San Francisco
The main faculty union at California State University today narrowly approved an unpaid furlough of two days per month, avoiding a new round of layoffs of thousands of part-time faculty members and cementing the system's plan to close a $584-million budget deficit.
The California Faculty Association's approval of the furloughs is a victory for Chancellor Charles B. Reed, who had warned of thousands of additional layoffs had the furlough proposal failed. About 54 percent of the union's members voted to approve the furlough plan, while 46 percent voted no.
But in a sign of deep anger among faculty members about the direction of the nation's largest public university system, the union also overwhelmingly approved a no-confidence vote in the chancellor, 79 percent to 4 percent. The union's president said today the vote was a signal that Mr. Reed should resign.
"There was strong agreement that they want Chancellor Reed and the trustees to fight for public funding for CSU," said the president, Lillian Taiz. "The vote of no confidence in his leadership is a serious and damning indication that the faculty do not believe that will happen."
California's budget crisis has reopened longstanding divisions between Cal State's leadership and the faculty union, which represents 23,000 professors, lecturers, and others out of the university's 45,000 employees.
Last month the faculty union accused the chancellor of "pre-recession management policies" and "self-interested leadership" for not fighting hard enough against deep cuts in state support. Union officials also criticized Mr. Reed during negotiations over the furlough plan for his unwillingness to guarantee that the plan would prevent future faculty layoffs.
A statement today from Cal State praised the furlough vote. In a separate statement, a spokeswoman for Mr. Reed noted that the union members who voted on the no-confidence measure represented "a fraction of our overall faculty." The "faculty's frustration should be directed toward policy makers in Sacramento," the statement said.
Mr. Reed has said the furlough plan is necessary help the system quickly meet a huge deficit, which stems from a 20-percent reduction in state support. In addition to the furlough, Cal State will raise its tuition by 20 percent, cut campus budgets by a total of $190-million, and reduce its enrollment by 40,000 students by the end of the 2010-11 academic year.
Comments
1. eileenqueen - July 24, 2009 at 05:36 pm
Thanks for the article about our faculty vote at CSU. I would like to clarify two things, however. Mr. Keller wrote that by approving furloughs, faculty will be "avoiding a new round of layoffs of thousands of part-time faculty members". In fact, much as I wanted to see such a correlation, the CSU administration refused to make any assurance that jobs would be saved. That was actually an issue much discussed prior to the voting. The other matter is that student tuition is actually going to be 30% higher than it was last year. The 20% Mr. Keller refers to is only this month's increase; it follows a 10% increase voted on earlier in the year. Thank you.
2. drrom - July 27, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Actually, there was absolutely NO discussion by the Union about the survey following the vote. There was one question about Reed but it was not posited as a No Confidence vote. I'm a member of the Union but it really resorts to fear mongering and manipulation to achieve its goals. Let's have a fair fight, CFA. Also, the Union purports to represent all faculty but in reality it represents the lecturers and has now divided itself once again to fight for the students. Who do you represent? By the way, CSU students pay the lowest in tuition (we call them fees) than any other state school in the NATION! You can't get something for nothing.