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news:
Fiebert takes
lead role
By Michael Watanabe
Daily Forty-Niner
There are 650 professors
whose contracts are on the line. Not a pretty picture. But
Martin Fiebert must deal with all of these people while working
with the California State University to iron out an acceptable
agreement.
Fiebert is the
new president of the Long Beach California Faculty Association.
As president, he sees campus faculty moving in a new direction,
focusing on faculty involvement and peacefully working out
a contract with the CSU.
"We need to
engage the faculty more actively," he said. He wants
to "bring awareness of union issues to students, faculty,
and the community at large."
He has already
taken steps to inform faculty through the media. Eventually
he plans to get an e-mail system worked out.
In the past, many
CFA presidents voluntarily accepted the job in uncontested
elections. But this year an actual election took place between
Fiebert and William Johnson, former CFA vice president.
Fiebert won decisively.
Ballots were due on April 20, and were counted April 24.
"He's a nice
guy and he'll do a good job," said Hamdi Bilici, former
president.
Elections take
place every two years, at the end of April. It just so happens
that faculty contracts, which take place every three years,
are happening concurrently. Fiebert must deal with this.
His major concern
is the "McDonaldization" of the university. Since
CSU Chancellor Charles Reed took office three years ago, the
university has moved toward the corporate structure. Fiebert
thinks the CSU should follow the history of education.
"The basic
approach to the history of education is to open up minds to
new ideas, to open up people to experiencing their world differently,"
Fiebert said.
Fiebert will also
fight for CFA issues. The CFA's main focus is the loss of
full-time professors to part-time professors.
According to CFA
data, 35,000 full-time equivalent students entered the CSU
system in the last five years. Yet, there has been only one
net gain full-time professor, Fiebert said. CSU data shows
a net gain of 231, said Ken Swisher, spokesman for the Office
of the Chancellor.
Another concern
is faculty compensation. Much of the money appointed toward
faculty salaries is used elsewhere, Fiebert said.
But, Swisher said
the money is going back toward salaries. The CFA, he said,
is speaking of the money spent when faculty leaves. That money
is then spent on hiring a full-time or part-time replacement.
Currently, negotiations
are underway to settle on a new contract. Every week, the
CFA and the CSU are meeting at different campuses in public
meetings. Negotiation meetings started in mid-April and will
end on June 30, when the current contract expires.
"If we don't
have an agreement then we will perhaps have another imposition,"
Fiebert said. "The faculty on this campus and the other
21 campuses will not stand for that third imposition."
Fiebert is not
optimistic because the last two negotiations did not end well,
since Chancellor Reed did not bargain in good faith.
"[Reed] never
budged," Fiebert said. "Bargaining involves give
and take. There was very little, if any, give on the part
of the CSU, and certainly no willingness to deal with differences
with the CFA."
In the last round
of negotiations, conditions were imposed upon the faculty,
Fiebert said. If no agreement is made before the deadline,
an impasse is declared and mediation takes place.
If no resolution
comes from that, there is a fact-finding session. A CSU representative,
a CFA representative and a neutral party try to work out a
fair resolution.
"The neutral
fact finder comes up with a position that was quite favorable
for the CFA position in the last round of bargaining,"
Fiebert said. "And the CSU ignored the fact finder's
report and imposed his version of what should be the settlement."
Swisher said: "We
didn't ignore it. We disagreed with it… It's not unusual for
one party to disagree with it."
No matter how the
resolution comes out, Fiebert will stick with CSULB.
"I love this
university," he said. "I feel like I can maybe make
a contribution at a critical time of faculty negotiations."
Fiebert, a psychology
professor, grew up in New York City, in the Bronx. He attended
Queens College in New York, and recently married his college
sweetheart.
They had lost touch
for 40 years, and just reconnected three years ago. She will
soon step down as San Francisco State CFA's president. He
has two children: a 33-year-old son and a 31-year-old daughter.
He attended graduate
school at the University of Rochester, and began teaching
at Cal State Long Beach in 1965, when it was called Long Beach
State.
While at CSULB,
he has done research on men as victims of domestic violence,
and has also studied interracial dating in general, more recently
the African-American and Jewish relationship. He has also
written a paper on the relationship between famed psychologist
Sigmund Freud and Viennese physician Alfred Adler.
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