Riding Off Into the Sunset

Today is the last day of the semester at California State University, Sacramento. Next Wednesday, grades are due, and the 2024/2025 academic year is officially over. It is also the end on my 20th semester as a faculty member at Sacramento State - the end of my 10th year on this job. Due to my "classification" as non-tenured, contractual faculty (and about 60% of the California State University system faculty across all 23 campuses), I am officially unemployed until I am offered and accept a new assignment in the fall. While that has always been probable, it has never been certain. However, because of the state budget deficit, for the coming school year that probability is reduced to, "who knows?"

In my case, it's not as dire as it is for many others in my position. I was planning to retire after the fall semester anyway - right when the fall semester officially ends in early January. But I am eligible now and, if push comes to shove, will retire the day before the fall semester begins. It is not ideal, but it is workable. What it means in the right-here, right-now is the same thing it means at the end of the previous nine years - 10 weeks of “every day is Saturday.” As I've said many times before, it is my second most favorite part of my job. The best part? Being in the classroom. Not the prep work, not the bureaucracy and not the grading, but actually holding class.

1982 Harley Davidson FXR

Until I know more, it's business as usual. A summer of Saturdays awaits. I have two big motorcycle events planned and a bike to get finished. My pending grading this semester, unlike those in past, is much less daunting - partly because I am pretty good at it now and partly because of how this semester's schedule played into it. I am feeling some distant pressure due to uncertainty about the future, but nothing is bearing down on me like it usually is at the end of a semester. In fact, the pressure to get my '82 FXR Shovelhead done is far greater. But that's not a bad thing.

I have had, in the past, felt the ire of those who must work through the summer, from those who get, maybe, two or three weeks of vacation time every year. I get two and a half to three months. But there is a difference. Where that two or three weeks in a normal, year-round job is "paid vacation," mine is not. I still get a paycheck through the summer, but it's money I already earned - they "distribute" my pay over 12 months. It's not by choice (like it is in K-12) - if it was, I would choose to get it when I earned it. But, because of my official "unemployed" status, I am eligible (and collect) unemployment, too. It doesn't make up for what I would get paid - not even close - but it does make my summer monthly intake of money (as opposed to income, which should be paid in real time) greater, but without having to report to a job.

None of this is my call or my choice. I would rather the CSU just hire us rather than contract us. But they do not and, from what I can tell, the reason is due to the budget situation we are facing now. In lean times, they do not have to fire us, they do not have to lay us off, all they have to do is not give us classes. We, as non-tenured, contractual employees, do have certain rights regarding work, but per out collective bargaining agreement, work is always contingent on budget and enrollment. And there is never a guarantee. In official EDD language, I do not have "reasonable assurance of future employment." And until I sign an offer letter AND teach a given class past the census date (the last day a class can be cancelled), I never do, no matter how "probable" work is.

I have been dancing this dance with the CSU and with Employment Development Department (who has "investigated" me three or four times) for 10 years. Cue the bureaucracy. It is insane that they would continue to hassle us about what is rightfully ours - and spend even a dime investigating us when there are literally billions of dollars (with a "B") in real fraud they allowed to happen. Our union, the California Faculty Association, helps us navigate this quagmire and urges us to put aside the shame that some in both the CSU and EDD systems want us to feel for taking what is rightfully ours. And again, we did not create this - they did. And they could eliminate it by simply hiring us.

At the end of the day, none of it matters too much to me, personally. It still matters and for those who are in my position and not at retirement yet; it matters quite a lot, personally, to them. But I will be riding off into the sunset soon, maybe a few months sooner than I planned, but still soon. I do not know when I will be “celebrating” my retirement, which sucks a little, but I’m not real big on personal celebrations like that anyway. It’s also nothing new, that sort of shit has never been my story. I need a “Plan A” and a “Plan B,” but no “C,” “D,” or “E.” And for those who are still envious of the abundance of time I get? I have a simple solution: Do what I do. You’ll find that the time off is pretty fucking cool, but as not cool as actually being in the classroom. That’s what makes my job so special. And whether I retire in August or January, I’ll miss that.