Posted in: Top Story Your Voice

California Faculty Strike for the 99 Percent

Tags: CA, California, California Faculty Association, California State University, cfa, charles reed, collective bargaining, cornel west, csu dominguez hills, csu east bay, dennis van roekel, higher education, jennifer eagan, SIUC, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, strike, students, teri yamada, tuition, tuition hike

by Mary Ellen Flannery/photos courtesy of the California Faculty Association

Hundreds of faculty members stopped teaching at two California State University (CSU) campuses on Thursday, in a stand for the rights of faculty and their ability to teach students effectively.

“I don’t want to strike, but I will to preserve my working conditions,” wrote CSU East Bay philosophy professor Jennifer Eagan to InsideBayArea this week. “My working conditions are also students’ learning conditions, and both are deteriorating at California State University. This strike, for me, is a response to injustice.”

Dressed in red, and joined by a coalition of state-wide CSU faculty, K12 teachers, union members from on- and off-campus organizations, and their own CSU students, the striking faculty at CSU East Bay and CSU Dominguez Hills delivered a clear message to state Chancellor Charles Reed: Readjust your priorities!

“We are angry about curriculum and policy changes that dumb down education. We are angry about the chancellor giving more and more to top managers while ignoring the classroom,” said Lillian Taiz, president of the California Faculty Association, who walked the picket line with her colleagues on Thursday. “We are angry about him trying to do college degrees on the cheap. We are angry about students paying more and getting less — bigger class sizes, fewer class offerings.”

On Wednesday, just one day before the strike, state trustees approved another 9 percent tuition hike. It follows a 12 percent hike earlier this year –a hike that they approved on the same day that they increased one college president’s pay by $100,000 a year. More proof that administrators just don’t get it, wrote CFA Board member Teri Yamada on her blog. But on Thursday, spirits were high, as drums were beat and dance lines formed. At East Bay, a plane flew overhead, dragging a banner that read,  “CFA strike for quality education,” and traffic snarled for miles. Faculty also were joined on the picket line by Cornel West, the provocative Princeton intellectual and author.

Since 1998, CSU system-wide student fees have skyrocketed from $1,890 a year to $6,422, not including the campus-specific fees that also have been rising. Meanwhile, class offerings have been slashed, faculty members have been let go, enrollment has been capped, and class sizes have exploded. Students are paying more for less and the Trustees approved another 9 percent fee increase.

It’s a “management first” leadership that puts the needs of the 1% of CSU management ahead of the needs of the 99% of the people who study and work in the system, said Taiz.

According to financial audits, just 35 percent of CSU’s operating budget went to directly support instruction in 2010, down 3 percent from the year before. Meanwhile, even as Reed has increased the number of administrators on his campuses by 12 percent, there has been zero growth in the number of tenured or tenure-track faculty. Workloads have grown, as have class sizes—and not without consequences. CSU students can’t get the classes they want, and take longer to graduate.

In 2008-2009 and 2009-2010, administrators agreed to wage increases for faculty members—but they never paid them. On two occasions, neutral fact-finders have ruled that CSU, which has millions more in its budget today than it did a few years ago, does indeed have the money to deliver those promised raises.

Technically, Thursday’s strike was a response to those unpaid (and well-deserved) raises. “But for faculty, this fight isn’t about money. It’s about our commitment to quality, affordable and accessible education,” said Eagan.

“It is time for the administration to realize it exists to provide education for the students, not a bureaucracy for the preservation of administrators,” agreed NEA President Dennis Van Roekel in a letter of support to his CFA colleagues this week [ed note: pdf link]. “NEA is behind you!  Stay strong and united—and know that in solidarity you can accomplish anything.”

The CFA strike was the second higher-ed strike this month. Earlier in October, the faculty at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale struck for nine days , after working without a contract for nearly 500. The strike was successfully settled when administrators took seriously the faculty’s concerns around tenure and academic freedom.