Faculty
rallies against Cal State administration
By Patrick Creaven
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
In an effort to raise awareness about working conditions and to put pressure
on the California State University Administration, about 50 Cal State Long
Beach teachers rallied in Maxson Plaza Thursday afternoon.
The California Faculty Association (CFA) believes the Cal State Administrators
(CSA) is not doing enough to take care of its
faculty financially, which has made recruiting new faculty more difficult.
Lydhi Sondhi, a consumer affairs professor at CSULB, organized the one-hour
rally. Speakers talked about how the working conditions of professors directly
affect the students.
“
We want to keep the CSU system strong,” Sondhi said. “But we think
it is in jeopardy. It is becoming more and more difficult for CSUs to recruit
and to keep good teachers. This means fewer students have a mentor professor
to stick with them through their four years at college.”
The event culminated with Sondhi handing CSULB President F. King Alexander,
who attended the rally, a petition signed by about 400 faculty members asking
Alexander to pass on their message to CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed about
the needs of the faculty, students and staff.
“
It is difficult for professors to be paid fairly throughout the country, because
in our society not enough attention is given to education,” Alexander
said.
According to a 2005 report published on CSU faculty recruitment, the average
salary of an associate professor in the CSU system was $67,093 during the 2004-05
school year, which is estimated to be 16.3 percent lower than salaries at comparable
universities around the country.
The report also says 55 percent of the teachers who rejected a CSU offer to
teach, received a larger offer from a different university.
Hamdi Bilici, a finance professor at CSULB, attended the rally and is concerned
about the school’s ability to recruit new teachers with the current starting
salary being what it is.
“
A new teacher coming to Long Beach can’t even live in the city,” Bilici
said. “Where are they going to live? Riverside and then commute?”
One possible solution, which Alexander disagrees with, is raising tuition to
raise faculty salaries.
“
[Raising tuition] is a disturbing trend which has started on the east coast,
and is making its way out west,” Alexander said.”“This
is a real concern, and there are currently major battles in Washington to try
and fight against it.”
Alice Sunrise, the CFA Communications director, is also against raising tuition,
but believes the answer lies with the Chancellor’s Office being more
aggressive in Sacramento.
“
[The CSA] needs to go to the state legislator and get more for the CSU system,” Sunrise
said.
Sunrise also believes the money already given to the CSA needs to be used more
wisely. Last year the CSA gave over a million dollars in raises to the top
CSU executives. Money, Sunrise argues, that would have been better off given
to teachers or students.
Claudia Keith, the assistant vice chancellor of Public Affairs for the CSA,
said raises were given because, like teachers, CSU executives also have a difficult
time recruiting new presidents for their universities.
“
To recruit presidents we have to stay competitive with other universities,” Keith
said. “To address problems in the CSU system we have to look at all the
problems, and then give money where we think we can help the most.”
Keith said the CSA has started a five-year plan to address the faculty salary
problem, and there is no quick fix considering the current budget given to
the CSUs.
“
The have had plans in the past,” Sunrise said. “They are nice,
but we need help right now.”
The CFA and the CSA have been in contract negotiations since last summer and
the CFA said little progress has been made,
with faculty salaries, workload issues and job security being the sticking
points.
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