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[zanglezonker]

Can anyone give me an informed guess about how the CA budget crisis will affect hiring levels at the UC's and CSU's?

For that matter, I welcome conjecture about other states and/or the effects of the current state of financial markets on Private U hiring.

[wannajob]

Well, it is going to vary with the different campuses. I had one CU that told me they already had to lay off a lot of their part-time adjuncts; I know another that is about to have a spending freeze.  So, in one sense it does not look good for next year; but, enrollments are increasing and they have to have people to teach! The best way to gauge is to look at the number of CU majors in your field. The flip side is, of course, that the CUs are having a hard time retaining people because of salary/cost of living. Professors stay a year or two, get teaching experience, and then leave for a more lucrative and smaller teaching load position.  In the past two years, there have been a lot of job openings at the CUs.

[superabound]

CU? Do you mean UC?

[publishorperish1]

The budget is still being contested, so there's really no way to know what the effect will be in the end.  For now, the Chronicle recently ran a blog post about one CSU campus backing out of an offer for a tt job citing a lack of funding due to budget cuts.  I've heard of other searches being jeopardized in both the CSU and UC system, though haven't heard of others that have already been cancelled.  Many adjuncts in the CSU system have lost courses for next year if they've got long term contracts, and lost jobs entirely if they didn't.  The proposed budget provides no funding for enrollment growth, and I've heard, without verification, that the CSU is planning to limit enrollment and expand class size, so the growth that was mentioned in another post might not be certain (though there's no doubt about the growing numbers of qualified students), and might not lead to more jobs if it does happen.  New tt lines are likely to be increasingly hard to come by.  My sense is that the UC system will not be as hard hit (and that the CC system will face substantially greater devastation), since the state has always provided substantially greater resources per student for the UCs than for the CSUs, and for the CSUs than for the CCs, but it's safe to say that all three systems will have serious problems if the budget goes through as proposed, or even close.

[ptontt]

I think it varies from school to school but I have had one interview canceled at a CSU campus (they froze all searches) but my interview is still on at another CSU campus (though they tried to not pay for my travel...) No matter what, the financial situation in CA makes me think twice about taking a job st a CSU unless it is my only offer...

[zelter]

I am considering CCs in California and would be interested in any insight from faculty at those colleges.

[wannajob]

CU? Do you mean UC?

I meant CSUs, sorry for confusion!

[dwightevans24]

Many departments at some of the UCs are being told to expect very few (1) or no hires for the next FIVE YEARS.

[whiplash]

I received an email from one CSU telling me the position to which I had applied was cancelled as a result of financial issues.  Another place has been dead silent since November.

Friends of mine in CA have told me to not anticipate hearing from any of my CA applications since the news is of layoffs and handing out pink slips to teachers at all levels.

[caduffy]

The faculty job situation at CCs in California is very fluid and very college specific.  Those schools in reasonably good financial condition are proceeding with critical faculty interview/hiring.  Schools that have been running closer to the financial edge have pulled back.

As previous posts have mentioned, the whole budget situation is way up in the air; changes almost every week.  More will be known in mid-May when Ahhh-nold releases what is known as the "May revise"...which is a revised estimate of what next year will look like.

[publishorperish1]

The CSUs have started to announce that they'll be accepting fewer students, despite greater demand, next year.  Because admissions decisions are made in advance, the decisions are, at least according to the administration at SDSU, irreversible regardless of whether the budget situation improves.  At SDSU, that means 2,800 fewer students admitted next year.  Seems likely to be an issue for hiring, again, even if the budget improves.

[nocalprof]

I know of one CSU campus that cancelled all searches underway this year in their sciences college.

I think the current budget situation calls for a 10% across the board cut for the university.  The college I just left there had something like 97% of its budget in faculty salaries, so I don't know how they'll do it.

[shrek]

Yep, recently the victim of this. They interviewed me and then realized they can't even match my salary. Duh! (I did warn them).

[regular16]

Cal State Fullerton canceled a history search after the on-campus phase...I don't know if an offer had gone out, but it's pretty ugly all the same.

[shrimp]

I know of one CSU campus that cancelled all searches underway this year in their sciences college.

Can you share which campus? 
I had a phone interview at one and never heard back so I assumed that I just did not make it past that stage but would be curious to know if they are continuing with the search.