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news
CFA rallies around
Reed's headquarters
By Greg Smith
On-line Forty-Niner
Dramatic events
turned tense Wednesday morning when representatives of the
California Faculty Association attempted to present 20,000
petitions showing support for CFA bargaining demands at the
California State University Board of Trustees meeting with
Chancellor Charles B. Reed.
Police officers
in the meeting room told CFA members that they could not hand
the petitions directly to board members, but the CFA didn't
back down. Plain clothes police blocked the representatives'
movements, but in a show of solidarity, board members Daniel
N. Cartwright, Robert Foster and Ricardo F. Icaza rose from
their seats, moved past police and took the petitions from
the CFA members.
"We had some
theater on the outside but we didn't realize we were going
to get some on the inside," CFA president Susan Meisenhelder
said after leaving the meeting, referring to a live theater
performance by META, an acting troop from CSULA.
In the biggest
demonstration the CFA has ever organized, more than 400 supporters
of the CSU teacher's union turned out at the lawn in front
of Reed's office in downtown Long Beach to protest CSU administration's
treatment of faculty. Teachers, staff members, students and
community leaders alike were on hand in support of the CFA
and the CSU system as a whole.
Close to 100 demonstrators
moved inside the Board of Trustees meeting room during the
board's Bargaining Committee Report. CFA members then held
a mini-teach-in for board members with speeches detailing
the problems and downward trends facing the CSU system.
"The trustees
paid a lot of attention [to what we said]," said Martin
Fiebert, president of the Long Beach chapter of the CFA.
Three hundred supporters gathered outside, blared whistles,
held signs emblazoned with "Stand up for CSU," "Faculty,
Staff, Students Unite" among other slogans, while chanting
pro-CFA battle cries. They picketed in front of Reed's office
before gathering to hear speeches by CFA members, lawmakers
and students.
"We are here
today to bring the lessons of the Teach CSU teach-ins to the
Board of Trustees and the chancellor," said Lil Taiz,
vice president of the CFA. "We are all now too familiar
with the problems, including decreases in the instructional
budget, increases in the administrative budget, huge drops
in the number of full-time tenure-track positions and sky
rocketing numbers of part-time positions."
Armando Contreras,
executive assistant to Cal State Long Beach President Robert
Maxson, said the session with the CFA went very well. He said
that talks in the beginning were mainly about pay issues but
said that given the state of the California economy, a pay
raise is unrealistic. He said talks turned to issues of faculty-administration
relations.
"I think there's
a sense among the trustees that this is an issue that is important.
You want good relationships," Contreras said.
Issues of work
load and part-time and tenure-track positions took center
stage in the CFA's teach-ins last month. Contreras said that
tenure-track recruitment was exempted from recently announced
budget cuts.
Clara Potes-Fellow,
spokeswoman for Reed, said the rally went smoothly and according
to plan. She also said that the event will not change the
offers that CSU has made to the teacher's union, mainly the
2 percent raise on the table.
"The chancellor
has been very forward in what is available [in the budget],"
Potes-Fellow said. "If the unions don't accept the 2
percent raise then the funds could be impounded by the state."
Potes-Fellow also
said Chancellor Reed will look at the 20,000 petitions and
give them full consideration. She also said Reed hopes the
collective bargaining will reach a positive conclusion.
Supporters from
almost every campus in the CSU systerm attended the rally.
The CFA even flew out Seth Klempner, a sophomore liberal studies
major at Cal State Humboldt, to show his support.
Emily Paul, a freshman
international studies major at CSULB rode a bus to the rally
with other CSULB supporters.
"I want to
show my support for CSU and the faculty," Paul said.
"It's important to all be united."
At the conclusion
of the rally, organizers announced a victory and all in attendance
chanted "We'll be back" as the band Slowriders of
Los Angeles played music for revelers to dance to.
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