For the past few months, the United Faculty of Ohlone (UFO) and the Ohlone Board of Directors have been in gridlock, with the teachers protesting inadequate compensation and the board protesting that they lack funds for the requested Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) and healthcare benefits.
Wearing matching red “Cola” shirts and waving signs declaring “Band-aids don’t fix broken benefits,” UFO members and Ohlone students gathered in the courtyard and shared their perspectives during the board meeting’s open comment section on May 14.
UFO underlined three points of contention:
1. The need for a 1.72% COLA to be distributed over the next two to five years, for which state funding is available.
2. Healthcare benefits for part-time faculty (for which state funding can also be used), and a request for $125 per month increase in district contributions to full-time faculty healthcare (unfortunately already rejected).
3. Equitable compensation for laboratory instruction hours. These hours are compensated at lower rates across the board, but science labs require more work from teachers and are an integral part of instruction.
Students of all ages came to show support for their teachers. A young man who joined Ohlone in 2022 shared how the teachers supported him after his mom passed away, and through a period of housing insecurity. He said he knew the feeling of “not being able to focus on what you truly care about because you don’t have a roof over your head.”
A student who began taking classes at Ohlone after a career in the private sector was surprised at the level of conflict around COLA in education. “You kind of get what you pay for,” she observed, questioning how Ohlone can retain talent without adequate compensation. “The private sector is so different from working in education. I didn’t realize that the things we take for granted as being standard [aren’t available to teachers.]”
There was an overall feeling among UFO that Ohlone had fallen away from its previous commitment to supporting faculty. UFO member Heather McCarty noted, “Since 2020, this current Board of Trustees first hired Dr. Bishop and then president Sasaki and enabled them to undermine the culture that has made Ohlone College such a special place.”
She continued, “Our previous Board of Trustees had total compensation studies done, and pegged compensation for faculty, staff and administration at the same level. Our previous Board of Trustees did everything in their power to always pass along COLA. And when we didn’t have the financial means to do so, we made a plan to implement that COLA later, as they did during the recession.”
“The private sector is so different from working in education. I didn’t realize that the things we take for granted as being standard [aren’t available to teachers.]”
Ohlone student
Now, many longtime teachers are struggling. One English professor shared how he struggled to find funds to take his toddler to the emergency room. Baseball coach Mike Curran shared how he’s spent 12 years at Ohlone, making the two hour-plus commute from Mountain House near Tracy. Now his family can no longer afford to live in the area. He plans to continue coaching at the college while his family moves to Fresno.
Ohlone college provided data from Transparent California on salaries of admin, faculty and staff from 2023 (some may have changed since then).
President Sasaki’s salary was listed at ~$193,000, ~$204,000 with benefits included. One of the highest-paid positions, vice president of academic affairs Anthony Disalvo earned ~$336,000 in salary, with benefits and other pay bringing the total to ~$378,000.
A fulltime faculty member, Michael Curran earned close to $200,000 in pay, with benefits and overtime/other pay to ~$254,000. Curran’s base salary is on the higher end of the scale, with some listed faculty earning closer to $125,000; however, overtime/other pay and benefits boosted many listed faculty earnings near or over $200,000. The earnings for hourly lecturers were lower and varied a great deal.
In their statements, Ohlone College voiced commitment both to supporting faculty and to fiscal responsibility.
In a May 16 media release, the Ohlone College Leadership Team remained cautious about the possibility of getting state funding for healthcare benefits for parttime faculty, sharing, “reimbursements [for part-time faculty health benefits] are not guaranteed and may fall short if statewide demand exceeds available resources.”
Heather McCarty shared in her comment, “We successfully piloted a program providing part-time faculty access to state-provided healthcare funds. The staff overseeing this confirmed the workload was manageable. Yet this board instructed their negotiations team to make it permanent only if full-time faculty agreed to cover the cost if the State didn’t reimburse promptly, effectively asking one underpaid group to subsidise another.”
On the matter of COLA, Ohlone stated in the same release: “While the State of California has proposed a Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) for 2025–2026, Ohlone College will not benefit from this increase due to the current Student Centered Funding Formula (SCFF) calculations. Our state funding will remain flat.” However, at least there is a guaranteed funding floor for the next one to three years, providing some stability to the college’s finances.
After a tense evening, it seemed that UFO and the District had reached an impasse and would jointly file with the Public Employee Relations Board. However, the week of May 19, representatives from both the college and the teachers’ union reached out to the paper with news that a tentative agreement had been reached, granting the teachers the three points they were picketing for. Hopefully, this step will be part of continued thriving for the college, teachers and students.
Whoever is this Mike Curren is must have issues with finance. To be making a quarter of a million dollars per year and not making ends meet in Mountain House tells me he and his family have financial issues. He is making more than the President of the college for goodness sake.