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California Faculty Association at CSU San Marcos |
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In January 2005, the Governor made an eye-opening remark as he introduced his budget proposal: “We don’t want to feed the monster. We want to feed the private sector, and starve the public sector.” He went on to declare war on “special interests,” meaning educators, nurses, firefighters, and other public employees. One of his key proposals was a scheme to bet our retirement plan on the stock market.
The attack on education isn’t just financial. The last two decades have seen an intense campaign to demonize faculty, beginning with the backlash against so-called “political correctness.” The latest version is the misnamed “Students Bill of Rights,” which uses the rhetoric of free speech to invite state supervision of classroom instruction. In the end, funding cuts and attacks on academic freedom are designed to roll back the gains that were won by the labor and civil rights movements--not just financial aid and affirmative action programs, but also multicultural curricula and the tradition of student and faculty activism. We can't let that happen.
We believe that the CSU should be more than a degree factory, that we should do more than train the next generation of workers in job skills like reading, writing, arithmetic, and concentration. We believe that universities should also teach students to understand people of different backgrounds, to think for themselves and question authority, and to develop the knowledge and skills they need to realize their full potential as human beings. Defeating the attacks on education will take determination and creativity. The first step is to rebuild our unions into grassroots activist organizations. We need to go beyond defending our salaries and pensions, and demand complete restoration of funding and freedom at the CSU. As a CSU faculty member you already pay an "agency fee" to the CFA that is set at 70% of full union dues. So why should you become a full-fledged member? A union is only as strong as its members' determination to work together for the common good. We are entering a period of intense contract negotiation that will determine our collective working conditions for the next several years. The CFA is bargaining for real salary increases, clear workload limitations, a streamlined grievance procedure, and other improvements in our day to day work lives. Strong membership shows the administration that we are united behind these demands. Our dues fund a wide range of important union work besides contract negotiation. The CFA also
Upgrading from fee payer status to full membership also gives you access to a wide range of benefits, including free professional liability insurance, attorney referral service, and a wide range of financial and insurance services. Please join the CFA today! |
It’s
not just faculty and other state employees who are under attack. Student
fees have risen 76% in the last three years. During the same period, the
CSU has lost half a billion dollars in annual state funding. So students
are paying much more for much less. Each semester they find fewer and
larger classes, long waits for advising appointments, closed doors at
outreach offices, and erosion of the quality of instruction. 