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  • CSU and faculty reach surprise tentative agreement, ending massive strike after one day

    CSU and faculty reach surprise tentative agreement, ending massive strike after one day

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    The union representing California State University faculty reached a tentative agreement with the university system late Monday, putting an end to a planned five-day strike after one day.

    “In case anyone forgot, STRIKES WORK! After months of negotiations and two strike actions, our movement for a #betterCSU has paid off!” the union announced on Instagram.

    Faculty are expected to resume teaching Tuesday and students were advised to look for messages from their instructors. The agreement, which must be ratified by union members, includes higher salary floors for the lowest-paid workers, safer workplaces and an expansion of parental leave. In an email to faculty members, union leaders said the agreement includes a 5% salary increase retroactive to July 1, 2023, among other benefits.

    “I am extremely pleased and deeply appreciative that we have reached common ground with CFA that will end the strike immediately,” CSU Chancellor Mildred García said in a statement. “The agreement enables the CSU to fairly compensate its valued, world-class faculty while protecting the university system’s long-term financial sustainability.”

    The unanticipated announcement came after faculty at all 23 campuses of CSU, the nation’s largest four-year university system, staged a massive walkout Monday, the first day of the term for most students.

    While faculty members marched in chilly rain throughout much of the state, students navigated a dizzying mix of instructions: Classes are canceled, classes are temporarily on Zoom, class is in session; assignments are online, assignments are scratched for a week. Official email communication with professors was cut, leaving some unsure if classes were taking place.

    Neither university administrators nor the union had an official tally of the number of shuttered classrooms. But students throughout the system said faculty did not show up to most, if not all, of their classes.

    The university said it did not cancel classes and clarified what it called “misinformation” about the status of instruction.

    “Classes are not canceled. Individual faculty members who decide to strike will cancel their own classes,” a message said Monday. “If students have not heard from their instructor that their class is canceled, they should assume that it is being held as scheduled and go to class.”

    The message said the two sides were “in communication with each other over the weekend” but did not share details.

    The strike by the California Faculty Assn., which represents 29,000 professors, lecturers, counselors, librarians and coaches, culminated months of increasing tension between the union and CSU administration. It was the latest California walkout in higher education and TK-12 school districts as faculty and other workers — many stressed or burned out after the pandemic years — have demanded higher salaries amid escalating costs of living.

    Just over a year ago, about 48,000 University of California academic workers, teaching assistants, researchers and postdoctoral scholars walked out for about five weeks, ultimately winning significant improvements in wages and working conditions. The Los Angeles Unified School District shut down for three days in March 2023, when teachers walked off the job in solidarity with school support staff, who won pay increases. A month later, L.A. teachers agreed to a contract that provides a 21% wage increase over about three years, averting a second strike.

    Union demands

    The CSU faculty union had pushed for an across-the-board, 12% wage increase for the 2023-24 academic year and wanted to raise the minimum salary for full-time faculty to $64,360 from $54,360. The union also sought improvements such as smaller class sizes, gender-inclusive restrooms and a full semester of expanded parental leave.

    The tentative agreement falls short of the full slate of demands. In addition to the retroactive pay, the agreement includes another 5% increase on July 1 that is contingent on state funding. It raises the minimum salary for faculty by $3,000, increases paid parental leave from six to 10 weeks and improves access to gender-inclusive restrooms and lactation spaces, the email said.

    It also extends the current contract, which was slated to end in June, by one year.

    “This historic agreement was won because of members’ solidarity, collective action, bravery, and love for each other and our students,” said Antonio Gallo, an associate vice president of lecturers, in the email. “This is what People Power looks like. This deal immensely improves working conditions for faculty and strengthens learning conditions for students.”

    Scenes on campus

    The one-day strike left CSU campuses nearly empty.

    About a dozen people lingered in the Cal State L.A. student union in the morning, as faculty members in red ponchos picketed outside. The normally crowded campus Starbucks was devoid of customers.

    “Normally the line would be out the door,” said Jordyn O’Connell, a student who works as a barista.

    All of O’Connell’s classes had been canceled because of the strike. The 20-year-old psychology major supported the strike but had been looking forward to resuming classes after the winter break.

    “I’ve been really eager to get back,” she said. “I just hope that we get this figured out. I’m ready to start the semester.”

    For some students, it was not clear which classes were canceled. Moments before heading into the student center at Cal State Fullerton on Monday, Leslie Segundo, an arts major, learned that a professor who had been scheduled to teach one of her classes had moved the start date to next week because of the strike.

    Segundo hadn’t heard from all of her professors and assumed that those who had not emailed her were going to hold classes.

    “I will attend the classes that are available,” said Segundo, who commutes to campus from Orange. “As far as the teachers that are on strike, they haven’t emailed me in clear detail about it. I don’t think I’ve been assigned any readings.”

    Around lunchtime, Karen Carrillo, president of the Associated Students Inc. at Fresno State University, said there wasn’t a typical rush at the campus food court. Three of her five professors canceled classes this week, a move she supported.

    “We are still learning, even if it’s not in the classroom,” Carrillo said. “We’re learning from professors how to lead by example and how to fight for what they believe is right.”

    Michael Lee-Chang, a second-year student at Sacramento State, said the campus looked like a ghost town. A friend sent him a picture of one class in progress; the only people in the room were the student and the professor. Lee-Chang said he feels that most students support the strike.

    Cal State officials had circulated online forms, asking students to report classes that were canceled. Lee-Chang said many were reluctant to “snitch on their faculty, because it’s faculty they know and care about.” Some students were filling in the forms with spam, reporting on the status of fictional classes such as “Evil 101.”

    The rain did not keep Stevie Ruiz, a Cal State Northridge professor in the Chicana and Chicano studies department, from protesting. He said the vast majority of students stayed away from campus. Ruiz added that about half of Northridge’s student body is Latino, and many are the first in their families to attend college.

    “This is a working-class struggle. We’ve been really amazed by the outpouring of support from students. What happens to us affects them,” he said. “They care about us, and we care about them.”

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    Debbie Truong, Gabriel San Román, Howard Blume

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  • Cal State faculty just got a 5% raise. Here's why they're upset.

    Cal State faculty just got a 5% raise. Here's why they're upset.

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    California State University officials are unilaterally raising faculty pay by 5%, rejecting demands for much higher increases and ending contract negotiations with the faculty union, a move that has ramped up labor strife as a systemwide, weeklong walkout approaches.

    The pay hike effective Jan. 31 is far from the 12% increase for the 2023-24 academic year sought by the California Faculty Assn., which represents professors, lecturers, counselors, librarians and coaches. University officials said Tuesday the union’s salary demands were not financially viable and would have resulted in layoffs and other cuts.

    “With this action, we will ensure that well-deserved raises get to our faculty members as soon as possible,” Leora Freedman, vice chancellor for human resources, said in a statement. “We have been in the bargaining process for eight months and the CFA has shown no movement, leaving us no other option.”

    Charles Toombs, president of the California Faculty Assn., lambasted the university’s decision to end contract talks.

    “CSU management expressed nothing but disdain for faculty,” he said in a statement. “CSU management has never taken seriously our proposals for desperately needed equity transformation for CSU students, faculty, and staff.”

    The divide over pay had reached an apex in recent weeks, with faculty staging one-day strikes at four campuses in early December to voice dissatisfaction with the university system’s pay proposals. A weeklong strike is planned at all 23 of the system’s campuses starting Jan. 22, which marks the beginning of the spring semester for most students.

    The CSU and faculty union were engaged in so-called reopener bargaining, in which parts of the existing contract can be negotiated before it expires in June. Bargaining sessions were scheduled for this week, but university leaders imposed their final offer during a session Tuesday, according to the union.

    Toombs said the union, which represents 29,000 workers, had planned to “bargain in good faith” and explore a solution that could avert a strike. Instead, he said, they were met with “disrespect from management.”

    “Management’s imposition gives us no other option but to continue to move forward with our plan for a systemwide strike,” he said.

    Before Tuesday’s session, the sides had reached an impasse, meaning they could not reach an agreement on their own. That triggered a report from an independent fact -finder, who recommended the sides agree to a 7% increase.

    Having exhausted the negotiation process without an agreement, the system was permitted to impose a final offer during bargaining. Faculty members may strike to protest the system’s decision, though the union has not yet said if they will extend the walkout planned for this month beyond a week.

    Throughout negotiations, union leaders have called on the CSU to draw on money from its reserves to pay for increases, accusing the system of “hoarding billions of dollars in reserves instead of investing in faculty and staff.” An Eastern Michigan University professor commissioned by the union to conduct a financial analysis of the CSU found the system is “in very strong financial condition” with “a high level of reserves.”

    But university officials have disputed the union’s findings, contending that they need to maintain the reserves to pay for short-term or emergency expenses. They also said some of the money the union says is part of the university’s reserves cannot be used on salaries.

    “We are committed to paying fair, competitive salaries and benefits for our hard-working faculty members, who are delivering instruction to our students every day and are the cornerstone of our university system,” Freedman said. “But we must also operate within our means to protect the long-term success and stability of the university, our students and our faculty.”

    Freedman noted the 5% raise aligns with increases given to unions representing other CSU workers.

    In addition to across-the-board increases, the union had also sought to raise the salary floor for its lowest-paid workers to $64,360 from $54,360. During the one-day strikes last month, lecturers said they live in financial precarity, with many having to teach classes at multiple campuses or take on debt to pay for basic living expenses.

    The faculty association also sought other improvements, including caps on class sizes, an expansion of paid parental leave to a full semester, accessible lactation rooms, and gender-inclusive restrooms and changing rooms.

    The CSU’s move is unlikely to stem disagreements over pay. With the current contract set to expire in June, both sides will probably begin negotiations over the next contract in the coming weeks or months.

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    Debbie Truong

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  • Vivian Folkenflik, UC Irvine lecturer who taught thousands of students, dies at 83

    Vivian Folkenflik, UC Irvine lecturer who taught thousands of students, dies at 83

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    When Vivian Folkenflik was a professor and lecturer at UC Irvine, she walked into classrooms with pieces of multicolored chalk. She believed that the various hues on the chalkboard would help engage her undergraduate students in complicated ideas.

    “If you have multicolored chalk, you could teach students anything,” John H. Smith, emeritus professor at UC Irvine, recalled her often saying, half in jest.

    For more than 30 years, Folkenflik taught thousands of UC Irvine students a core humanities course that weaved together history, literature and philosophy. She also mentored hundreds more graduate students, lecturers and early-career professors.

    Folkenflik’s life ended suddenly on Oct. 28. She was struck by a pickup truck while she was crossing a street in Montclair, N.J., according to her son, David Folkenflik. She was 83. While confirming his mother’s sudden, tragic death, he spoke of her accomplishments and the legacy she left in academia.

    “She played a truly important role in the growth of the humanities at the campus, and she did it not just through the buildings and the institutions, but the people,” said her son, National Public Radio’s media correspondent. “So many generations of cohorts of undergraduates and graduate students and aspiring professors, and even the full faculty members, were influenced by her insights, coaching and encouragement.

    “Universities can seem like impersonal places at times, but it’s people like Vivian who make them a breathing organism with a beating heart,” he added.

    Vivian Folkenflik was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1940 to a cardiologist and a school librarian who instilled in her a love of museums, music, literature, history, travel and Jackie Robinson.

    After graduating from high school at 16, she attended Radcliffe College in Massachusetts before earning her master’s degree at Cornell University, concentrating on French literature.

    That’s where she met Robert Folkenflik, whom she would marry two years later. They had two children and, in 1975, moved to California, where they made Laguna Beach their home for 45 years.

    In the 1980s, Folkenflik began teaching UC Irvine’s humanities’ core course to undergraduate students. Smith, who was director of the course for some time, said that — in addition to the impact she had on students — Folkenflik helped other instructors who were struggling to teach the complicated curriculum.

    “Vivian was dedicated, absolutely dedicated, to teaching critical thinking,” Smith said.

    But her relationship to her students and the humanities took on a new meaning following the death of her daughter. Nora, 28, was riding her bike in Seattle one night in 1995 when she was struck and killed by a drunk driver, Smith said.

    “She used the material and her students in many ways to get through it … and she showed students that this was not just stuff that they were learning for an exam, but that the humanities offered us the kind of materials that we could use to get us through the difficulties in life,” Smith recalled. For Folkenflik, Homer’s epic poem “The Odyssey” helped her navigate the profound loss.

    When she wasn’t teaching, Folkenflik and her husband loved to travel, watch films, go to concerts, and walk along Reef Point Beach. “But she really loved, loved intellectual pursuits,” said her son, David. “She had a ferocious intellect … and she liked to find ways to connect with people. … To be in a conversation with Vivian is almost to invariably come away amused, made to think, and also affirmed in oneself, and she certainly sought to do that.”

    She retired in 2012 but continued to substitute teach. Following her husband’s death in 2019 after a battle with lymphoma, she moved to New Jersey, where she was closer to family. She passed the time at her grandchildren’s soccer games, dance recitals and drama performances. She wrote poetry and studied the Talmud.

    Folkenflik is survived by son David; daughter-in-law Jesse; sister Judith; and grandchildren Viola, Zella and Eliza.

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    Dorany Pineda

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