Cal State Pay Package Angers Staff

The California State University Board of Trustees on Wednesday angered its faculty by imposing the terms of a new contract that offers an average 5% raise but doubles the proportion awarded as merit pay.

“The decision was made to get the faculty a well-deserved pay raise,” said Charles B. Reed, chancellor of the 22-campus system. “We were running out of time, if we were going to give a raise this academic year.”

Yet the California Faculty Assn., which objects to how the raises will be awarded, picketed the Board of Trustees meeting and immediately announced that it would call for a strike vote later this month.

“The results of that vote could range from rolling strikes, to sickouts, refusing to serve on committees, to a full walkout,” said Terry Jones, the union’s president and Cal State Hayward sociology professor. “It could take different forms on different campuses.”

Under the new terms, the university will issue a 2.5% raise across the board with an additional 1.5% for junior faculty members who have not reached the top of the pay scale.

The rest of the money--about 40% of $48 million--will be awarded on merit through an elaborate review system that works its way up from academic departments to the desk of each campus president.

The union membership rejected similar terms in a tentative agreement last month by a margin of 57% to 43%. The union represents 19,600 full- and part-time professors, librarians, counselors and coaches.

One main sticking point during the 13 months of fruitless contract talks has been the power of campus presidents to tinker with the list of professors recommended for merit raises. Professors have no way to appeal the decision if presidents reduce their proposed raises or scrap them.

The other point of contention has been doubling the size of the merit money, which until now made up 20% of faculty raises. The trustees and university administration views this as a step toward making professors more accountable by rewarding those who perform well.

Faculty activists worry that this could chill the often raucous free exchange of ideas that comes with academic freedom. Sometimes professors take positions that put them at odds with campus presidents, which they fear could now get them bounced from the list recommended for merit raises.

Yet Sam Strafaci, the administration’s chief negotiator, notes that campus presidents historically approve 97% of the raises forwarded by department chairmen and deans.

Wednesday’s decision was the first time the university administration has unilaterally imposed contract terms on its professors. The faculty union was established in 1982.

The trustees who voted Wednesday were all appointed by former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson. Union activists hope that Democratic Gov. Gray Davis will tilt things their way by appointing labor-friendly trustees. There are five vacancies on the 24-member board.

“The chancellor is working for a lame-duck board of trustees,” Jones said. “You have a hard-core, right wing--you’ve got a group of trustees who have a political agenda, thinking that a corporate model is the way to run a university.”

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NEW PRESIDENT

James E. Lyons Sr. of Jackson State will head Cal State Dominguez Hills. B3