Full-time faculty at Citrus received a 10% raise in salary after an agreement between the district and the Citrus College Faculty Association that went into effect Jan. 1. As per the agreement that established this initial pay increase, salary will gradually increase until it reaches an overall increase of 19% by 2025.
The raise in salary was received well by the full-time faculty at Citrus, as was shown by history professor and president of the CCFA, Senya Lubisich. Lubisich wrote in an email that “the salary increase had a significant impact for faculty and that it felt like a recognition for work that faculty did during the pandemic.”
Lubisich also called the salary increase “one of, if not the most, generous salary augmentations, in recent memory/history.”
Lead negotiator for the CCFA and automotive technology professor Dave Brown wrote in an email that as a result of the increased pay the “overall mood/morale that (he) detect(s) has improved markedly” among full-time faculty.
However, the salary increase was not universally well received as some faculty found that it could have come sooner and in a greater amount.
Brown wrote that the district benefited from cost of living adjustments in July 2021 and July 2022 that totaled to more than 11%, which is still less than the 10% salary increase reached in the agreement.
Brown also wrote that there could be problems with cost of living adjustments in the future as a result of this agreement.
“The projected COLA for 2023-2024, from which the District will benefit, is projected to be 8% or more,” Brown wrote. “Our next scheduled increase as a product of this agreement is 2% in July of 2023. … You can decide if that’s fair.”
English professor Jamie Dingman said she found that the agreement did not accurately address cost of living adjustments.
“I would like to see that salary would increase yearly according to cost of living,” Dingman said.
Dingman also added that the salary increase was late.
“It’s long overdue,” she said. “It’s always overdue.”
Speech professor John Fincher also said he felt the salary increase was overdue but added that the salary increase was at least “a beginning.”
Studio arts major Blake Hall said he felt that it was a shameful fact that educators in the richest country in the world feel that they are still underpaid even at the college level.
“Ultimately if you’re working full-time, you should be paid more than your cost of living,” Hall said.
Head negotiator for the district Robert Sammis said that the salary increase was fair and “the ratification vote by the faculty strongly indicates that the faculty are satisfied with the salary agreements.”
The margin of approval for the agreement was 123-1.
