Students, staff protest CSU bid

Daily Bulletin 1/26/07

By Charlotte Hsu

Decked with shirts and signs reading "I don't want to strike but I will," about 50 Cal State San Bernardino faculty members and students marched across campus Thursday to protest what they believe is a cheap contract offer by the California State University system.

"One, two, three, four, we won't take it anymore," they chanted.

Pickets are expected to occur across the CSU system between now and early February, said Tom Pinkava, a regional field representative for the California Faculty Association, which represents CSU faculty. Individual campuses do not bargain for their own salary deals.

J. Scott Rodriguez, director of forensics at Cal State San Bernardino, said he joined in Thursday's activities because he feels CSU decisions benefit executives at the expense of students and their professors.

"They're what's best for the system, not what's best for the students," Rodriguez said.

This week, CSU's board of trustees awarded university presidents a 4 percent raise. Presidents got a 13 percent salary hike less than 18 months ago.

Rodriguez was one of many teachers who signed a "commitment card," pledging to vote "yes" if the union calls on members to authorize a strike.

Contract talks between faculty and the CSU are stalemated after mediation broke down late last year, said Susan Meisenhelder, a professor of English at Cal State San Bernardino and a member of the union's statewide bargaining team.

Under the proposal advanced by the CSU system, a full professor's average salary would go from $86,107 in the current school year to $106,524 in 2009-2010.

But Meisenhelder said she believes the university could and should offer more.

"We can't offer more. We've put everything we have on the table. We have to operate within the money we have got from the state revenues and fee revenues," CSU spokeswoman Claudia Keith said.