ACC faculty reacts to proposal to cut hours due to 'Obamacare'

Several Austin Community College employees expressed their dismay Dec. 2 regarding a late November memo that recommended ACC cut adjunct faculty hours in response to the Affordable Care Act, commonly called "Obamacare."

More than a half-dozen ACC staffers spoke at the Dec. 2 board meeting in response to a Nov. 25 proposal that suggested adjunct faculty work no more than 28 hours per week—with exceptions made only by the college's administration—to avoid being paid full health benefits as required by ACA for any employee working more than 30 hours.

Faculty, both adjunct and full time, said the proposal contradicts ACC board policy that requires adequate staffing resources to achieve the college's mission. If the new policy is approved, some faculty members threatened to campaign against future bond elections, most notably a proposed bond election potentially slated for November 2014.

ACC President Richard Rhodes said during the board meeting that no administrative decision has been made regarding the recommendation.

"There is no disregard, no disrespect for our adjunct faculty or any of our employees. We respect and highly value all our employees at ACC," Rhodes said. "We're trying to put information in their hands before anything happens and have those conversations upfront before any determination is made, and that's what we've been trying to do the past few weeks."

Terry Thomas, president of the ACC Full-Time Faculty Senate, suggested during her monthly report that the college instead consider adding more staff and faculty positions rather than cut adjunct faculty hours—a decision staff members argued would result in the need to hire more adjunct faculty.

ACC board members were unable to address the complaints as there was no agenda item to allow such discussion. They instead directed questions to school adminstration and will hold a formal discussion during their Jan. 21 meeting.