With pending strikes threatening the upcoming fall semester, the California State University (CSU) system—much to the relief of administrators, students, and faculty alike—has reached a tentative four-year agreement the California Faculty Association (CFA), the group which represents some 23,000 professors and employees of the CSU system.

Highlights of the new contract—which will be implemented upon ratification by CFA members and the CSU Board of Trustees—include a call for no salary increases as well as changes to the evaluation and appointments process for three-year temporary faculty appointments.

“We all knew this wasn’t going to be a fight about [pay raises]. The money is just not there right now,” Lillian Taiz, president of CFA, told the Post.

However, one of the largest victories for CFA was the “keep the public university public” clause that effectively fought off changes which make it easier to shift courses into Extended Education (“for-profit” courses), which require higher fees for students despite being cheaper to implement.

Other highlights of the tentative agreement include:

  • A limiting of the unilateral power of the Chancellor’s office.
  • The formation of a joint faculty-administration committee that will examine the effect of increased class sizes and workloads.
  • Preserve the three-year contract for lecturers.
  • Secured Faculty Early Retirement Program (FERP) for tenured counselors.
  • Librarians and counselors protected from work being added that cannot be completed in the 40-hour work week.
  • Maintained salary and benefits.
  • Equity pay, effectively halting the higher pay received by newer faculty members in contrast to those who have been at the CSU longer.

The agreement, reached last Friday and formally announced today, came with a joint statement by both groups:

The parties are hopeful that this agreement will allow the CSU community to shift its attention to critical matters related to increasing revenue to the state and to the CSU.

Hopefully, Taiz said, both groups can now get back to the business of the good work that is education. Until then, the CFA will continue to focus its efforts of generating revenue and supporting Proposition 30, Governor Jerry Brown’s tax initiative.

The formal portion of these talks began two years ago, with the CFA having major issues with now-retiring Chancellor Charles Reed’s proposed takeaways, including pushing more classes into Extended Education/Continuing Education while paying less salary-wise, limiting lecturer and summer employment rights, and refusing raises and equity for faculty.

Detractors called it privatizing public education while supporters called his measures necessary in the face of extreme economic struggle.

In November of last year, strikes at CSU East Bay and CSU Dominguez Hills drew thousands of supporters, thereby increasing the pressure on theCSU administration to return to the bargaining tables almost immediately. This proved just as inept, when a neutral mediator was unable to upend the deadlock between the CSU and the CFA. This prompted a dramatic strike vote, in which 95% of voters agreed to take part in rolling walkouts if concessions were unmet.

“I do think when faculty stated—quite clearly—that they were willing to put their bodies on the line, how can that not have an impact on the other side?” Taiz said. “And if you look at our requests, they were modest. Our proposal was modest.”

The looming strike was frightening for a multitude of reasons, though the largest fear resided in the students, who could have very well started the fall semester without teachers.

However, students can rest easy until June of 2014 when the contract’s terms are up.