CSU faculty's pay raise well worth the price

Mercury News 4/4/07

With a strike threat looming, the administration and faculty of the California State University system on Tuesday tentatively settled a longstanding pay dispute. They did so wisely, with a few days to spare before a threatened strike.

The breakthrough came last week, with a fact-finder's report whose recommendations roughly paralleled the faculty union's demands. The settlement does, too.

Pay for full professors, at the top of the salary scale, will rise 21 percent, from $74,000 to $90,749, over four years, dating back one year. Other faculty members' pay will rise 25 percent, once annual raises are included.

Both sides had agreed that pay at the nation's largest four-year university system had fallen behind comparable colleges - especially at CSU campuses in high-cost areas such as San Jose State. The pay boost, which is significant with the state facing a budget deficit, recognizes that good universities can't maintain an edge by paying teachers on the cheap.

The chancellor's office had wanted to set aside a sizable piece of the increase as merit raises. The union argued persuasively that merit raises may have a place - but only after making the base pay more competitive.

The impasse had created acrimony and alarmed students facing faculty walkouts. Assuming they pass the contract, professors can now refocus their energies on the classroom.