, December 9, which was attended by over 30 faculty from all colleges in the SDCCD. The overwhelming majority of participants, as well as the overwhelming majority of commenters who have responded to the multiple email threads on the SDCCD DLs, is that this proposal is unfair and highly unpopular. Voting is currently taking place, set to end on December 16. We will update with the final decision after the voting has ended.