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Chelsea Mosher - CSULB School of Art Lecturer 

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Chelsea Mosher - CSULB School of Art Lecturer 

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I am a lecturer in my tenth year. I am a temporary unit faculty employee and I am voting NO on the tentative agreement. My NO vote is directed at the million-dollar chancellor, the board of trustees, and the state of California. My NO vote pushes back against the system that continues to undervalue the CSU as the proclaimed people’s university.

We went into our strike with a 95% strike-ready vote, empowered by the gains in labor movements across the country. We were in a historic position to push through our urgent demands to improve faculty and student working and learning conditions.

As faculty united we are fighting for 12%. This TA, with the compromise to floor raises, is not enough without substantial guaranteed GSIs. Lecturers who would receive the full benefit of these floor raises also need a substantial GSI.

The contingent 5% is not guaranteed. We will not have labor to withhold over the summer if the 5% is withheld and the bargaining team then returns to the table. We need to go back to the table now and push for more, the loss of 12% has demoralized many.

I cannot support a TA that doesn’t provide for students, aspirational language does not go far enough.

I believe our working and living conditions can be better. I believe student learning conditions can be better. I believe in the power we have when striking together.

I cannot support a TA that forfeits our right to bargain again until 2025.

I am voting NO. I am willing to risk any gains from this TA to see our struggle through!

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As a lecturer of eight and a half years, I have given the CSU some of the best years of my life. Workload issues are among my biggest concerns. Cobbling together a full course load (five courses per semester) has been the only way for me to support my family. Yet, a full course load means that you will miss many things that matter such as caregiving, health stuff, writing and other necessary intellectual projects, community engagement, in other words, life. Moreover, a full-time course load in a single liberal arts department is not a guarantee. One must seek out courses from other departments. As a result, I am spread thin across four departments. This also means new teaching preps. I’ve done thirteen new preps in eight years, and I am physically and mentally exhausted. And still I wonder: Am I supposed to be grateful for a full-course load, which most lecturers cannot access or have tried and found to be unsustainable?

I am voting “no” on the TA.

I am a contingent academic worker in the CSU. I remind myself every day that the problem is systemic (and not me). Let’s see how this works: The CSU continues to define a lecturer as a “temp,” with usually a master’s degree and teaching lower-division courses. None of these criteria match my experience nor the experiences of many lecturers. Such deliberate mischaracterization of “the CSU lecturer” allows for us to be dispensable to the system in perpetuity. The CSU profits off our labor with no end in sight.

Voting "no" on the TA is about reiterating the bargaining priorities that the strike was about, and MUCH MORE. I was devastated when the CFA statewide leadership called off the strike. Moreover, the TA creates so much confusion and division. “Raising the floor” for the lowest paid workers has been used to silence any criticism of the TA.

I have concluded that the TA does too little for too few. It does not address our quality of life. We are left at the mercy of ambiguous language such as: “first time contract language” for “lecturers who perform service,” and language on course caps (class size), “protecting against unilateral increases by management.” To me, the TA looks like a business-as-usual approach: Throw some money at some without fundamentally addressing the needs of all. We the CSU faculty who are devalued demand more.

I want to fight for more; for a public education that values faculty who pour their heart and soul into every course and every student. We are building from the ground up a collective academic worker struggle for the future of public education and a stronger, more representative CFA.

I am a CSU lecturer who feels exploited every day. I am voting “no” on the TA.

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Leyenda Jacobson (Lecturer, SOC) in 49er

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Leyenda Jacobson (Lecturer, SOC) in 49er

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"I must confess that my choice to vote no on our tentative agreement is not an altruistic act completely, it represents a fight for my livelihood and dignity...

"My love for the CSU system is intergenerational. I refuse to let the fate of our public university become a for-profit corporation churning out degrees they devalue.

By demanding a wage appropriate for my professional class, adequate working conditions for my colleagues, our students and the health and safety of my CSU community members, I am serving as a steward of the CSU system and the integrity of the degrees it awards.

The role of the CSU executive branch is to engage in fundraising and philanthropic work on behalf of the CSU, not the faculty.

Public administrators should not be awarding themselves staggering pay increases while also claiming insufficient funds to adequately pay their staff or care for their students, even after approving a 34% tuition hike.

Public service executives who cannot perform their primary job functions should be held accountable, not wield their power to punish the people they serve.

This is a public university. This is our university. Now is the time for us to stand united for our CSU."

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Guest Writer
I am just a girl trying to make an honorable living using the California State University degrees I am still paying off.

As a lecturer, I am enrolled in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, requiring me to complete 10 years of full-time work in public service to pay off the $35,000 in student loans I took out for a master's degree in sociological practice from San Marcos State University.

Attaining 10 years of full-time work in a profession that only offers part-time gig work is no 10-year feat. Until my debt is cleared, I earn the wage imposed upon me by the CSU board and my union leadership. It is an admittedly deflated wage padded with "the magic" I make in the classroom.

Because I only have CSU degrees, I serve as a stress test for the value of a CSU Master's degree. When I see the numbers in the "lecturer" salary table, I see the value the CSU system applies to its educators.

Many jobs will pay what the CSU system offers, (about $65,000 per year) that do not require 6+ years of higher education, a master's degree and the debt that comes along with it.

I am left thinking, working in substandard conditions for a deflated wage while repaying a loan tied to my employer... isn't this the definition of indentured servitude?

My first memory of social activism was a teacher strike. My mom was also a public educator and engaged in an earlier iteration of the fight for a fair, public education system.

That early memory connects to my decision to pursue Critical Sociology in college, where I learned how to use my body, mind and spirit to push movements for positive social change. During our current labor struggles, I have made use of my college degrees by applying all I learned from my beloved CSUSM faculty and mentors.

I must confess that my choice to vote no on our tentative agreement is not an altruistic act completely, it represents a fight for my livelihood and dignity.

My husband and I met 20 years ago as college students. He took every class alongside me and we have the same degrees. My husband also served the community as a sociology lecturer.

During the pandemic, we made the difficult decision for him to join the military; we could not survive on lecturer wages. The Air Force did not value his degrees, so he enlisted as an E-3, celebrated his 40th birthday in boot camp and is currently stationed 1,200 miles away. We speak daily and visit when we can afford to, which is rare.

My daughter is a CSU student. She is watching my life unfold and paying keen attention to my working conditions. It is challenging to support her in many ways. I cannot support her financially and now, I am having trouble supporting her decision to attend college.

My love for the CSU system is intergenerational. I refuse to let the fate of our public university become a for-profit corporation churning out degrees they devalue.

By demanding a wage appropriate for my professional class, adequate working conditions for my colleagues, our students and the health and safety of my CSU community members, I am serving as a steward of the CSU system and the integrity of the degrees it awards.

The role of the CSU executive branch is to engage in fundraising and philanthropic work on behalf of the CSU, not the faculty.

Public administrators should not be awarding themselves staggering pay increases while also claiming insufficient funds to adequately pay their staff or care for their students, even after approving a 34% tuition hike.

Public service executives who cannot perform their primary job functions should be held accountable, not wield their power to punish the people they serve.

This is a public university. This is our university. Now is the time for us to stand united for our CSU.

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CSU student-to-faculty pipeline: Tentative agreement does not work - Daily Forty-Niner

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As a former student and current professor in the California State University system, the latest tentative agreement does little to support faculty and students.

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"2,500 students–one counselor for 2,500 students. So we did not get that demand. We were asking to shrink the number down. We could have brought the ratio down a lot lower, but we didn’t get that. It becomes a workload issue because not only do our students lack the professional mental health care that they need, we are the people doing the day-to-day, face-to-face work. We’re the ones in the classrooms with them. They come to our office hours with problems that we’re not equipped or trained to handle as much as I want to. I’m a lecturer. We’re here to teach.

When we have students that are telling me, I’m sorry, I just got kicked out of my house. I’m living out of my car. I say, you know, I want to help you and I want to send you to the person who can actually help.

But we don’t have enough counselors. This is why they’re entwined. That is one real kind of consequence. When we don’t have enough counselors, not only do students suffer, but so do those of us who are already overworked...

...All we know is that we should still be on strike. We’re not. It was cut way too quick. I think most of us feel a lot of the anger, which is coming from the fact that we had an incredible amount of organizing and energy behind pulling this off, and it would have been a historic first-time strike at all 23 campuses. But for it to sort of end after a day, it just feels all kinds of things, short-sighted, not strong enough. We all felt very demoralized, and it certainly was not the deal we wanted. It was really nothing new that the chancellor’s office hadn’t already offered us."

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California State faculty mobilize for a no vote

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Dana Cloud and Gary Holloway interviewed four activists in the California Faculty Association who are urging a “no” vote on a bad TA.

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Luke Wukmer (Lecturer, Mathematics) in the 49er

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Luke Wukmer (Lecturer, Mathematics) in the 49er

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"The status quo suggests that education is not important—that faculty jobs are not worth doing. And that the crises affecting our students are not worth fixing in a timely manner. They claim there is no money to address our needs, despite a 30% tuition hike.

I love this school and cherish the opportunity to work with my students and my department. I do not take it for granted. However, while entering my fifth year, it has become clear there’s no path to fair compensation for my time...

I still have hope. I have kept my rain-destroyed strike sign as a reminder of what I felt that day— that we were on the cusp of something big. But instead, we were shut down. Since then, we have been fighting to fix a dysfunctional union that let us down and to win the contract we deserve.

We cannot afford a whittling away of vital public institutions due to budgetary mismanagement. The position of the CSU chancellor shows a fundamental misunderstanding about how strongly we feel about these issues. She has lost sight of our worth. What the students, the CSU and higher education itself are worth."

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Guest opinion
My core belief is that the California State University system is worth investing in. Our fight is for the survival of quality, affordable higher education itself.

Two weeks ago saw the largest higher education strike in U.S. history. The CSU is the largest public university system in the United States. There is a chance that our action (or inaction) will serve as a litmus test for higher education across our country. By unions, by chancellors and by the general population.

In her welcome message this semester, President Conoley said, "The coming semester will require our collective participation to bring solutions to unprecedented budget pressures." She is bracing us for more bad news.

Entire colleges across the country are shuttering in the face of budgetary mismanagement. Some CSUs face these threats.

The status quo suggests that education is not important-that faculty jobs are not worth doing. And that the crises affecting our students are not worth fixing in a timely manner. They claim there is no money to address our needs, despite a 30% tuition hike.

I love this school and cherish the opportunity to work with my students and my department. I do not take it for granted. However, while entering my fifth year, it has become clear there's no path to fair compensation for my time.

Year after year, faculty are told to accept subpar contract terms, and that we'll make amends next bargaining cycle. Our strike was a manifestation of our need for immediate improvements. We struck in the pouring rain at 7:30 a.m. We largely shut Long Beach State down that day, as did other CSUs. The strike was to grow throughout the week. Events were planned. Bernie Sanders and Katie Porter had amplified our platform. Good Morning America was coming out.

Our hopes were dashed almost immediately. The strike was called off that night. Our union had reached a premature and subpar tentative agreement with the CSU. We were shocked.

We scrambled to resume classes on Tuesday, fearing disciplinary action. Students who had bravely stood up for faculty were now told to return to class without comment.

Two weeks later, the sting remains. Why did it end so soon? The strike vote was 95% in favor. Many were ready to fight for at least a week. There have been town halls nearly every day since. Hours of Q&A with angry faculty, with few speaking in favor of the TA.

Meanwhile, the CFA's messaging has changed almost daily. First, historic win. Then, we hear you're angry, but you don't understand what a good deal this is. Then, okay, you're angry, but the deal's still better than you think. Then, okay, so you're really angry, but if you don't agree to the terms, the alternative is way worse.

Throughout this process, it's become clear to me that our union in its present form is two things: utterly nontransparent and deeply undemocratic. We pushed for clarity from our union, tirelessly conveying that the TA is not enough on multiple fronts.

Students would see little change. We, faculty, demanded that the CSU respect a 1-1,500 ratio of mental health counselors to students (a threshold provided by our accrediting body), to address an abject crisis. CSULB has only 14.5 licensed healthcare professionals to serve over 40,000 undergraduates. I am consistently told by students that they reach out to CAPS and don't hear back for weeks. This forces compassionate faculty to act as unlicensed counselors to a student body that desperately needs more support. Their school is failing them.

We rallied behind this and other critical demands. For marginalized faculty to have representation when harassed by campus police. Lactation rooms for mothers. Increased parental leave. More gender-neutral bathrooms. The TA lacks concrete gains.

Salaries remain integral. It's understood amongst lecturers that they should teach at two or three different schools if they want to make ends meet. This semester, I teach four upper division classes. That is 140 students. This is considered 80% of "full-time." In 2023, I made $42,000. These two weeks have brought many such stories together. I talked to a lecturer from California State University, San Bernardino who has taught for 23 years and their full-time rate is less than that of a K-12 teacher, who are underpaid in their own right. We feel taken advantage of.

I still have hope. I have kept my rain-destroyed strike sign as a reminder of what I felt that day- that we were on the cusp of something big. But instead, we were shut down. Since then, we have been fighting to fix a dysfunctional union that let us down and to win the contract we deserve.

We cannot afford a whittling away of vital public institutions due to budgetary mismanagement. The position of the CSU chancellor shows a fundamental misunderstanding about how strongly we feel about these issues. She has lost sight of our worth. What the students, the CSU and higher education itself are worth.

The faculty and students deserve a sincere apology from the CSU and the CFA and a commitment to a better path forward.

I will vote NO on this tentative agreement and continue the fight for what we need. I have a real fear that if we return to business as usual, we will go back to our classes and look into the eyes of maybe the last generation to benefit from quality, affordable higher education.

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Quick tentative agreement leaves long road ahead for faculty - Daily Forty-Niner

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Part-time mathematics lecturer at Long Beach State, Luke Wukmer, speaks up on behalf of the faculty on how they feel about the tentative agreement that was reached between the CSU and the CFA.

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Rob Chlala (Assistant Prof, SOC) in LAist

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Rob Chlala (Assistant Prof, SOC) in LAist

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“We've seen what other folks can win, and we're ready to get back to bargaining. And if we need to, we'll strike again.”

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Keep up with LAist.

If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily morning newsletter, How To LA. Every weekday, you'll get fresh, community-driven stories that catch you up with our independent local news.

On a rainy Monday morning last month, Robert Chlala joined his colleagues at a picket line at Cal State Long Beach. It was the first day of the systemwide faculty strike over salary, parental leave, mental health resources for students, and other issues.

Chlala, an assistant sociology professor, was quickly drenched. But when he looks back on that morning, he remembers feeling elated. Faculty kept a boombox blaring, cars honked in support, students joined in solidarity.

" This is working," Chlala thought. When he went home that afternoon, he was excited to rejoin the picket line the next day. Chlala and his colleagues expected better weather and better turnout.

But that night, Chlala got an unexpected email: The union had reached a tentative deal with CSU management. The strike was over.

Read All Of Our CSU Strike Coverage

The California Faculty Association is a union that represents 29,000 coaches, counselors, lecturers, librarians, and professors. They've been negotiating with California State University since last spring, and have staged a series of strikes.

Chlala was bewildered. And after reading more about the deal, he became upset. He felt the agreement fell short of what faculty had been fighting for. Why, he wondered, did CFA leadership call off the strike just as it was gaining momentum?

From Feb. 12-18, CSU faculty will vote by simple majority on the tentative agreement. If accepted, the deal would raise wages and provide more paid family leave.

LAist interviewed faculty who received news of the tentative agreement with tears, frustration, anger, disbelief, and acceptance, and attended faculty town halls that offered similar experiences.

"Let's redirect this momentum into getting back to the bargaining table and getting a better deal," Chlala said.

For him and many other faculty, the initial shock over the tentative agreement has given way to a resolve to vote it down.

'Desperately needed pay equity'

CSU is the nation's largest university system. The California Faculty Association represents its 29,000 coaches, counselors, lecturers, librarians, and professors.

Leading up to the strike, CFA had been pressing for a 12% salary increase; CSU had offered a series of three 5% raises, two of which would be contingent on state funding.

The tentative agreement between CSU and CFA includes:

A 5% general salary increase for all faculty retroactive to July 1, 2023.

A 5% general salary Increase for all faculty on July 1 in 2024, if the state doesn't reduce base funding to CSU.

A higher salary floor for the lowest-paid faculty, who will also receive a 2.65% "service salary increase" (which affects about a third of union members).

Access to a union representative when dealing with campus police.

An increase in paid parental leave, from six to 10 weeks.

Just over half of faculty work part-time and more than half of them don't have the long-term job security afforded to those with a tenure-track position. Lecturers may work as little as one quarter; but after six years of employment, they're eligible for three-year contracts. In an emailed statement, CSU said just under two-thirds of its lecturers are eligible for health, dental, and vision insurance, in addition to other benefits.

On social media, the union has been promoting the deal by saying it will usher in "a 10% raise in the next 6 months." But, given the state's projected $38 billion deficit, some faculty that the conditional 5% pay raise may not pan out.

LAist reached out to state leaders for comment. A spokesperson for Gavin Newsom said the governor had nothing to add. In an email, Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire was non-committal about the budget, but said: "This tentative agreement ... helps advance desperately needed pay equity for some of the best and brightest educators in America." LAist did not receive a response from Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas' office by the time of publication.

Some faculty also say it's unfair to expect them to accept increases that don't keep pace with inflation - especially when Chancellor Mildred García got a 27% pay bump when she took the job last year, with a stipend for rent.

Harry Katz, a professor of collective bargaining at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, reviewed the deal's bullet points.

"That's not a horrible increase, given the financial pressures the California State University System faces," he said. (To address a $1.5 billion budget gap, the system's board of trustees approved five years of tuition hikes last fall.)

The tentative agreement gets squishier about other priorities. It "acknowledges the importance" of moving all campuses to a 1,500:1 students-to-counselor ratio. And it offers only a commitment to following state code as it relates to access to lactation spaces and gender-inclusive restrooms.

'Still out here listening'

Kate Ozment, an associate English professor at Cal Poly Pomona, is among faculty who've organized for higher pay and better working conditions. She said she cried when students joined her at a one-day strike last December, moved by their act of solidarity. " This is the best teaching day of my life, " she thought.

On top of potential gains, Ozment believes the collective bargaining process has served as a good learning opportunity for students.

"I can assign them things about class consciousness, we can talk about the fact that they have been historically underfunded because of their backgrounds - but it is different to say, and 'Here's what you do to push for [something] better,'" she said.

If the tentative agreement passes, Ozment estimates she'll get just over a 12% raise - the amount the union had been pressing for since last spring. She said she plans to vote "Yes."

"For me, this is a great deal," she said. "But I am still out here listening to the people that I work with, and I will turn down a great deal for me if it's not a good deal for everyone."

'It looks like a win'

LAist also shared the CFA's tentative agreement with Chris Tilly, a UCLA professor with labor organizing experience. His research focuses on labor markets and inequality.

"To me, it looks like a win," he said.

Getting a retroactive raise is "unusual," Tilly said. He also lauded the faculty union for securing raises for its lowest-paid members.

"That's something that unions don't always attend to, but is really important," he said. "We have growing inequality. And, in any workplace, the people at the bottom are the people that are struggling the most, and the fact that the union put a priority on that and won that is really a very positive thing."

"There's some risk involved" when it comes to the 5% raise conditioned on the state budget, Tilly added. But Newsom, "unlike [former governor] Jerry Brown, has been relatively supportive of higher education." The governor's latest budget proposal actually offers a slight bump to CSU.

"I don't think it's a big gamble," Tilly said.

In a follow-up email, Tilly noted that if the budget does get cut, "the Cal State administration does not just get to take away the 5% raise - the agreement says it goes back to bargaining. Since the administration now knows that faculty are prepared to take action if their expectations are not met, I can't see the 5% getting bargained down a great deal even if the budget does get cut."

'We've seen what other folks can win'

Shortly after the strike ended, faculty across the CSU system started gathering to process the rapid shift in strategy, in person and online.

Sociology professor Vanessa Stout joined about 100 other people at a lunchtime meeting at Cal State L.A. on Jan. 26. She planned to vote "No" on the tentative agreement.

"We are here for our students, but at the same time we won't be exploited because of it," Stout said.

That same week, faculty at Cal State Long Beach held two virtual town halls. Combined, they had about 450 participants. At the meetings, some faculty said they felt betrayed by union leadership. Others were confused about what kind of raise they could expect if the deal goes through. Many said they were disappointed that the language around counselors is more of an aspiration than a commitment.

At each meeting, the hosts conducted straw polls to gauge faculty sentiment. On both occasions, most said they were leaning toward a "No" vote.

Rank-and-file members have been observing other unions' collective bargaining efforts, including and , said Chlala, the assistant sociology professor.

"We've seen what other folks can win, and we're ready to get back to bargaining. And if we need to, we'll strike again," he said.

'Zero guidance'

Alfredo Carlos is a labor studies professor at Cal State Dominguez Hills and part of the CFA leadership team on campus. On the first day of the strike, he was up at 4 a.m. More than 100 faculty signed up for the morning shift, and he wanted to make sure everything went smoothly.

Carlos witnessed colleagues who were typically less engaged step up to lead picket lines and chants. Former students and their families, along with members of other unions, also joined faculty in solidarity.

The strike "was transformative," Carlos said, "in the sense that it brought a lot of people into the process of our union."

But immediately following the tentative agreement, he added, there was "zero guidance from statewide leadership" on how to communicate the terms of the deal.

Carlos is telling members to vote their conscience. He's still weighing his decision.

"Either outcome is not ideal for me," he added. "So, you know, if I end up voting 'Yes,' it's not going to be an enthusiastic 'Yes.'"

'The best deal we were going to get'

Meghan O'Donnell, a history lecturer at Cal State Monterey Bay, is part of the faculty union's board of directors. She's aware of dissatisfaction among her colleagues, but remains proud of the deal. It was "very, very hard-won," she said.

Even after a four-campus faculty strike last December, union leaders "continued to see very little response from the Chancellor's bargaining team," O'Donnell said.

Then, on the first day of the systemwide strike, CSU approached the union with an offer that showed "significant movement." It included "areas that the Chancellor's office had refused to even discuss with us," she said, including raising the salary floor for lowest-paid faculty, increased family leave, and the right to have a union representative when interacting with campus police.

"We really did feel that this was going to be the best deal we were going to get," O'Donnell said.

To help rank-and-file members estimate their potential raises under the tentative agreement, the union created a four-page flowchart. Union leaders have also been canvassing membership concerns at informational sessions.

Faculty have shared a range of emotions at those sessions, she said. "There's been some folks who have expressed a lot of opposition to the tentative agreement in those meetings, and we've tried to be respectful . . . But we also wanted to make sure that there was space for folks to share feelings of pride and happiness."

"We represent 29,000 faculty, and it's hard to find consensus with such a huge diverse group of folks. But I think what's playing out right now is healthy for our union, and I think it's showing how engaged and how passionate people are about this process," she added.

'It's up to us as members'

Regardless of the vote outcome, Carlos and other faculty said members have an opportunity to become more engaged in the union and to change what they don't like.

"Many of us who organize the rank-and-file town halls absolutely believe that the union is the best mechanism for us to fight for quality public education," Chlala said. But "the CFA is an organization like any other. It has good and bad parts to it, bureaucracies and otherwise, and it's up to us as members to direct that."

Katz, the collective bargaining professor at Cornell, said post-deal discord is not unusual. If workers aren't satisfied with a tentative agreement that's being offered, he added, "that doesn't mean collective bargaining has failed. That's just a natural part of the process." In 2021, he noted, John Deere workers a tentative agreement with employers - and they did so more than once.

UCLA's Tilly agreed. "[H]eated debate among [CFA] membership is a good thing-democratic unions with engaged memberships are healthier for it," he said.

What questions do you have about colleges and universities?

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez focuses on the stories of students trying to overcome academic and other challenges to stay in college - with the goal of creating a path to a better life.

Ask a Question

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As CSU Faculty Prepare For Vote On New Deal, Many Wonder If There's A Better Option

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California State University faculty will begin voting Monday whether to accept a new deal. Many don't want to go back on strike, but others are ready to vote it down.

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Leyenda Jacobson (Lecturer, SOC) in LAist

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Leyenda Jacobson (Lecturer, SOC) in LAist

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"I think what happens in the classroom is what I live for in terms of my career. Unfortunately you can't pay bills with the magic that happens in the classroom"

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Keep up with LAist.

If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily morning newsletter, How To LA. Every weekday, you'll get fresh, community-driven stories that catch you up with our independent local news.

The California Faculty Association reached a tentative agreement with college leaders Monday night. But some instructors with the lowest pay and least job security say the agreement falls short.

"We got something, but we're still, like, really, really drowning and struggling," said Cal State San Bernardino lecturer Laura Quinn.

Neither the union, nor CSU leadership, have released details of the deal. While the summary includes raises for the lowest-paid faculty, it does not guarantee wages that faculty say would be sufficient nor stability that researchers say would improve student outcomes long term.

Read All Of Our CSU Strike Coverage

The California Faculty Association is a union that represents 29,000 coaches, counselors, lecturers, librarians, and professors. They've been negotiating with California State University since last spring, and have staged a series of strikes.

In a statement announcing the deal, CSU Chancellor Mildred García said the agreement "enables the CSU to fairly compensate its valued, world-class faculty while protecting the university system's long-term financial sustainability."

LAist reached out to CSU to verify deal terms and ask about further comment; a spokesperson said there will be "more details later."

Just over half of faculty work part-time and more than half of CSU faculty do not have long-term job security- they may teach a class from one quarter to multiple years. Researchers say the shift from full-time, stable employment in higher education to low-paid, semester-by semester jobs has been underway for decades.

"There's nothing different in terms of the qualifications or the background of the people who are in these roles," said USC professor Adrianna Kezar, who studies higher education employment. "It's just simply that the job market changed."

Researchers and universities use many different terms to describe the people responsible for teaching, grading, and generally preparing students for the world. One of the primary distinctions is how long someone is hired to do the job.

We're going to define them from most-solidly long term, to most unstable, though individual experiences vary.

Tenured professor: Historically the gold standard for higher education employment. Once an educator has attained tenure, they expect to work for an institution indefinitely and can only be fired for severe problems with performance or in the institution as a whole. Advocates maintain that tenure helps preserve educators' ability to teach controversial topics and pursue innovative research. "We don't want politicians, corporate interests, and so forth messing around with faculty trying to do their jobs," said American Association of University Professors researcher Glenn Colby. An educator eligible for this distinction is classified as "tenure-track."

Adjunct and contingent faculty: These terms both describe college teachers who may have similar qualifications and workloads as tenured professors, but are not guaranteed long term employment. In the California State University system, they're often called lecturers. These instructors work full- and part-time for as little as one quarter and up to several consecutive years.

Average CSU salary: $71,255* for a full-time lecturer and $64,304* for a part-time lecturer

*This represents the average amount an instructor makes during the academic year as of fall 2022, according to CSU.

CSU lecturers can teach full time, but are contracted for just a few classes. Lecturers told LAist they have to work multiple jobs to make ends meet, struggle to afford health care and housing, and do not have a clear path to promotions or raises.

"It takes away from my ability to be the best lecturer that I can be," said Cal State L.A. lecturer Michelle Vanegas. "I can't focus all of my attention on my classes, on my students, on grading, on the things that I need to do, because I'm busy worrying about how am I going to make enough money."

Where did all the good education jobs go?

Part-time and short-term instructors have always had a role in higher education. For example, the arrangement allows working professionals to bring their experience into the classroom and provides flexibility for parents who do not want or need to work full-time.

But in the last 40 years the proportion of faculty not eligible for the stability - and higher compensation - of a tenured position has increased to nearly 50% of U.S. college teaching positions.

"Institutions are relying on contingent appointments more and more, in many ways, to balance the books," said Glenn Colby, a senior researcher at the American Association of University Professors, which tracks higher education employment trends.

In the 1980s, California lawmakers cut state funding to higher education and increased the cost to students, despite a 1960 master plan that said the state's colleges should be tuition free. At the same time, federal funding for universities declined.

This financial constraint was the start of substantial changes. Today, the CSU system relies on lecturers more heavily than other institutions. Colby's most recent analysis found close to 60% of CSU's nearly 27,800 faculty were temporary appointments in fall 2022, compared with about 50% in fall 2009.

USC's Kezar co-wrote The Gig Academy, which details this shift in higher education employment.

She's said the way universities compensate employees on short-term contracts is an outlier compared to part-time workers in other sectors.

"In other professions, contingent [workers] get paid more because of the job insecurity that they experience and the lack of benefits," Kezar said. "We got the worst of all conditions. So instead of higher pay, we got lower pay, and no benefits, and no job security."

CSU faculty hardships

Leyenda Jacobson was a young mother who experienced housing insecurity and homelessness when she started taking community college classes. She went on to earn a sociology bachelor and master's degree at Cal State San Marcos.

"I heard and believed in the promise that a college education could make a better future," Jacobson said. "So I stuck with it."

When her mother's cancer diagnosis derailed her plan to pursue a PhD, Leyenda turned to teaching in 2011. Today, one of her primary jobs is to help students develop foundational research skills.

"I think what happens in the classroom is what I live for in terms of my career," Jacobson said. "Unfortunately, you can't pay bills with the magic that happens in the classroom."

Jacobson said she brought home $52,000 last year before taxes. She commutes 150 miles every day; she teaches at Cal State Long Beach from her home in San Diego County and racked up $10,000 in credit card debt covering gas and other expenses.

I think what happens in the classroom is what I live for in terms of my career. Unfortunately you can't pay bills with the magic that happens in the classroom.

Laura Quinn is in her ninth year as a lecturer at Cal State San Bernardino and teaches in both the English and College of Arts and Letters departments.

This base salary of around $55,000 has not been enough for Quinn to care for her 12-year-old son and afford a 1-bedroom apartment - among other things, like saving for his college education and paying off student debt.

For the past six years, she has taken on additional work as a lecturer at the University of Redlands. This past fall she taught eight classes across both campuses.

"My schedule was so packed," Quinn said. "When you're so exhausted, you're not hungry anymore and you just, like, want to go to bed. And then rinse and repeat."

She said last semester she lost 15 pounds.

Quinn offers to meet with the nearly 300 students she teaches a semester on nights and weekends and shares her personal number so they can reach out for help. "Whenever they are available, I will make sure that I'm there for them," Quinn said.

Part-time faculty, worse student outcomes

Years of research shows when there's an increase in part-time faculty, students have , are less likely to continue their studies, and when compared to peers taught by full-time, tenured educators.

Kezar said the research points to a lack of resources, not a lack of qualifications or skills, that hinder faculty like CSU's lecturers.

"The way they teach it isn't connected to the rest of the learning that the student's gonna have," Kezar said.

For example, Kezar said, fewer opportunities to interact with their teachers is associated with worse student outcomes. CSU lecturers are paid for the hours they spend teaching, not for meeting with students outside of class.

Debito Beamer commutes from his home in San Bernardino to Cal State campuses in Long Beach and Los Angeles and is teaching at a third online.

The political science lecturer tells students, "I can't see you outside of office hours. Here's an hour and a half that I'm waiting here in my office. I'm not on campus these other days, so you're just going to have to catch me at that time, or make a Zoom appointment with me. But I've got classes and class prep and all of that. Here's the window for those."

"All of those things impact my ability to teach at a relaxed pace," Beamer added. "By the time it's week 10 or 11, I'm already burned out and we have 15 weeks to a semester."

Lecturers also sometimes lack time to prepare and plan for their classes each semester.

Beamer said after the pandemic Cal State Long Beach asked him if he would teach a class 48 hours before it began.

"I had to learn my students' [names], create attendance sheets, create a syllabus, choose my textbooks, and create my first lecture- in 48 hours I was meeting my students," he said.

As much as lecturers try to meet their students' needs, when they're responsible for many students, they can lose some efficacy. Leda Ramos is a lecturer in Chicana(o) and Latina(o) Studies at Cal State LA. She teaches an average of 200 students a semester.

"I do my best, but anybody who has studied any kind of pedagogy knows that the higher number of students means that you have less ability to reach each student." Ramos said. "We do our best."

What's next for CSU faculty?

The union's 29,000 professors, lecturers, coaches, librarians, and counselors must vote to approve the tentative agreement before any raises or other benefits can go into effect.

What's in the deal?

California Faculty Association and California State University's tentative agreement includes:

A 5% general salary increase for all faculty retroactive to July 1, 2023.

A 5% general salary Increase for all faculty on July 1 in 2024, if the state doesn't reduce base funding to CSU.

A higher salary floor for the lowest-paid faculty, who will also receive a 2.65% "service salary increase" (which affects about a third of union members).

Access to a union representative when dealing with campus police.

An increase in paid parental leave, from six to 10 weeks.

Source: California Faculty Association

Online and in interviews with LAist, some part-time faculty were disheartened by the deal.

"I'm afraid to look my students in the eye because many of them have been rooting for us," said Cal State San Marcos and Long Beach lecturer Leyenda Jacobson. "It's our job to show them that people power can work."

Jacobson said among the biggest omissions are mental health support for students and substantial increases for lecturers and a path to more stable employment.

"We were going for something so much bigger," said Quinn, the lecturer in San Bernardino. "I don't understand‚ is this caving in early? Like, why not strike for a second day? Why not, like, keep the pressure on?"

Universities have not rushed to offer indefinite appointments to legions of part-time and temporary faculty, even as those faculty members' circumstances become more pronounced.

But researchers like Kezar say there are other ways to improve the working conditions for lecturers, like longer term contracts.

"What the biggest difference becomes [is] just the longevity of the appointment," Kezar said. "Instead of a guarantee for, you know, essentially a lifetime, 30 or 40 years, at least you're getting now five or seven years, which, it's still pretty good."

The practice is fairly new, but one study from Northwestern University found that well-supported faculty on long-term contracts were tied to student outcomes in line with - and in some cases, better - than tenured faculty.

Colleges nationwide laid off faculty during the pandemic, but American Association of University Professors's Colby said CSU has rehired more faculty when compared to other systems.

"I believe that the multi-year contracts have insulated those faculty members from the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic more than other institutions," Colby said.

However, the American Association of University Professors maintains that anything short of tenure is a threat to educators and students.

"If these faculty members are faced with the possibility of not being rehired when their contract ends, they might be less likely to explore controversial topics [in] either researching or teaching," Colby said.

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Lecturers Make Up The Majority Of CSU Faculty. Will They Take The University's Deal?

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Just over half of faculty work part-time and more than half of CSU faculty do not have long-term job security.

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May Lin (Assistant Professor, SOC) in 49er

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May Lin (Assistant Professor, SOC) in 49er

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“In this tentative agreement, all we see is this kind of aspirational language and an acknowledgement of the issue, but we’re fighting for there to be actual change and for there to be more counselors hired because folks are waiting weeks, even months to see someone, and oftentimes are already in a moment of crisis.”

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Some faculty members at several CSU campuses are unhappy with the concessions made in the tentative agreement and how the strike was called off after only the first day.

The CFA backed away from many of their key bargaining positions including the 12% general salary increase (GSI) and a full semester of paid parental leave.

The tentative agreement allotted a 5% retroactive pay increase for the 2023 school yearand a 5% increase effective July 1, contingent on the California state government not reducing CSU funding. Paid parental leave went from six weeks to 10 weeks, while a full semester consists of 16 weeks.

A group of faculty called CFA Rank and File United are pushing for members to vote against ratifying the tentative agreement and instead go back to the impasse present during the strike.

"Part of what we were doing was recognizing that faculty working conditions are student learning conditions, and we were on strike for significant improvements, and those conditions are still not met," May Lin, associate professor of Asian American Studies at CSULB, said.

Some faculty members expressed their discontent with the agreement, specifically in the lack of changes to workload management and the lack of language in the agreement mandating a specific counselor to student ratio. The agreement notes the importance of moving to a 1,500-1 student to counselor ratio but does not mandate it as a condition of the agreement.

"In this tentative agreement, all we see is this kind of aspirational language and an acknowledgement of the issue, but we're fighting for there to be actual change and for there to be more counselors hired because folks are waiting weeks, even months to see someone, and oftentimes are already in a moment of crisis," Lin said.

CSULB lecturer Kavitha Koshy said her main issue was with the lack of substantive change in the workload for faculty.

"I started out on this strike thinking about workload all along. And it hasn't changed anything for me. And so I still have to do a five-five load if I want to get that base increase. It's not a quality of life that we were striking for at all," Koshy said.

The five-five workload Koshy refers to is five classes per semester for professors and lecturers.

Language in the tentative agreement does address workload but does not lay out a specific maximum amount of courses a faculty member could teach in any given semester.

Rather, the agreement states, "Members of the bargaining unit shall not be required to teach an excessive number of contract hours, assume an excessive student load, or be assigned an unreasonable workload or schedule."

CFA Secretary and professor of communications at Fresno State Diane Blair said this agreement is not an ending point, but rather progress in the CFA's continued fight for fair working conditions.

"I think one of the things that I have learned as being sort of involved in union leadership for many, many years now is that contract negotiations are better understood as contract development," Blair said. "And, the goal is to just make sure that we're moving forward in a progressive way towards what it is our faculty members need in terms of their livelihood and their working conditions. But it's an ongoing process that never ends."

A straw poll conducted by CFA Rank and File at four town hall meetings surveyed more than 700 faculty members and found that 66%to 84% of attendees would vote no on the tentative agreement. Between 13% to 24% were unsure and 3% to 14% said they would vote yes.

The CFA is holding three statewide virtual town hall meetings on Feb. 6, 7 and 8 at 2 p.m., 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. respectively.

CFA members will vote on the tentative agreement starting Feb. 12 and ending on Feb. 18.

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CSU faculty split on tentative agreement - Daily Forty-Niner

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Many CSU faculty are responding to the tentative labor contract brokered between CSU management and the California Faculty Association.