As part of a faculty action campaign, representatives of the California Faculty Association canvassed Cal State Long Beach Wednesday in search of recruits willing to sacrifice a day of work in support of contract negotiations for the coming academic year.
Although the union's Personal Holiday Initiative calls on all eligible employees to play hooky in the next two weeks, those participating have been asked to choose a day on which they do not have classes scheduled.
Hamdi Bilici, CSULB chapter president of CFA, said the union wanted to ensure that the functioning of the university was not hampered.
"We really care about the quality of education," Bilici said. "And if our students are driving 20 minutes to make class, by God we want a professor to be there."
The action, Bilici said, is more of a symbolic gesture meant to send a collective message to the CSU Board of Trustees regarding salary, workload and benefits.
As of Wednesday, only 10 percent of the CSULB chapter's nearly 600 members pledged to support the action.
Those participating will sign a form addressed to the dean of their college, requesting a personal holiday. Duplicates of the forms will be presented to the Board of Trustees at its next meeting March 18.
A major stipulation of CFA's proposition is elimination of the 11 percent salary gap between CSU faculty and other higher education employees.
Bilici said the salary gap is "dangerous for the future of higher education in California."
"The gap hurts [CSU universities] in hiring qualified faculty," Bilici said. "With the cost of living so high, teachers want to go somewhere else to teach."
This leads to a snowball effect, he said. When teachers choose to teach at other universities, schools are forced to rely on larger classes. Consequent overcrowding effects the quality of education.
"If you have 200 students in one class, how much personal attention can you give to each student?" Bilici asked.
CFA and CSU bargaining teams have already come together for the first two rounds of contract negotiations, Feb. 13-14.
CFA's position is that a fair, democratic compromise should be reached by May 8, according to Bilici.
"If our needs are not democratically met by our deadline, we will wait until fall to sign anything," he said.