Article by Steven Piper

By the end of a campus-wide faculty coalition meeting on Tuesday, June 30 in Cal State University Long Beach’s Anatol Center, people were rallying around the idea of a student/faculty walkout and blocking all entrances to the parking structure. The meeting was intended to update faculty about the budget crisis and form a plan of action to deal with the cuts.

According to Governor Schwarzenegger’s budget proposal, The Cal State University (CSU) system will face a projected $584 million budget deficit for 2009-2010.

Elizabeth Hoffman, who opened the meeting, is a lecturer for CSULB’s English Department and is also the California Faculty Association (CFA) Associate Vice President of Lecturers. The CFA, which is a faculty union, was recently urged by the CSU system to have its members vote on a proposal to implement two required, unpaid furlough days per month for 2009-2010.

During the meeting, Hoffman eluded to a June 29 CSU press release. According to that press release, the furloughs would save an estimated $275 million. The same release said, “CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed has indicated that the guiding principles of any action plan would be to ‘serve as many students as possible without sacrificing quality, and to preserve as many jobs as possible.’” CSU’s website also said 21,000 out of 47,000 employees see the furloughs as a possible solution to the budget deficit.

A June 30 CFA press release had something different to say. “Instead, they have come up with a half-baked plan to cut employee pay that ostensibly would address a little less than half the funding shortfall. And, when asked about the remaining $300 million deficit, our Chancellor said he ‘has no plan…’” said the CFA press release.

Hoffman included in her report a concern that faculty lay-offs will occur regardless of any furloughs being implemented. “There is no doubt that there are going to be big losses in lecturers,” Hoffman said. Lecturers are temporarily appointed faculty and may have full or part-time status. Hoffman said lecturers compose 65% of the total amount of teachers at CSULB. Hoffman also said CSU refused a request to protect tenure track faculty. “That was a very chilling moment,” Hoffman said.

Included in a collective bargaining agreement CSU has with the CFA is article 38.11, which details the order in which employees are to be laid off. Tenured faculty employees are last on the list.

The CSU Board of Trustees will hold a special meeting on July 7 to discuss how the system will operate with the $584 million deficit. There are no action items on the agenda.

After Hoffman’s update on CFA’s interaction with the CSU system, a PowerPoint presentation at the meeting gave specifics of how CSULB would be affected by the $584 million deficit. According to the presentation, CSULB will face an approximately $34 million budget deficit with Governor Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget. The deficit means the university would have to downsize by 2,700 students.

In an effort to strengthen their efforts, faculty members at the meeting also formed numerous breakout groups. Each group had a different topic of discussion. They included:

  • Editorial writing
  • Letter writing to legislature
  • Community outreach
  • Positive strategic planning
  • Electronic networking
  • Faculty involvement across colleges
  • PowerPoint presentation
  • Student/faculty/staff coalition
  • Talking points and framing

By the end of the meeting, each group had a chance to voice their ideas to the whole group. Heading the community outreach group was the Chair of the Liberal Studies Department Dan O’Connor. O’Connor stressed communicating more clearly to community college and high school counselors the possibility that less students are going to be admitted to CSULB. “We accepted half the amount of transfer applicants as we did last year,” O’Connor said.

Other ideas pitched by the faculty included a student/teacher walkout during the first week of class next year and blocking all the entrances to the parking garage by linking hands.

During a short statement, Christopher Chavez, President of Associated Student Incorporated, said, “There is a stereotype that students are disengaged from the political process.”

The next campus-wide faculty coalition meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, July 14 at noon in the Anatol Center.

Steven Piper is a contributing reporter