The California Faculty Association made the decision of a five day strike that would be starting Jan. 22 and it planned to end on Jan. 26.
Professors around 23 Cal State University campuses were canceling classes for the week and students were told that they would have to cross picket lines to attend any classes.
Due to the strike students planned on having the extra week off but by Monday night the strike was called off because a tentative deal was made.
The tentative deal that they arranged does not seem like very much of a deal. A 5% increase was agreed to for this year and another 5% for the next year, for the lowest paid faculty they will have an increase in their pay as well.
Maternity leave was increased from 6 weeks to 10 weeks which is very short since it is still shy of a full semester. Parents should have more than 10 weeks to spend time with their families after the arrival of a new child.
If the CSU system can increase tuition costs by 34% over a five-year period then why can’t they pay faculty more? Many students and faculty express their concerns around the tuition increase, students fear they will no longer be able to attend college and faculty worries that this will be a huge hit for the education system in California.
A huge part of the strike was surrounding the lack of student mental health services, this was not mentioned the night they made the tentative deal.
Faculty ended their strike with what they wanted and students of the CSU system still remain without increased mental health resources.
The strike should have continued on for the rest of the week because students deserve to have more resources for their mental health since they are paying so much money to attend these schools.
Tuition is still going to be increasing which horribly affects students that are already attending a CSU or students that are planning to.
The CSU chancellor, Mildred Garcia, makes over half a million dollars each year.
A large number of students have never met her or do not know who she is, while the faculty on all CSU campuses interact with students daily, teach all day, bring work home with them to grade and commit their lives to educating the future generations.
The faculty that is doing all of the hard work deserves more than what they got out of this deal. All over the U.S. teachers speak out against the unfair pay they receive, the CSU strike that took place on Jan. 22 was one of the largest university strikes thats taken place in the U.S.
In response to the agreement Mildred Garcia stated she is appreciative of the common ground that met to end the strike.
“I am extremely pleased and deeply appreciative that we have reached common ground with CFA that will end the strike immediately,” 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.”
