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news
CFA, CSU are still
negotiating
By Jamie Rogers
On-line Forty-Niner
The California
Faculty Association and administration for the California
State University system butted heads repeatedly this summer
during faculty contract negations, finally declaring an impasse
in July. Not wishing to interrupt classes the CFA agreed to
continue working under the expired contract and continue
negotiating with administration until an agreement that satisfies
both groups is reached, Martin Fiebert, CSULB chapter president
of CFA said.
Fiebert said the
CFA has little to complain about regarding most of the inch-thick,
novel-size contract, but the points they do not agree with
are too important to ignore.
Salary woes
The low faculty
salary increase, which was determined by this year's state
budget, is a major concern of the CFA.
Fiebert said the
CFA thinks the low amount of increase the faculty received
(two percent), discourages new professors from seeking employment
at CSULB. He said, the CFA thinks that money from elsewhere
in the system should be allocated to the faculty.
"We have a
two percent increase this year," Fiebert said. "The
whole system got an eight percent increase. So can they reallocate
money they got into faculty compensation ? and they can. It
is an extra $240 million that they have and some of that is
going to projects that are of questionable utility for the
future of the CSU."
According to Colleen
Bentley-Adler, director of public affairs for the CSU Chancellor's
Office, the CSU has allocated all available funds to essential
programs.
"We don't
have the funds to give 6 percent [raises] since the governor
and legislature only gave us 2 percent," Bentley-Adler
said. "The only place to take [any money] from is student
enrollment growth ? we are not going to do that."
The workload
Another point of
contention between the two groups is the increased use of
part-time faculty rather than hiring full-time, tenured faculty.
"Our biggest
concern is workload," Fiebert said. "Faculty are
expected not only to teach but also to do research and to
be involved with their department. Our workload has been skewed
to the higher end recently because we hired so many part-time
faculty that the full-time faculty have to do jobs that in
the old days were shared by many other members of the department."
Fiebert said the
CFA is also concerned with the large class sizes and the difficulty
students have in enrolling in certain classes.
"Student population
has been increasing," he said. "We have had an increase
in the system of 35,000 student in the last five years, not
just at Long Beach but throughout the whole system. There
hasn't been a comparable number of new faculty hired. There
have been some new faculty hired, but far from the numbers
that are needed."
According to information
obtained from the CSULB Personal Information Management Systems,
the number of full-time equivalent students increased by 14.4
percent while the number of full-time faculty members hired
increased by 1.5 percent.
The CSU has been
hiring full-time faculty over the last few years. At CSULB,
86 new tenured faculty members were hired this year alone.
However, according to Bentley-Adler, the universities must
continue hiring part-time employees, partly because of the
popularity of the Faculty Early Retirement Program, a program
that allows retired faculty to continue teaching on a part
time base.
"We must hire one or two part-time faculty to take the
place of the classes [the retired professors] are not teaching
anymore," Bentley-Adler said. "We want a good mix
of full-time and part-time faculty. This can give practical
experiences in the field and in theory. Balance is very good
for education."
A solution sought
When the impasse
was declared this summer, CSU and the CFA were forced to bring
a mediator into the mix. Delores Lobina of the state mediation
service will meet with both groups. The CSU is not available
to meet with Lobina until after Sept. 13, according to Fiebert.
If neither side is satisfied with the mediation sessions,
the CFA and CSU will each have to hire independent fact finders.
The fact finders will present reports, none of which are binding.
If the report's findings are still do not satisfy either side,
the CFA will consider job action, Fiebert said. Already, the
CFA is planning a "teach-in" demonstration for Oct.
17, which he said he is encouraging students and faculty to
attend.
The CSU, however,
believes the negotiations should be settled outside campus,
according to Bentley-Adler.
"We don't
think the union should be involving students in the dispute,"
Bentley-Adler said. "We believe faculty should be in
the classroom teaching and students would rather be in the
classroom where learning is taking place."
Michael Watanabe
contributed to this story.
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