Full-Time/Part-Time Benefit Based
Eric M. Cathcart
My name is Eric Cathcart with the Environmental and Ocean Sciences Department and I want to be on the CAS NTT Union Bargaining Committee. With 30 years of experience in teaching and environmental consulting, coupled with 20 years of running my own businesses, I bring a wealth of knowledge and a unique perspective to the table. I am also a proud member of the Organizing Committee.
Throughout my career, I have been dedicated to fostering a collaborative and supportive environment. My extensive background in education has equipped me with the skills to communicate effectively, listen actively, and advocate passionately for the needs of our members. In my role as an environmental consultant, I have honed my ability to analyze complex issues, develop strategic solutions, and negotiate successfully with diverse stakeholders and clients.
Running my own businesses has further strengthened my leadership and management capabilities. I understand the challenges and opportunities that come with balancing multiple interests and priorities. This experience has taught me the importance of transparency, accountability, and perseverance—qualities that I believe are essential for a successful bargaining committee member.
I am committed to representing your interests and working tirelessly to secure fair and equitable outcomes for all. Together, we can build a stronger, more resilient union that supports and empowers every member.
Thank you for your consideration and support.
Antonio Iannotta
My name is Antonio Iannotta and I’ve been teaching at USD since 2015 in the Languages, Cultures and Literatures Department. I have taught Italian Cinema at UCSD and at SDSU, and Italian language and culture at the Italian Cultural Center of San Diego. I am a film curator and scholar and the Artistic Director of the San Diego Italian Film Festival. I hold my PhD from Italy and I moved to San Diego in 2012.
I have been part of the Organizing Committee of our Union here at USD since the beginning of our efforts. I have been talking and listening to colleagues at USD about our common issues. Whether you are a non-tenure track full time instructor, like myself, or a non-benefit based lecturer, I pledge to do my best to work with our team to advance all non tenure-track faculty; we deserve more security of employment, better salaries, more effective benefits, increased professional development funds, and more shared governance roles. It is an ambitious plan, yet I’m sure that together we can do it! We already accomplished a huge win by establishing our first Union at USD, and now our bargaining work begins!
Ronald Niezen
I would bring to the bargaining process the experience of an academic career that includes appointments both as an adjunct and an employer. I began my career in the late 1980s as an adjunct at Concordia University, and later, from 2009 to 2012, served as Chair of the Department of Anthropology at McGill University. At McGill I also spent seven years as a Chair of Civil Society and Public Policy, a joint position between the Faculty of Law and Department of Anthropology. Ten years of my career were dedicated to temporary appointments of various kinds at Harvard University—in Social Studies, Anthropology, and, five years ago, as a Visiting Professor. Over the years, I’ve witnessed a trend toward greater precarity and fewer benefits for temporary faculty, to the detriment of both the faculty and the university. My two years at USD have familiarized me with many of the concerns of the adjunct teaching staff, while my varied professional background puts me in a strong position to advocate on our behalf.
Matt Parker
My name is Matt Parker and I started teaching at USD in 2011 as a part-time benefits-based adjunct in the chemistry department. After 13 years of hard work and dedication I am proud to have advanced to the position of… a part-time benefits-based adjunct in the chemistry department. As such I was excited to become a member of the Organizing Committee last fall and help make our long-overdue union a reality.
I am strongly motivated to negotiate for better pay, benefits, and pathways for advancement for all of us, and confident that together we can win substantial improvements in our working conditions. I know that many are concerned about what changes may result from our negotiations, and I will make it a priority to ensure that no current benefits are taken away by the administration during the bargaining process. I will also advocate for research/studio space and professional development funds for adjunct faculty. Together we can make USD work better for all of us!
Part-Time Non-Benefit Based
Scott Douglas
I have been a union leader and activist throughout my career, which has spanned over 30 years of teaching mathematics at eleven different colleges and universities across California. In the 1990s, I sat on the union executive board for the faculty in the Los Rios Community College District, where I served as a member of their negotiations team. During this time, I succeeded in bargaining a provision that allowed part-time faculty teaching in both the Los Rios and Sierra College Districts to pool their workloads, thus qualifying for healthcare coverage.
More recently, I served as the lead negotiator for the part-time faculty union at MiraCosta College, where I, again, succeeded in securing quality healthcare coverage for part-time faculty and their families at minimal expense. I have also lobbied legislators in Sacramento on behalf of faculty concerns. In one notable instance, I drove my “office” (my car) onto the Capitol steps to raise awareness about the plight of part-time “freeway flying” teachers who commute hundreds of miles between districts to cobble together a full-time teaching schedule. I currently sit on the board of directors of the Community College Association (CCA) an affiliate of CTA.
I am a proponent of interest-based bargaining, where parties openly discuss their respective issues and seek win-win solutions, rather than making demands and negotiating as one would when buying a used car. This approach requires building relationships and trust at the bargaining table. It would be my honor to serve as a member of your negotiations team.
Ted Falk
My name is Ted Falk, and I’ve taught Middle East, Islamic, and Jewish History at USD since 2019, as well as teaching in Middle Eastern Languages at SDSU and elsewhere. I hold a PhD in History from UCSD. At USD, I’ve been involved in the Gaza@USD event series last year, as well as being named a Changemaker Faculty Fellow. I also served on the Academic Assembly committee on NTT promotion and advancement, whose recommendations have been ignored by USD’s administration since they were overwhelmingly approved by the Academic Assembly in Fall 2023.
With a few other NTTs, I got involved in organizing a union in the spring of 2022, when NTTs were denied a $2,500 COVID bonus paid to other faculty and employees, and we began to feel our working conditions had actually gotten worse since we joined the faculty at USD. I served on the organizing committee of our union to connect with other concerned NTTs throughout the college and work with SEIU to demand a union election, which we won with 93% of the vote!
Our work isn’t done. I’m committed to listening to NTTs to achieve a fair first contract for our union. Base pay, raises based on service, promotion to benefits-based positions, and longer and timely contracts are some of the priorities I’ve heard during our organizing, but my inbox is always open to hear your concerns. I’m committed to working together to make sure USD’s culture of care extends to every NTT (and their paycheck).
Soroya Rowley
I’ve been part of the community of USD my entire adult life, starting in 2005 when I arrived to pursue my bachelor’s degree in theatre arts. From 2015-2021 I worked as an admin assistant for the CEE and then as the EA for the department of Environmental and Ocean Sciences, while getting my masters from the Kroc School of Peace Studies. Today I teach in the same theatre department where I began. I love USD because of the people that work and learn here, and the values we share. That is why it hurts me so personally that the administration is not living up to our shared values of equity and social justice when it comes to working conditions for NTT faculty. That is why I have been a leader in this union movement from day one, and that is why I need to be a member of this bargaining team. I need to continue to help usher this project through the very important stage of bargaining for the first contract. My work will not be done until we have a collective bargaining agreement in place that includes increased salaries and job security for all of our amazing NTT faculty. Faculty and students are the people who make USD the Changemaker campus that it is. We are the ones who create the Culture of Care through taking care of each other. We are the ones who Light the Way Forward in this 75th year of our university’s history. We are the change we want to see in the world.
Dylan Wells
Mx. Dylan Wells has been serving on the organizing committee for the new USD union, and has previously organized with the CFA, UAW 4123, and AFL-CIO 1931 as a lecturer for multiple colleges in San Diego. They would like to serve and fight for a new and better contract to create equitable working and learning conditions at USD, and so would appreciate being considered for the upcoming bargaining team. Workers of the world unite! Thank you.