Faculty Senate Votes to Oppose Layoffs : CSUN: School President Blenda J. Wilson is unmoved by teachers’ angry demands for job guarantees amid the prospect of state funding cuts of up to 10%.

The Cal State Northridge Faculty Senate, after two hours of occasionally acrimonious debate with school President Blenda J. Wilson, voted Thursday to oppose the dismissal of instructors to balance the school’s 1993-94 budget.

Wilson, who announced earlier this month that faculty layoffs are likely in the coming school year, has refused requests for a guarantee that instructors will be spared. She was unmoved by faculty protests Thursday.

“This is not an employment agency, this is a university,” Wilson told the more than 100 faculty and staff members who attended the meeting.

The Faculty Senate then voted to approve a resolution declaring that “preventing the layoff of faculty is the highest priority of the university.”

But Wilson said the prospect of state funding cuts estimated to range as high as 10% makes it impossible to guarantee faculty jobs, especially when nearly 90% of the campus budget is spent on salaries.

She added, however, that no academic department would be eliminated before the fall semester.

The Faculty Senate resolution, passed on a voice vote, is advisory. Wilson retains the power to lay off employees due to a budget shortfall.

More than 800 classes from the fall schedule and an additional 300 classes this spring were canceled because of cuts in state funding for higher education. Scores of part-time CSUN instructors lost their jobs, and now tenured and tenure-track faculty members fear they will be next.

Faculty members had hoped that Wilson would ease those fears by promising to balance the budget by cutting departments other than academics.

Accompanying her remarks with chalkboard illustrations, Wilson said the 29,000-student university needs more than instructors to operate, including administrators, cashiers and other employees.

“It is not meaningful to distinguish between secretaries and faculty members” when discussing layoffs, she said.

Those and similar remarks drew angry replies from faculty members.

“I don’t think you are listening to us,” said Ronald Davis, a history professor. “Our position is that we are absolutely fundamental.

“Without us, students are just grazing on the campus.”

That in turn sparked comments from Associated Students President Sal Damji, who accused faculty members of being concerned with their own interests at the expense of students.

“I don’t think preserving tenured faculty is the only way to go,” said Damji, who added that graduating students should be the school’s top priority, not saving teachers’ jobs.

Budget committees created by Wilson, which include members of the faculty, are being asked to create ways to reduce campus expenses, such as the consolidation or reduction of academic departments.

Some faculty members are skeptical about the value of the committees, saying that key decisions about administration expenses, for example, will be made behind closed doors.

Faculty union representatives have called for members to resign from the committees.

Wilson has angered some faculty members by saying she plans to hire three top administrators to direct the school’s public relations and fund raising.

CSUN faculty members were also upset this week after learning that to date only Northridge and San Diego State have notified officials of the state university system that they are anticipating layoffs in the 1993-94 school year. Each of the 20 CSU campuses must report the number of layoffs anticipated in the coming academic year by March 5.

In speeches shortly after taking over the campus in September, Wilson said CSUN had the potential to become the system’s flagship campus.

With much of her time now devoted to paring down programs, however, she told faculty members Thursday: “At the moment, this is not the most fun job.”