CFA speaks about future

By Phil Witte
Daily Forty-Niner

LOS ANGELES -- The California Faculty Association began its three-day fall assembly Friday, one day after submitting a new proposal to California State University administration outlining ideas on the merit pay and salary-benefit dispute.

The main issues covered during the assembly were disputes regarding raises and benefits, the current state of CFA membership, the future of higher education, particularly in the CSU system.

Saturday's session was featured guest speaker Cary Nation, a University of Illinois English professor who first tried to unionize his English department colleagues in the '60s with the help of the Teamsters union.

Nation cited soon-to-be-released Modern Language Association statistics showing that people in the bottom quarter of the economic levels in the United States have only a 5 percent chance of getting a bachelor of arts degree by age 24. The percentages only go up to 15 and 21 for the third and second quarters, respectively.

"Higher education is no longer compensating for the inequities of capitalism," Nation said.

In the afternoon's general assembly, the main issues concerning the organization were discussed.

"The focus of the organization should not be about procedures, but empowering faculty," said CFA president Susan Meisenhelder.

Overall membership through all the CSU campuses currently falls 2,289 short of a 50-percent-plus-one majority the organization needs for plurality, said membership secretary Manzar Foroohar.

The organization's Agenda for the Future of the CSU, an update on the 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education, was also discussed. The agenda targets the quality, availability and funding of the CSU's as major problems.

"The big issue facing the union is discretionary and merit pay, because if the administration controls the pay, they control the faculty, and there can be no academic freedom," said Cal State Long Beach chapter president Hamdi Bilici.

"Another concern is that 50 percent of CSU instructors are part-timers with no job security," he said. "In that situation you can't speak your mind or announce provocative ideas and it destroys the collegial fabric, creating an atmosphere or competition instead of cooperation."

The union is also concerned about an overall lack of pay increases and money intended for raises that was never received.

"We would also like to find out what happened to the missing $20 million that the Chancellor's Office didn't use for raises,"said Margaret Costa, director of interdisciplinary studies program at CSULB and CFA delegate.

"The problem was system-wide and the whole CFA is asking for an accounting of the money."