CSU faculty likely to accept tentative contract
Press-Democrat 4/4/07
The proposed four-year contract calls for a 22.7 percent pay increase, the thorniest of the issues that kept the California Faculty Association and the university system apart for 23 months.
"We expect our members to ratify," said John Travis, union president. We think it's a good deal, but they will make the final decision."
CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed said the agreement "strikes a realistic balance between providing deserved raises to our faculty and our limited financial resources."
Over the life of the contract, the average salary of tenured faculty members would increase from $86,000 to $105,465 a year and of tenure-track faculty members from $74,000 to $90,749 a year.
The contract will cost the university system $400 million over four years, officials said.
The pay increases would bring pay for tenure-track faculty members in line with comparable universities, making it easier to attract new teachers.
"The problem is, we had a couple of searches for new faculty that ended with nobody," said Andy Merrifield, an SSU professor and president of the campus chapter of the faculty association. "We are losing a certain number of faculty who are coming in, and they like the campus and they like the area and they don't like the poverty. They move on. That is no way to build a university."
The tentative agreement was reached over the weekend and closely tracks the report released by a fact-finding committee that intervened after negotiations reached a stalemate last fall. It still has to be approved by the faculty association's 12,000 members and the CSU board of trustees.
The association represents 25,000 full- and part-time teachers, librarians and coaches at the 23 CSU campuses. At SSU, it represents about 500 faculty members.
Union officials said a vote would be taken within the next few weeks.
Union members had taken a strike vote and planned to begin two-day strikes at several campuses next week. Those strikes have been put on hold.