Administrative greed prohibits CSU students from graduating in four years | Opinion

In recent weeks, drama has escalated on university campuses throughout California as faculty and students join forces against administrators who seem to forget they are public servants, paid by tax dollars to protect higher education for students from low-income and working-class families. Instead, CSU leaders pay themselves top 1% salaries, while faculty languish on low-income wages and tuition skyrockets for students who already struggle to make ends meet. On top of that, hundreds of course offerings are being slashed, threatening to close entire departments.

So, we are fighting — fighting for fair wages, fair tuition and for students to get the education they deserve. Last week, 95% of CSU’s faculty union, the California Faculty Association, voted to authorize a strike unless a satisfactory contract deal can be reached.

We have been in labor negotiations since July, and the recently announced 34% tuition hike is supposedly to pay fair salaries. But the CSU hasn’t offered those salaries. Instead, they counter union demands with massive cuts that threaten to undermine the very purpose and promise of our state universities.

At San Francisco State University, where I’ve taught since 2012, 650 course cuts have been announced, including dozens of general education courses students need to progress with their degrees and major course requirements students need to graduate. In short, students are now being asked to pay an outrageous tuition increase they cannot afford for a degree they won’t be able to get in four years.

The CSU blames the tuition hike on a lack of funds and low enrollment, but those are both lies. Just as they have concealed money in the past, trustees again withhold funds. And I’m not talking about pennies: the CSU has $3.7 billion in reserves and an additional $8.6 billion in cash sitting in investment accounts.

Even with the atrocious business model they’ve decided to pursue in public education, students are CSU’s customers and faculty are our product. CSU trustees could meet all of our demands — keep tuition low, keep course offerings and keep classes small — and still have billions in their coffers. Why won’t they part with the money? In 2019, then-CSU Chancellor Timothy White said they needed $3 billion in reserves to guarantee that the system could weather unpredictable storms, and they have four-times that amount now.

For whose gain? I wonder.

Moreover, the enrollment “crisis” is not what they claim. At SF State, one of the most affected campuses, enrollments have decreased by 6% since last year. Yet, in my department, as much as 70% of required general education courses are being cut. These cuts, in addition to undermining student success, will effectively lay off more than 300 faculty who’ve been teaching at the university for decades — faculty whose families depend on their meager salaries and benefits. A full-time lecturer is lucky to earn $60K per year.

Despite these significant course cutes, not a single management position has been affected. Current CSU Chancellor Mildred García’s own compensation has grown to a whopping $971,000. Likewise, in 2022, CSU presidents received salary increases up to 29%. President Jeffrey Armstrong of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo earned $509,336 this year, with housing provided. President Lynn Mahoney of SF State University earned $463,585, plus another $60,000 for housing.

In her interview with Gator Xpress, SF State’s student newspaper, Mahoney said her number one goal is to increase retention and graduation rates, and to retain students of color. Yet, everything she is doing now is well-known to have the opposite effect: increasing class-sizes, reducing course-offerings and increasing tuition. She has the audacity to say students do better with permanent faculty as she lays off hundreds of would-be permanent lecturers who specialize in retention and first year experience, trying to replace them with professors who readily admit they are untrained and unprepared for those courses.

Most attrition occurs during a student’s first year of college. As for prioritizing students of color, Kris Bekele, an ethnic studies major, summed it up at a recent town hall, saying she feels “touted around like a prize-winning dog” so executives can gloat about fake progress while snatching away very real opportunities.

If Mahoney cared about our students, she would press CSU to dig into their deep pockets to support them.

This story was originally published November 2, 2023 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Administrative greed prohibits CSU students from graduating in four years | Opinion."