Faculty Compensation and the Crisis in Recruiting and Retaining Faculty of High Quality

AS-2702-05/FA/FGA - May 5-6, 2005

RESOLVED: That the Academic Senate of the California State University (CSU) strongly endorse the attached statement on Faculty Compensation and the Crisis in Recruiting and Retaining Faculty of High Quality, and be it further

RESOLVED: That the Academic Senate CSU call upon The Chancellor and the Board of Trustees (BOT):

• To make faculty compensation one of the most important issues in budgeting, and to make clear, in all annual budget proposals, the strong and unwavering support of the Trustees for providing faculty compensation increases at the full parity figure recommended by California Post-Secondary Education Commission (CPEC);



• With the California Faculty Association, to address the issue of salary compression, and call upon the Chancellor to seek additional budget support as necessary to accomplish that objective, as has been done in other states;



• To announce their strong support for the current faculty pension system and for the Faculty Early Retirement Program (FERP).

RATIONALE: As a consequence of many inter-related problems in the State of California, many current faculty and many candidates for tenure-track positions do not see CSU as an employer of first choice.

There are a number of disincentives to recruiting and retaining faculty of high quality, among them the persistent, long-term failure of CSU faculty salaries to be adjusted to match the CPEC parity figure; the failure of CSU salaries to keep pace with the cost of living, especially the cost of housing; compression of the salary scale; and uncertainty regarding the continuation of current retirement programs.

For some time, some CSU spokespersons have responded to the annual analysis of faculty salaries made by CPEC by publicly criticizing CPEC methodology; however, CSU is fully represented at the meetings of CPEC's Faculty Salary Adjustment Committee, the appropriate forum for airing these concerns. Criticism of CPEC methodology in other venues serves only to persuade faculty members that the Chancellor and Trustees are not supportive of increasing faculty compensation and to persuade state officials that they need not respect CPEC recommendations.