Do the faculty at Cal State Long Beach deserve the pay they are asking for? In short, yes, many do, but certainly not all of them.
The California Faculty Association (CFA) has had faculty protests and threatened the CSU system with a two-day strike at each CSU in order to get more pay after months of failed negotiations and stagnant talks between the groups. According to an e-mail from Elizabeth Hoffman, the CSULB representative on the board of directors for the CFA, the talks between the CSU system and the CFA halted in July 2006.
Hoffman, who is an associate vice president and represents lecturers, says CSU faculty are earning 18 percent less than other faculty at comparable universities and are earning less than the average faculty member at community colleges.
According to the CSU Web site, the CSU system has offered an “unprecedented amount” in compensation to teachers and made a proposal which “provides for a four-year contract with guaranteed funding for the incentive portion of the program in the last three years – at least $14 million each year – even if the CSU’s budget is cut in any of those years.”
What the CFA argues is that this would translate to a 3.75 percent increase in pay per year, which, according to the group, would hardly keep up with inflation.
One of the major concerns the Daily Forty-Niner has with the increase in pay is the tremendous disparity in the pay of part-time lecturers and staff and the pay of the more established tenured professors.
According to the 2005 public records of CSULB staff and faculty salaries obtained by the Daily Forty-Niner, a small number of professors, lecturers and “teaching associates” are earning only between $4,000 and $10,000 a year for teaching one or two classes during the academic year. Other tenured professors, college deans and most administrators are often making more than six figures for teaching fewer classes.
Tenured professors, some working only part-time, on average earn between $60,000 and $90,000, while most department chairmen and chairwomen and college deans earn between $100,000 and even $180,000. These figures only incorporate the money they earn during the academic year, not including whatever extra money some may earn during the summer and winter sessions.
This huge difference between what part-time teachers are earning and what tenured teachers are earning does a disservice to many of the hard-working teachers who are lower on the totem pole. Many work very hard to make themselves available to students and choose the difficult task of giving students the feedback necessary to become well-educated people instead of taking the easier route of just assigning grades.
The CFA has noted this on its Web site, which says that the tenure program works against other qualified professors reaching full-time status.
Many of the claims being made by the members of the CFA aren’t entirely accurate, though. In an article published in the Feb. 12 issue of the Daily Forty-Niner, one of the claims being made by the CFA is a heightened cost of living.
However, is the money tenured professors make – approximately $60,000 to $90,000 a year – not enough to live on? Is the money even some part-time people make -approximately $10,000 to $30,000 a year – that is possibly supplemented with a second part-time or full-time job’s money not enough either?
Most CSULB professors are earning at least slightly more than $20,000, which isn’t much, but with some sacrifices can be livable.
No, a house, a nest egg, children, a spouse or any other lavish expenditure wouldn’t be possible. But if faculty were to live as monks, with the absolute bare minimum of necessities, they may be able to pull it off with the money they are making. It is possible to lead a very meager, humble life with the money given to professors. A studio apartment and basic amenities are feasible with the pay professors and lecturers make; anything that says something to the contrary is hyperbole.
However, the reason why students should support a higher increase in faculty pay is because professors shouldn’t have to choose between things like a house or a spouse and teaching. They shouldn’t be penalized for choosing to teach us over other, often better-paying, jobs in their industries. We shouldn’t be turning away intelligent, qualified faculty because they would have to choose between a nice life and becoming a professor.
The CFA is even trying to minimize student impact by holding the possible strike on different days on different campuses and has repeatedly opposed many student fee increases in the past.
So where would the money for the increase in faculty pay come from? According to both Hoffman and Paul Browning, a representative of public affairs for the CSU, the money wouldn’t come from students, but from the state.
It’s now our turn to support the professors who have represented and defended student interests with the CSU. Our professors deserve better than the humble lives necessary to continue teaching us, and we should support them in their struggle.
The current inflation rate for the United States is only 1%, so the CFA is incorrect in saying that the 3.75% a year raises cannot keep up with inflation.
According to this:
https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/CSU-Long-Beach-Salaries-E112602.htm
it appears that at least some “teaching associates make well above the average.
A part-time lectures teaching one or two classes a year cannot possibly hope to make a livable wage. Of course they must supplement their income with something else. Also not all teachers are created equal. Field, and supply and demand also play a role. Should a physical education professor get paid as much as physics or engineering professor? Sorry, they really shouldn’t. The more difficult a discipline, the higher the pay should be.