For the first time since California’s pre-recession epoch, the state funded budget requests made by the California State University System were approved in full. However, prioritizing where the grant should be dispensed is where the strands begin to split.
Within one-year’s work, a CSU task force finalized their decision that realizing student success initiatives and eliminating the student achievement gap were paramount over all other budget necessities.
The CSU held a live web conference Friday morning to provide updates on topics including labor relations, academics and the budget.
Controversy is astir as the College Faculty Association ‘Fights For Five,’ arguing that faculty compensation is paramount in actualizing these goals, according to their website. CFA members demand that Governor Brown’s $148.3 million General Fund contribution should allow for a more generous employee compensation than the 2 percent, or $32.8 million offered.
“Without the administration we could muddle through the semester,” an unnamed CSU faculty member of San Jose State said on the CFA website. “Without staff, we could make it two weeks before serious problems arrive. By then we would be bringing our own [toilet paper] and paper towels.”
Without faculty, there are no classes; there is no university. We are the university, and it is time to flex our power and institute a proper check against rampant administrative bloat.”
At over 47,000 faculty members system wide, the 5 percent asked would total to $82 million plus 2.65 percent Service Salary Increase, totaling to $101.7 million all inclusive.
A Service Salary Increase is a permanent promotion in the base salary pool, awarded to eligible employees that display “qualifying service, satisfactory performance” and meet additional criteria determined by the CSU Board, according to the CSU website.
Although the compensation pool is the CSU budget’s third priority, full-time, tenure-track lecturers are compensated about $86,000, with full-timers still making just under $60,000 annually before taxes.
Cal State Long Beach President Jane Close Conoley receives $336,538 in salary, according to the 2015 CSU Executive Compensation Summary. The highest paid CSU president, Elliott Hirshman of San Diego State, rakes in $420,240 in salary including an annual supplement.
CSU Director of Public Affairs Toni Molle warned that a strike is not in the best interest of their students.
“We continue to value our faculty and we believe that faculty should be compensated for their contribution to our students and campuses,” Molle said. “Compensation is so important to the CSU that it was the largest expenditure for new money received by the state.”
CSU Chancellor Timothy White originally called a task force to action in 2015 in order to better construe the needs of campuses and rebuild financial infrastructure damaged during the one-third slash on budget cuts, CSU Assistant Vice Chancellor for Budget Ryan Storm said.
He noted that campus and system office representatives build these drafts with heavy deliberation from students and faculty that ultimately lead to the prioritization.
The two bargaining parties remain at impasse, and are in the final stages before action. Proposals from both groups are currently being reviewed by an independent fact-finding panel of the Public Employment Review Board that will advise in what steps come next in resolving the impasse.
If the suggestion is insufficient, then a strike will most likely ensue this spring, Molle said.
Campuses will remain open, classes will continue to meet and students will be notified about changes via the CSU Facebook, Student Portal and campus website.
“We have no idea what a strike would look like at this time,” Molle continued, noting that strike supporters may cancel classes and picket lines to block entry to campus. “You are allowed to cross and continue to your classes if you wish and if you choose to do so.”
Outside of funding, the majority of the budget will ensure student success, meaning that the $38 million set aside will go towards serving the individual needs of each CSU campus designated by surveys, Chief of Staff for Academic and Student Affairs Nathan Evans said. Most of these surveys revealed that the highest demands include tenure-track faculty and course availability.
Although success rates among all races and ethnic groups surged across the system, the trend stagnated the achievement gap as a whole, Evans said. To eliminate this gap, success amongst traditionally underrepresented groups will need to become a priority in levelling out the enrollment and graduation rates of CSUs.
Evans explained that offering online courses with units that transfer system-wide may help, so a student at Humboldt State University will be able to enroll in a Cal State Fullerton course in the event that this course is unavailable at his or her home campus.
A 2025 graduation initiative projects that 60 percent of students should graduate in six years or less, with at least 24 percent walking within the traditional four-year mark, the assistant vice chancellor for budget said. Storm explained that students should anticipate inflation-based, annual increases in tuition juxtaposed to past practices of unpredictable and sporadic tuition adjustments.
In the past 10 years, U.S. annual inflation rates averaged at 2 percent nationwide, skyrocketing to the highest in 2007 at 4.1 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2015 punctuated a four-year descent, waning inflation rates from 3 percent in 2012 to just 0.7 percent last year.
Even if the CSU is granted their full request, an estimated $300 million, from the state in years to come, Storm said that swelling tuition rates are imperative in damage control and securing future investment.
“Let me be absolutely clear, the CSU is not recommending a tuition increase at this time, however it is clear that going forward, tuition cannot remain flat indefinitely,” Storm said. “[The task force] issue that we do it in a modern and predictable way in order to allow students and families to plan for these changes.”
“full-time, tenure-track lecturers are compensated about $86,000”
I wasn’t aware that the CSU had tenure-track lecturers, since the vast majority are some form of at-will. Maybe that’s why their salary is so much higher than “full-timers” (including almost every full-time tenure track professor across all majors in the system, regardless of local costs of living). I’d also like more detail on that $60K figure, is that including lecturers? Is that mean, median, mode, or a talking point?