From the California Faculty Association CFA HEADLINES March 23, 2016 · Weekly news digest from CFA • Striking for Love • Social, educational justice a focal point at CFA’s 2016 Equity Conference • CSU Stanislaus faculty, students protest at Chancellor White’s forum • Mental health of students always a primary focus for counseling faculty • CFA activists bring message of CSU faculty pain to Chancellor’s DC visit • Support for the faculty continues to grow • Retirees support the Fight for Five • Unionism gets boost at two universities • Faculty Rights Tip: Defend Your Right to Strike! • Links of the Week

Striking for Love

In just 20 days, CSU faculty will march on picket lines on all 23 campuses, an historic effort that would be the largest strike in U.S. higher education history. While faculty are striking over salary disputes with CSU management — we’re fighting for a 5% salary increase for all faculty — we are also striking for love, CFA leaders point out. As Union President Jennifer Eagan, a Professor at Cal State East Bay, recently told a crowd of faculty gathered at CFA’s Equity Conference, faculty love the CSU, but “I don’t want to sustain the CSU as it is now, and I don’t want to preserve a CSU if it mistreats its faculty and puts our students and quality public higher education last.”

Top: Denise Dawkins, a Nursing Lecturer at CSU Bakersfield and her students. Left: Ann Strahm, Associate Professor of Sociology at CSU Stanislaus with student Michelle Morales, who is now in law school.

“I’m striking for love,” Eagan said. “I’m striking for love of my colleagues and their families who are struggling to make ends meet. For the love of my students, who are getting less than they used to get and paying more than ever in student tuition and fees. And I’m striking for the CSU itself.” That sentiment, which CFA East Bay Chapter President Nick Baham articulated in an editorial for the campus newspaper The Pioneer, is echoed among many faculty, who every day give their all to their students. As Baham wrote in the editorial, “Both of my parents were graduates of San Francisco State University and the education that they earned in the CSU system afforded my family a stable middle-class life. I must strike because I love my students and am committed to the mission of the CSU.

“I love working for the People’s University. For me, it is the culmination of all my training and hard work through graduate school. I believe in the CSU’s stated mission to give every student access to a world-class education. I believe that this mission is best carried out by professionals in the classroom and not inside of executive boardrooms. “I know all too well the financial pressures that our students are facing. So many are holding multiple jobs in order to pay for tuition and other fee increases. There are students living in their cars on this campus and there are students facing food insecurity, walking around the campus hungry with little more than a couple of dollars in their pockets. Every single budget crisis that we have experienced in the state of California has been shouldered by faculty and students.”

For too long, faculty and their families have been sacrificing at the expense of CSU management’s bad decisions. But faculty shouldn’t have to choose between students and their families. If you have already committed to strike, thank you. For those who haven’t yet, click here to pledge to honor the strike today.

• Click here to see an animation explaining why CFA is going on strike • Faculty: Click here to commit to strike • Allies and Affiliates: Click here to help with strike support • Stay connected with CFA via Twitter and Facebook

Social, educational justice a focal point at CFA’s Equity Conference

CFA is in the midst of preparing for an historic strike, but faculty activists converged March 18-19 to discuss social and educational justice for students and colleagues at our 2016 Equity Conference in Los Angeles. This year’s Equity Conference featured highly motivated and energized speakers, as well as presenters and attendees concerned about fairness and social justice within the CSU and our communities.

Faculty, who are foremost educators, also wear many hats, and this year’s conference foregrounded their passion and compassion for many people who are still denied access and equal opportunity.

“I have never observed so much passion, enthusiasm, and determination among attendees to fight for what is right, to fight for a fair salary increase. It was simply amazing,” said Charles Toombs, Co-Chair of the Equity Conference, CFA’s Associate Vice President South, and a Professor of Africana Studies at San Diego State.

Keynote Speaker Kevin Johnson, Dean of the University of California School of Law, spoke about undocumented students, and emphasized the importance of understanding the daily fear they experience about themselves or their families being deported or otherwise “found out.” That fear is one of many challenges students face as they struggle to be successful.

The conference also featured workshops regarding our need to understand the difficulties of Trans and Non-Gender Binary students; the role of “Essential Functions” of faculty and students with disabilities; challenges Ethnic Studies departments and programs face; and the Black Lives Matter movement and how it has helped us all focus on enduring race, class, and gender inequities. Moreover, faculty, faced with salary inequities in the CSU, brought their energy and determination to strike to every part of the conference. The conference also featured new data and research regarding race and gender issues in the CSU. To read the CFA Equity Report 2016, click here.

Top  left:  CFA  leaders  Erma  Jean  Sims,  Sharon  Elise,  Charles  Toombs,  Cecil  Canton,  Equity  Conference  Keynote  Speaker  Kevin  Johnson,  and  José Cintrón. Front left: CFA’s Dorothy Chen-Maynard and CFA President Jennifer Eagan.

CSU Stanislaus faculty, students protest at Chancellor White’s campus forum CSU Chancellor Tim White was visibly troubled by the end of his visit Tuesday to CSU Stanislaus, where he was followed by protestors and grilled by faculty and students during a campus visit and forum. Students for Quality Education (SQE), along with CFA Stanislaus Chapter President John Sarraillé, sang a version of “Stand By Me” to White as he entered a meeting. They continued to protest with chants during the closed-door meeting, and followed White and his entourage, along with a “dog and pony” show duo. A sea of red-clad faculty and students greeted the chancellor during the campus forum later that afternoon. Only CFA Executive Committee members and SQE students lined up at the microphones to ask questions, many of which were pointed at the need to restore faculty salaries. Faculty questioned White about hiring a diverse faculty to reflect the student population and questioned why the money for instruction has gone down as the student population has become less white. Jennifer Morales, a graduate student earning her master’s in social work at Stanislaus, challenged White about the ever-increasing student tuition and fees, and the impact those are having on accessibility. “You’re not creating opportunities, you’re creating disaster,” she said.

• Click here to see a photo gallery from the Stanislaus event. Mental health of students always a primary focus for counseling faculty Counseling and mental health services for students became a hot topic in recent weeks both in the news and during commentary at the CSU Board of Trustees meeting.

A recent story by KPCC’s Adolfo Guzman-Lopez detailed the growing crisis, pointing out that the high student-to-mental health counselor ratios on campuses endangers some of the CSU system’s neediest students.

“Last semester the waiting list got to be as many as 200 waiting to receive services,” San Jose State Psychologist and Counselor Faculty Richard Francisco told KPCC. “Some of the students will wait for about a month until we get them in for a one-on-one session.”

According to CFA research, most CSU campuses employ fewer than one full-time equivalent (FTE) counselor per 1,500 students. The International Association of Counseling Services (IACS) — the accreditation body for college counseling centers — recommends a maximum ratio of 1,500 students for each full-time equivalent counselor on campus. Only three of the 23 CSU campuses meet that standard. Cal State LA and Fresno State are most out of line, with more than 6,000 students per FTE counselor on each campus. Click here to see more research and data regarding the counseling crisis.   Francisco said counseling faculty plan on taking care of students’ mental health before and after the strike. Many students already have spoken with counseling faculty about the strike, and those Francisco has talked to are in support of the strike.

Students routinely have time away from the campus, including around the holidays and spring break.

“Our students’ needs will be addressed,” Francisco said.

During the CSU Trustees meeting March 9, Academic Senate Chair and Cal State Stanislaus Professor Steven Filling said the CSU should do better in terms of investing in mental health services for students and increasing counseling ratios.

“…it is not just during labor actions that our students need access to services,” he said. Click here to read more.

CFA activists bring message of CSU faculty pain to Chancellor’s DC visit The truth about faculty salaries and Chancellor Tim White’s unwillingness to restore faculty salaries and invest in students followed him to Washington, D.C. last week during his breakfast meeting with the California State Society. White was in the nation’s capital to fundraise and promote the CSU, but the faculty’s message about CSU management’s misplaced priorities followed him there.

CFA Treasurer and Chico State Professor Susan Green, along with Cal State Dominguez Hills Professor David Bradfield, CSU Northridge Professor Cecile Bendavid and Cal State East Bay Professor Hank Reichman,

First Vice President of AAUP, shed light on what was really transpiring back at home in California. “Chancellor White’s breakfast in Washington D.C. was over-priced business as usual,” Green said. “The tired lines that faculty ‘need to live within their means’, and that ‘it will take many years to recover from the 2008 recession’, have been repeatedly refuted by faculty on campuses all semester long, but clearly have not been heard by the Chancellor.”

Support for faculty strike continues to grow Solidarity with faculty continues to mount as the clock ticks closer to the potential strike in April. The California Federation of Teachers (CFT), Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE) and Unite Here Locals 11, 19 and 49 are the most recent allies to pledge support for the faculty strike.

“…Whereas the CSU system admits students directly from the state’s K-12 system, many of whom are the students that we teach, and transfer students from the community colleges; and whereas, many of the public servants who serve the state of California have directly benefited from the services of the educators in the CSU system… the California Federation of Teachers support the educators of the CSU system represented by the California Faculty Association and assist them in their efforts to achieve a satisfactory contract agreement,” states a resolution unanimously passed during CFT’s 2016 Convention.

• To see more support for the faculty strike, click here. • Allies and Affiliates: Click here to commit to help during the strike

Retirees support the Fight for Five! CFA’s statewide Retired Faculty Committee has pledged to support the Fight for Five and strike, and recently wrote retired colleagues asking them to join the fight.

“CSU retired faculty spent our professional lives helping to build a strong public university system for our students. Now we need to help protect our university by standing with our active colleagues in their fight for 5%.”

Click here to read the letter, which is posted on the CFA website. If you know retired faculty members, please send them a link to the letter and ask them to join the fight! Unionism gets boost at two universities

Efforts to unionize university faculty continues to strengthen, as Mills College adjunct professors ratified their first three-year contract and non-tenure track faculty at Duke University vote to unionize. Mills adjuncts ratified their contract March 18. The gains include guaranteed semester, one-year, two-year and three-year contracts based on seniority with a pathway to full-time, salaried positions, salary increases that range from 1.75% to 60%, and improved course stability.

The contract is the result of an 18-month effort by Mills adjuncts, who voted to join SEIU Local 1021. At Duke University, non-tenure-track faculty also voted to be represented by SEIU. According to a report by Inside Higher Education, it has been many years since a faculty union drive of any type has been successful at a private university in the southern U.S. CFA activists helped in unionizing efforts at both Mills College and Duke University. Welcome to the union family!

Faculty Rights Tip of the Week: Defend Your Right to Strike! Last week, we let you know that CFA filed an unfair labor practice charge with the state Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) when supervisors asked faculty members to report their plans to participate in the possible five-day strike on April 13-15 and April 18-19. Pressuring employees to declare their plans for the strike and suggesting that they cross the picket line when the union has called for a strike, illegally interferes with labor rights under HEERA. If you are facing similar management conduct, and you think that it is intended to interfere with faculty rights, coerce union members, or intimidate us, let CFA know right away. Our legal team can help. We will amend our unfair labor practice charge to include additional conduct and/or file new and additional charges with PERB.

• If you’d like to learn more about HEERA or have a faculty rights questions, contact your campus CFA faculty rights representative.

• See previous Faculty Rights Tips on a range of topics in our contract. • If you have questions about a faculty rights tip or would like to suggest a tip

please write us with the subject line “Faculty Rights Tip.”

Links of the Week Opinion: I Don't Want to Strike, But I Must The Pioneer East Bay CFA Chapter President Nick Baham: I want to make it clear to the CSUEB community that our strike is an act of love. Pending Cal State strike isn't about greedy professors: Guest commentary San Bernardino County Sun Ryan Keating, CSUSB Asst Professor: The pending strike in April is a last resort. Instruction, interrupted Chico News & Review Chico CFA Chapter President Tim Sistrunk: “There’s academic freedom; there’s the open exchange of ideas. To tell people what they can’t talk about—especially if it’s specific to their life at the university—is an astounding assertion.” Editorial: The Signal stands with CFA The Signal (CSU Stanislaus) It is time for funding to be invested into the true heart of the

institution and that is our faculty. Without our faculty, we have no institution. Interactive timeline of CFA, CSU negotiations Daily Sundial (CSU Northridge) A long chain of events led to the California Faculty Association's announcement of a potential strike… Faculty help students understand potential strike The Orion (CSU Chico) A helpful slide show recapping the faculty’s contract battles since 2008 and events in the current “Fight for Five.” Cuban-Born College President Ruben Armiñana Anderson Valley Advertiser Q: The strike couldn’t come at a worse time for you personally. A: If I could persuade people to wait until next fall when I’m gone I would. Strike Talk—students asked, we answered Daily Sundial (CSU Northridge) The Sundial asked students what questions were on their mind about the California State University administration and the California Faculty Association. Emotional student rally at San Jose State to protest hate crime verdict San Jose Mercury News Calling the verdict in a long-simmering racial bullying case everything from "disgusting" to "purely racist," students at San Jose State rallied Thursday to decry the incident, the court proceedings and the overall treatment of students of color on the campus of 33,000. * * * Join CFA’s Facebook page For the latest news, follow CFA on Twitter Check out CFA YouTube