|
news
CFA says students
should face CSU
By Jeanne Hoffa
On-line Forty-Niner
The Chancellor's
Office has questioned the propriety of the California Faculty
Association's recruitment of student interns and organizers,
CFA leader Armando Vazquez-Ramos said Wednesday at a job action
committee meeting.
The CFA hired one
paid intern and organizer, Alejandro Negrete, and signed up
12 volunteers to help articulate and gain support for a vision
of education that many within the CFA said they feel has drifted
away from that of the administration.
Chancellor's Office
Spokesperson Colleen Bentley-Adler said students should be
in the classroom learning -- not be involved in union activities.
Bentley-Adler said that the faculty should leave politics
out of the classroom.
Vazquez-Ramos,
a lecturer for the Chicano and Latino studies department and
chair of the Job Action Committee, said it is important that
students to get the opportunity to choose for themselves,
and respond to the chancellor's claim.
"They are
intelligent and capable of digesting both sides of the debate,"
Vasquez-Ramos said. "Why are we afraid to inform and
involve them in a very traditional process of negotiation
that they will experience in their professional life -- and
will effect them as consumers of the university?"
CFA leaders at
Cal State Long Beach put their heads together to peruse their
best strategies to boost sagging full-time and tenured professor
numbers. They also are looking for ways to shift funds from,
what some in the organization call excessive administrative
outlays, to replenishing aging equipment in various departments
and teacher salaries.
Plans were made
to write and circulate petitions, to organize a door-to-door
systematic recruitment of CSULB's estimated 1700 faculty members
for events such as the Oct. 17 "Teach-In." Most
important, the CFA wants to rally endorsements from campus
and local organizations.
A CFA member who
wished to remain anonymous said the chancellor's criticism
was a testament to the power of the student 's involvement
and voice.
The students who
work with CFA have eagerly been involved in student government
and campus activities. Alejandro Negrete was elected senator
for the college of liberal arts and is active in the Latino
Studies Student Association.
Rosa Hernandez
campaigned to become this year's Associated Students Inc.
treasurer. Other volunteers include the president and vice
president of La Raza. Vazquez-Ramos said student involvement
gives them practical experience as well as giving them the
opportunity to become involved.
"Students
are the primary consumers of what we're supposed to be doing
on this campus," Vazquez-Ramos said, urging them to become
informed about what's going on. "Students need to be
able to respond to statements from the administration."
Vazquez-Ramos suggested
students be given the opportunity to vote on the matter.
"Maybe we
should offer a referendum about whether or not they want to
be involved," he said. "Put it on the ballot. 'Should
the student government endorse the platform of the CFA on
behalf of the faculty?' Then they could vote."
The next CFA meeting
is Wednesday, Sept. 19.
|
