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opinion:
chancellor's office
Faculty contract
issue a complicated case
As the California
State University begins its contract negotiations with the California
Faculty Association, we look forward to constructive conversations
about the many issues that affect CSU faculty and students and
the high quality of education at the CSU.
The CSU recognizes
how dedicated our faculty are to students. As a teaching institution,
there is less of a focus on research so CSU faculty can spend
more time teaching.
CSU's appreciation
for faculty is demonstrated by the fact their average annual
salary of $72,000 is 20 percent higher than the national average.
Over the past four years, the CSU faculty salary increases
total 23.5 percent compared to the national average of 14.9
percent.
Just last year,
the CSU increase was six percent compared to the national
average of 3.5 percent, and the CSU is asking for another
six percent increase this year. This may be a factor in why
only about one percent of tenure track faculty choose to leave
the CSU for another position annually.
The CSU has made
instruction of students a priority, and spends less on administration
compared to other comparable national universities. The latest
data from the U.S. Department of Education is from the 1995/96
year and shows that universities on average spend 32 percent
of their budget instructors' compensation, compared to 41
percent at the CSU in the current year.
Likewise, the cost
of instruction, academic support, student services and maintenance
of facilities account for 75 percent of the CSU expenditures,
compared to the national average of 51 percent.
Considering the
CSU's significantly increasing enrollment, it is fortunate
that the CSU budget has increased by $843 million over the
past three years. Much of that has been spent on hiring new
tenure-track faculty.
You may hear union
activists claim that only one tenure track position has been
added in the last five years. However, the fact is that the
more than 2,300 tenure track faculty hired over the past five
years has helped maintain our low 18:1 student faculty ratio,
which keeps CSU class sizes small.
One of the issues
you will hear about as the negotiations continue is the Faculty
Early Retirement Program (FERP), through which CSU faculty
can choose to ease into retirement.
There are about
1,000 faculty in the program systemwide, and in many cases,
they teach half as much and actually earn more than before
they retired. It's a very popular faculty benefit.
Ten percent of
CSU tenured faculty are in this program and over the past
several years, half of retiring faculty have entered the program.
However, it also prevents the CSU from hiring full-time tenure
track replacements and causes the CSU to hire one or two part-time
faculty replacements to ensure that students have access to
the courses they need and the small class sizes they expect.
We are so proud
of the high quality of our faculty and will continue to work
very hard to support their dedication to students.
Charles B. Reed
is the chancellor of the California State University system.
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