With administrators constantly praising the outstanding staff of part-time and full-time teachers at City College, it’s time they put their money where their mouth is and meet the Instructors Association demands in full.

Now that we have the $4.6 million in equalization funds, the college must meet teachers’ demands or face losing them as a valuable asset to our college.

City College is an outstanding educational institution because of our professors and their dedication to teaching. Not all community colleges enjoy the outstanding instructors we have at City College.

It’s time we recognize and appreciate our fortune: our professors.

It is absolutely disrespectful that their pay does not reflect their excellence.

It is only reasonable that the college meet the teachers’ full demands because it is not only an investment in the college, but in the students. Professors help shape students and guide them through their education.

Superintendent-President John Romo says that the college cannot afford the $2.3 million the Instructors Association demands to boost salaries. But when asked what the $4.6 million will be spent on, we’re given only vague approximations of revolving financial needs.

This is unacceptable. If the college is unwilling to meet teachers’ demands, it must present an itemized list of expenses totalling $4.6 million so teachers know what the college deemed more necessary than their salaries.

The college has invested $370,000 of that money in the Partnership for Student Success.

But investing in excellent professors will ensure student success more than a program or rubrics will ever do.

Programs and hi-tech buildings can only aid in students’ education. Teachers can shape and inspire it.

What’s more, teachers need the raise just to be able to live here.

A 5.92 Cost of Living Adjustment and increased medical benefits will not be enough for professors to buy a home or support a family in the ever-rising costs of living in Santa Barbara.

They deserve more.

Some teachers have to work other teaching jobs just to make ends meet. Others can’t afford to live in Santa Barbara and are forced to commute daily.

All this for professors who have Ph.D.s and master’s.

If we don’t raise their pay, professors may leave City College for greener, better-paying pastures.

The amount of work they do for the students and college does not equal what little they are paid, particularly compared to the rest of California’s community colleges.

Teachers already put more time in than what they are paid for. With extra office hours and responding to countless student e-mails, a professor’s job obviously does not stop at the classroom.

Without the excellent and attentive professors we have, City College will no longer be the model of collegiate excellence it’s known for.