By The Fight for Five secured support from 3,200 delegates of the California Democratic party Sunday, who voted to endorse the California Faculty Association’s “Fight for Five” campaign in the negotiation process with the California State University system.
“California State University faculty have stood with students and parents to protect our public universities during the recession,” Chairman of California Democratic party John Burton said in a statement. “We need to give CSU faculty the respect they deserve and pay them what they are worth.”
The CFA said they are geared toward maintaining the “People’s University” in a statement, citing the organization’s democratic ideals of “economic justice and social mobility,” two values that affect not only professors, but students as well.
Among many public educational dues, CFA President Jennifer Eagan said in a statement that students deserve faculty that don’t have to stretch their time between multiple jobs, which take away from professors’ ability to help their students “achieve their dreams.”
“They deserve better than higher fees in exchange for a growing bureaucracy with highly paid administrators who don’t teach,” Eagan said.
While Cal State tuition has increased 283 percent since 2000, professor salaries have remained essentially flat, according to the CFA. The CSU has attributed the flat line in pay to the recession’s stringent hold on budget plan allocation.
The CSU has said it has other priorities for the budget money, and will only agree to give professors a 2 percent salary raise. Those priorities include hiring more tenure-track faculty, expanding academic programs, increasing enrollment for students and investing in technology and infrastructure.
In the ongoing debate with the CSU, the CFA said it is a matter of differences in priorities and ideals, not only within higher public education, but on a state level as well.
If the two groups fail to reach a settlement, CSU faculty will go on strike for five days, April 13-15 and 18-19.
