Dear Editor:

For the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 school years the California State University (CSU) signed contracts to raise faculty salaries.  In both years the CSU paid not a penny of the contracted raises, citing the poor economy as explanation.  In both years state-appointed, impartial fact-finders found this claim to be false.  CSU management has the money, but they are using the economy as an excuse to shirk their contractual duty.  During this same period CSU managers somehow found enough money to award themselves $6 million in raises–most recently, giving the new president of CSU San Diego a $100,000 raise over the salary made by his predecessor.

The excuses that management offered for these raises would have embarrassed the tailor of the “Emperor’s New Clothes.”  They suggested management raises were needed to “keep administrator salaries competitive with administrator salaries elsewhere.”

What CSU management seems to have forgotten is that the mission of the CSU is to educate California students.  The overall number of CSU faculty has diminished; many have not been replaced when they retire or leave which results in larger classes and less personal attention, advising, and mentoring for students.  The CSU needs to hire and retain top-notch faculty, so that our students can learn the skills they will need to compete in the global workplace.

Nor was the strike only about what has been happening in the last three years.  This pattern of management deciding to enrich itself at the expense of faculty and students has been occurring ever since CSU Chancellor Charles Reed took over in 1998.  Since 1998 CSU enrollment has grown by 60,000 students or 18%, but the number of full-time faculty has remained stagnant, with class sizes growing accordingly.  In contrast, the number of managers in the CSU system has grown by 22%.  This management bloat is a large part of what students have been paying for with the 263% increase in fees and tuition since 1998!

We in the California Faculty Association (CFA) have been trying for years to convince CSU management to change these policies.  But the time for verbal arguments passed when, over the course of three years, two state-appointed, impartial fact-finders both found management’s case for withholding faculty raises transparently weak, endorsing CFA’s proposal for modest increases.  This is why the strike was called.

There is no excuse for CSU management’s continuing plans to enrich itself at the expense of the CSU mission to provide a quality affordable education for all students. That is why CFA members from CSU campuses all over northern California and our students and allies came together for a strike on the CSU East Bay campus on Thursday, November 17th.  Our thanks to all of the people who helped organize this action, and to all of the people who joined us on this day.

The CFA Executive Board, East Bay Chapter
Becky Beal
Luz Calvo
Jennifer Eagan
Dana Edwards
Kim Geron
Felix Herndon
Patricia Jennings
Mark Karplus
Rita Liberti
Brian McKenzie
Henry Reichman
Gretchen Reevy
Johannes Wallmann