CSU MONTEREY BAY FACULTY, STUDENTS, STAFF UNITE on MARCH 9

TO PRESS ADMINISTRATION FOR FAIR CONTRACTS

The CSU Monterey Bay faculty next week will join with colleagues, staff and students across the state to escalate its statewide campaign to press the CSU administration for more resources for the university and fair contracts for employees.

The faculty, joined by CSU students, staff and community supporters, have been making urgent calls to the CSU administration and Trustees for stronger advocacy for the CSU, particularly in speaking out for a level of state funding that will preserve the quality of education and expand access to California’s four-year state university system.

During the week March 6-13, all 23 campuses of the CSU will bring that message to the local campus presidents who wield considerable influence over statewide policy-making on higher education.

CSU Monterey Bay joins the statewide slate of actions with a Funeral Rally for the CSU on March 9, from 12:45pm-2pm in front of the University Center. Students, faculty, staff and community supporters will dress in black to mourn the moribund state of public higher education throughout the state. And while those inside the University Center will be meeting with interview candidates for the CSUMB presidency, the crowd outside hopes that the new campus president-elect will lead the way to stem the current tide of “death by a thousand cuts”.

Reductions in student services and classes; spiraling workloads; erosion of job security for long-term employees; ongoing hikes in tuition and fees; exorbitant increases of top administrative compensation and benefits packages while basic educational needs remain unmet, and a faculty and staff raise small enough to constitute (after inflation) a significant pay cut: all these measures sound like a “bad faith” effort on the part of the statewide Trustees to those who sit on the other side of the bargaining table.

“We will act in force to show the CSU administration that we are serious about securing a fair contract and about ensuring that the university remains a place where Californians can receive a quality higher education,” said John Travis, a professor at Humboldt State and president of the California Faculty Association, which represents the CSU’s 20,000 faculty members. “We seek a commitment from the top to do the right thing.”

Campuses from San Marcos to Humboldt will host rallies, pickets, soup lines and other public events aimed at their campus presidents, who are being urged to deliver the faculty’s message to the CSU chancellor, Charles Reed.

The CSU has suffered over half a billion dollars in cuts in recent years and CFA has been in contract talks with the CSU administration since summer 2005 with little progress to show. Sticking points include faculty compensation, which lags far behind comparable faculty salaries around the nation and makes it difficult for the CSU to recruit and retain quality teachers.

What’s clear is that state funding has not kept up with the true needs of the CSU. In fact, the CSU Board of Trustees identified $1.5 billion in needs that will not be met this year because the Trustees chose not to ask the state for additional funding. Instead they spent almost $1.8 million on salary raises and perks for the top 27 administrators.

As the economy picks up, Travis said, “It’s time to get the CSU back on its feet and to give university employees and students a fair shake so we can provide the quality higher education that will serve our students and California as a whole.”

For information about the Funeral Rally for the CSU contact: Frauke Loewensen (831) 582-4371 or go to the web site http://cfa.csumb.edu/.