THURSDAY, MAY 6, 1999

Poll reveals anti-Reed sentiments

By Matthew L. Green

On-Line Forty-Niner

Chancellor Charles Reed has got to go, a majority of Cal State Long Beach faculty members said in a Daily Forty-Niner poll.

In the poll, about 88 percent said they want Reed to quit, with 89 percent of faculty members saying they disapprove of the job Reed has done as the chancellor.

"I was surprised," said local faculty union president Hamdi Bilici, who said he thought 100 percent of those polled would go against Reed. "He [Reed] is very brash. He's bold. Those are admirable qualities, but the way he does it, he rubs people the wrong way. He goes beyond being honest to the point of being disrespectful."

The poll reflects the sentiments many California Sate University faculty members have expressed during the bitter labor negotiations between the CSU and California Faculty Association, a labor union representing 20,000 CSU professors, librarians, counselors and coaches.

The Forty-Niner sent surveys to 217 CSULB faculty members through e-mail, with about 12 percent, or 28, responding. The respondents were chosen at random from CSULB's approximately 1,500 faculty members.

The CSU disputes the accuracy of the reaction because of the small sample taken.

"It's a very small group to poll," said Ken Swisher, manager of media relations for the Chancellor's Office. "People who disapprove [of the chancellor's performance] are more likely to speak out [in a poll] than those who favor him."

The poll echoes the anger many faculty CSU faculty members expressed last week, when more than 200 faculty members picketed Reed in Sacramento at a conference. The picketers carried signs reading "No more merit pay" and "Reed has got to go" outside the Hyatt Regency Hotel, where a meeting on strengthening the ties between state government and public universities occurred.

The CSU hopes the administration and the faculty union can reach a deal soon, Swisher said.

"We [the CSU] believe we [the CSU and CFA] are close to reaching an agreement," Swisher said.

Also in the poll, 87 percent of CSULB faculty said they think a merit-pay program would divide faculty.

"This is indicative of what is going on systemwide," Bilici said.