Many students welcomed the first scheduled furlough as an opportunity to sit back and relax, though some are unhappy about the mandatory campus shutdowns.
In order to address California’s budget crisis, the California State University system instituted furlough days before the start of the fall 2009 term. That means fewer instructional days and a 10 percent cut in faculty salary.
“I’m a little bitter about it,” said communicative disorders major Kaitlin Takahashi. “We are getting less instructor face-to-face time, and I feel like that instructor face-to-face time is very helpful in experiences that are outside of the textbook.”
Brian De Jesus, a senior kinesiology major, echoed a similar sentiment.
“If the students could vote too, I’d vote for possibly not having the furlough days because there’s material that’s being cut out, and that material could be useful,” he said.
Tim Xie, a professor in Asian and Asian American studies, said that not only are students paying more and getting less because of the recent tuition hike and furloughs, but professors are especially feeling the bulk of the strain. Unlike students, who can spend their time relaxing, faculty members must remember that they have work, which they cannot do while on furlough.
“You have to grade papers, and you have to prepare tests,” Xie said. “Furlough days would be a great time for students to have extra days off, but it doesn’t make too much sense for [faculty].”
Instructors are also feeling financial strain from recent pay cuts. As a single parent of two, anthropology professor Ron Loewe had to drastically cut back on expenses. He no longer takes his family out to dinner, no longer gives his kids as much allowance and has even terminated their cell phone plans. Although he said he is not “starving to death,” the professor has his take on things.
“Administration at Cal State Long Beach is slavishly serving the interests of Gov. Schwarzenegger and the Republicans in the California Legislature,” he said.
For now, furloughs may come and go throughout the school year, but students and faculty are carrying on.
In a quiet classroom of the Language Arts building, communications professor Alan Tyrone Kopp is upbeat about his storytelling class despite the furloughs.
“Everything that I had planned for this class, we’re going to do. It will just take a little rearranging,” Kopp said.