CSU Faculty Set To Take Strike Vote
KTVU 3/6/07
California Faculty Association representatives said in a statement that they have spent the past 22 months negotiating with the university system. According to faculty spokesmen, under state law, the negotiating period ends this month, and negotiations have "gotten nowhere."
In January, after faculty began picketing at CSU campuses, CSU spokeswoman Claudia Keith said the university system "provided what we feel is a very generous salary offer and their union office has rejected it."
Union leaders claim CSU faculty are "paid 18 percent less than comparable institution salaries around the country," and say they are ready to make statements to the media today at noon.
According to a statement issued by CFA spokesmen, CSU "administration has raised its own salary 23 percent," but "faculty salaries have remained stagnant since 2002."
In January, Keith said CSU offered faculty a 24.5 percent salary increase over three years.
Union spokesman and faculty member Tom McCoy said in January that this was not true.
The university system has been under scrutiny since a series of articles alleging secret compensation of administrators went to press last summer, according to a statement issued by assembly members Julia Brownley, D-Santa Monica and Anthony Portantino, D-La Canada Flintridge.
Brownley who is chair of the Budget Sub-committee on Education and Portantino who is chair of the Assembly of Higher Education committee have introduced a bill to bring transparency and accountability to the university system.
According to the assembly members, the proposed bill will make public all benefits given to university executives, and will create positions on the CSU board of trustees to include elected officials in addition to members appointed by the governor.
"AB 1413 will restore public trust in our system by giving the Legislature a voice on the Board of Trustees, open up future meetings on executive compensation, and eliminate any suggestion of impropriety in one of the nation's finest public higher education institutions," said Portantino.
A statement issued by CSU in July, 2006 affirmed the university system's commitment to transparency and published executive salaries on CSU's Web site, revealing the salary of Chancellor Charles B. Reed to be $377, 000. The salary of California's governor is $206,500, according to a government Web site.
In a statement, CSU reported paying administrators wages that were comparably less than salaries of administrators in similar university systems.
"The priorities are upside down when a handful of top administrators are receiving record raises at the same time that faculty are struggling to negotiate fair contracts and students are being hit with tuition increases," said Browley in a statement.
"This bill coupled with the state auditor request, represent a comprehensive and thoughtful approach to reforming the way CSU does business," said Portantino.