New Law Allows Retiring CSUN Professors to Teach for Free : Education: The legislation signed by the governor modifies an early retirement program’s classroom ban and protects instructors’ benefits.

Gov. Pete Wilson has signed legislation to allow retiring Cal State University instructors to teach this year for free without losing benefits, said state Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), the bill’s author.

Adoption of the law will allow a dozen Cal State Northridge professors who opted for a special early retirement program to assist the financially strapped campus by teaching courses without pay this fall.

The law was needed to modify the program which was approved by the Legislature this summer granting instructors four years of service credit if they retire by October.

Cal State University campuses hope to save money by replacing senior faculty members who retire with lower-paid instructors.

CSUN English instructor and poet Ben Saltman was one of the first to discover that the retirement incentive plan, however, forbade professors from returning to teach at their campuses, even for free.

“When I was told that the wording of the bill precluded me from teaching, I thought, ‘I can’t let it stop here,’ ” Saltman said.

Saltman--a teacher for 25 years--said he volunteered so he could help students who are being hurt by state budget troubles that have prompted the cancellation of nearly 1,000 of the 5,780 CSUN courses originally scheduled for the fall semester.

Katz assisted with a bill after hearing of Saltman’s dilemma.

“I’m glad we were able to remove this roadblock and put some teachers back into the classroom where they’re needed,” Katz said.

Other CSUN instructors who have volunteered to teach for free this fall are Rose Bromwich, Maurice Colwell and Ruth Halpert, professors in the School of Education; Pat Caldwell, School of Communication, Health and Human Services; Max Lupul and Yow-Min Lee, School of Business Administration and Economics.

Also volunteering to teach are Beverly Grigsby and William Zucchero, School of the Arts; Daisy Kuhn, Richard Potter and LeRoy Nyquist, School of Science and Mathematics.