CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / LOS ANGELES

California State University faculty have voted to accept work furloughs, averting what administrators had warned would be mass layoffs and tens of thousands of class cancellations at the nation’s largest university system, the faculty union announced Friday.

Professors in the 23-campus university system had complained that the proposal for two furlough days a month was just a pay cut by another name. But in the end, they voted 54% to 46% to go along with what Chancellor Charles B. Reed framed as the best way to save faculty jobs and preserve courses in the face of dire state budget cuts.

The university earlier this week raised student fees 20% to meet a $584-million budget gap. The hike, which came on top of a 10% fee increase approved in May, brought system charges to $4,026 a year, not including room, board, books and separate fees charged by each campus.

Cal State also plans to cut its enrollment by 40,000 students over the next two years.

-- Gale Holland