Professors’ Volunteer Offer Rejected : Cal State Northridge: A quirk in state law probably won’t allow the 15 to 20 retirees to return and teach for free.

There are few institutions, particularly those with serious money problems, that would turn down an offer of free labor from highly trained, experienced professionals. Because of a glitch in state law, Cal State Northridge is one of them.

At least that’s what several retiring professors say after learning that the school can’t, in most cases, accept their offer to return to work--for free.

About 15 to 20 professors, who are taking advantage of an early retirement package offered by the Cal State University system, said they wanted to help students and enable the financially strapped university to offer more classes.

But a quirk in the state law that authorized their retirement probably will not allow them to do so.

“It’s a mean, narrow law, perhaps intentionally so,” said Benjamin Saltman, 64, an English professor who volunteered to continue teaching his course in Jewish-American literature for one semester.

“My concern is for the 40 students who are signed up to take my class. I am the only one who teaches this class. I don’t want to leave them in the lurch.”

Shortly after the Legislature authorized their early retirement three weeks ago, Saltman and the others offered to teach for free for the semester beginning Aug. 31.

CSUN, where nearly 100 professors are retiring early, is the only CSU campus at which faculty members have offered to return and teach for no pay, a CSU spokesman said.

Initially, the professors’ offer was greeted with enthusiasm by the CSUN administration. But this week, after a warning from the state system, Don Cameron, executive assistant to CSUN’s vice president for academic affairs, cautioned the potential volunteers that their offer appears to be prohibited by state law.

Under the legislation by Assemblyman Robert Campbell (R-Richmond), professors who retire early may not return to teaching in the CSU system without losing their retirement benefits.

Campbell aide Nini Redway said it was not the intent of the law to prevent professors from teaching for free. “This issue wasn’t even discussed,” she said. “I applaud the people who are volunteering. I hope they can.”

Redway said Friday, however, that Campbell has no plans to sponsor legislation to remedy the situation.

Also on Friday, CSU’s legal team issued an opinion that the law means what it says, whether the professors are paid or not. “Basically, our attorneys have said the language is very specific and would cause people to lose” the four years additional service credit that allowed them to retire early in the first place, CSU spokesman Steve McCarthy said.

The law does provide for exceptions to the rule, but only when no one else can be found to teach a course and the absence of the course would prevent a student from graduating this year, Cameron said.

Under those exceptions, “we’ll be able to allow a few to teach for free,” he said.

The CSUN chapter of the California Faculty Assn.--the professors’ union--passed a motion allowing the volunteers to work for free, which is ordinarily against its rules.

“We’re fortunate that we have faculty members volunteering,” Cameron said. “But we can’t allow them to jeopardize their benefits or break the law. At this point, only a few qualify.”

Just who will be permitted to volunteer has not been decided, Cameron said, a statement that provoked most of the professors to consider rescinding their offer.

“It’s a bureaucratic nightmare,” said Max Lupul, 64, a marketing professor.

He and a colleague, Bob Yost, volunteered to teach four courses so that their small department could replace classes that were cut.

“It’s not as though we’d be taking anyone else’s job,” he said.

But, Lupul said: “I need to know on whose desk the buck stops. Unless someone can come up to me and show me that they have the authority to approve my teaching, I won’t do it. I don’t want to lose my benefits.”

Another potential volunteer, LeRoy H. Nyquist, 63, a chemistry professor, said he wants to finish supervising the research projects of four students.

“They won’t be able to work on these projects with anyone else,” he said.

But, Nyquist said, he’s reluctant to volunteer.

“I have to have a ruling from an authority,” he said. “Of course, we have to be careful. I don’t think we should send the message to the Legislature that professors will teach for free.

“If they can hire a replacement for me, I think they ought to hire a replacement.”

Saltman, the first volunteer to come forward, also offered to teach a poetry course.

“That course is gone if I don’t teach it,” he said. “There’s only one other poet here and her classes are full.

“Of course, you should be paid to teach. But we’re showing some concern for the students. What did they think when they passed that law? That professors who have taught here 30 years or so wouldn’t care about the students they’re leaving? “