Faculty union heated in furlough discussions

The California Faculty Association held a meeting yesterday afternoon in hopes of deciding what kinds of budget cuts will take place for Cal State Long Beach faculty members in the near future.

The CFA said that choosing furloughs is not a feasible option for many professors to successfully carry out their duties, while layoffs can strip CSULB faculty of all their benefits and leave them with nothing.

Already facing cuts to summer school classes, monthly furloughs and up to 12 percent salary cuts, faculty members said they have never faced budget cuts with this much impact. Faculty also had to endure not receiving raises last year, which totals to about 25 percent worth of cuts to this day.

The CFA board of directors usually makes this decision for the CFA, but since this will have such a negative effect on many professors, the board agreed to listen to the ideas of professors before coming to a decision.

“This issue is far too important not to vote,” said Bernhard Rohrbacher, director of representation and officer of the CFA board of directors. “We want to see the best option and see if you want that option, but there will be a vote soon on a variety of options.”

CFA President Teri Yamada, who led yesterday’s meeting, said that this difficulty in  choosing between layoffs and furloughs was something she expected to happen.

“I don’t see [the situation] getting better,” Yamada said. “We anticipate that it will be both furloughs and layoffs.”

Steven Manley, a biological sciences professor, admitted to how difficult the situation really was compared to previous cuts to their salary.

“We deal with doing more with less [funding] every year,” Manley said. “But this is the first time this has happened with decreasing enrollment.”

Elizabeth Hoffman, vice president of CFA and an officer on its board of directors, said the option CSU Chancellor Charles Reed gave them was “not a real choice,” and a vote would not take place unless all faculty members know exactly what kinds of cuts furloughs or layoffs will entail.

“We do not even see a point in voting until we can tell faculty what we are voting on,” Hoffman said. “We don’t even have a guarantee that choosing furloughs won’t equal no layoffs.”

Yamada said the CSU chancellor continues to pressure the CFA into making a decision, informing them that two unions have already agreed on what their budget would be.

Other professors just felt frustrated about how to get their union, along with the other 10 unions under the CSU system, to unite and get teachers better protection from more cuts.

“Faculty will be getting paid less to do more work,” Yamada said. “The perception out there does not match the reality of what we do.”

Faculty members suggested their ideas of what would be the best way to get their situation out in the open but failed to come up with one solution. However, a majority of members agreed that reaching out to the public would be their best bet.

Yamada said that in order for the education system to gain the support of the public, some faculty members have started using Facebook and editorial writing [to get their message out.

“Faculty members need to become more politically active and engaged,” Yamada said. “It would be disastrous to show public our problem as self-interest. We need to speak out about education as a public good.”

CFA members will be meeting again June 30 to form four or five “action” groups and organize their ideas something that is more conclusive of what cuts faculty hope to negotiate with Reed.

E-mail addresses are used only to notify you of replies and are not displayed
Comments powered by Disqus