FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 29, 2000

CONTACT: Linda Cushing, Action 2000 Coalition Chair; 714-526-7220; cushing@allweb.com

Large gowned bird to fly through California community college campuses during Part-time Faculty Equity Week, April 3-7.

The Freeway Flyer, a feathered professor in academic gown and mortarboard, will be migrating northward throughout Part-time Faculty Equity Week. The large bird, who has said "I’m s-o-o smart! I teach at five caw-caw-cawlleges!" often calls out its distinctive cry, "cheep, cheep, cheap," as it flies from one campus to another on its pedagogical itinerary.

The first sightings of the Freeway Flyer in San Diego County during Part-time Faculty Equity Week are expected to occur on Monday April 3 at:

Grossmont College, 10:30-11am

Mira Costa College, 12:00-1:00pm

Palomar College, 1:30-3:00pm

Mesa College, 4:30-5:30pm

Southwestern College, 6:00-6:20pm

Demonstrating its unique ability to be in more than one place at the same time, the Bird will also appear at Ventura College the morning of April 3 and at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria in mid-afternoon.

The Bird will appear at Orange County and Riverside community colleges on Tuesday April 4 and will be flying around the Los Angeles County area on Wednesday and Thursday April 5-6. Sightings are also anticipated at many locations in San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, and other areas throughout the state as it continues its northward migration.

Part-time Faculty Equity Week is a public education project of the Action 2000 Coalition, calling attention to the fact that the state’s 30,000 part-time community college instructors receive, on average, only 37% of the salary received by full-time instructors for an equivalent teaching load. Part-time faculty will be collecting signatures on petitions addressed to Governor Gray Davis, Chancellor Tom Nussbaum, and state legislators asking for budget increases in support of part-time faculty equity.

"Part-time faculty must be paid equally proportionate to their teaching load. Equal pay for equal work is not just a slogan — it is a minimum standard we must meet," says Ron Reel, Vice President of the Community College Association of the California Teachers Association. Other institutional members of the coalition are CCCI (California Community College Independents), CFT (California Federation of Teachers), CPFA (California Part-time Faculty Association), FACCC (Faculty Association of California Community Colleges), and CWA (Communications Workers of America).