Faculty and the administration of the California State University system have reached a tentative agreement that will extend their existing contract through end of June 2005.

The pact, which still must be ratified by the CSU Board of Trustees and the California Faculty Association leadership and general membership, establishes a minimum number of new tenure-track faculty the university must recruit, provides for a $500 health care stipend for faculty living in certain rural areas, and creates new lay-off procedures, among other things.

Perhaps the most important part of the contract is a promise to create a "golden handshake" retirement plan, but that promise comes with a collection of "ifs."

The agreement says the CSU will ask the governor to issue an executive order necessary to put into motion procedures to launch the golden handshake program.

The program would give potential retirees two additional years of service credit toward their retirement pay.

However, before this could happen the governor has to issue the executive order, and the state Department of Finance and Office of Legislative Analyst would both have to sign off on the proposal to certify it program would actually save the state money.

If more than 25 percent of the faculty in any academic department elected to retire under the golden handshake, the individual campus president could limit any more than that leaving.

If more than the 25 percent in a department applied to the program, priority would go to the most senior faculty.

The agreement also bans the CFA from "sponsoring or causing to be sponsored" any golden handshake legislation aimed at minimizing any faculty lay-offs in the 2003-04 or 2004-05 fiscal years.

The CFA and the CSU have been negotiating since March 2003 to reach this accord.

The CSU Board of Trustees will vote on the contract extension at its Jan. 27-28 meeting in Long Beach.