Report Backs Teachers’ Salary Demands

California State University faculty members should receive the five percent raise they’ve been asking for more than one year, according to a report released Monday.

The fact-finding report took about two months to complete and was presented to the California Faculty Association and the California State University Chancellor’s office 10 days ago, said Marcia Marx, president of the faculty association chapter at Cal State San Bernardino.

The report, which was conducted by one person who was approved by both sides, was made public after it failed to produce further contract negotiations, Marx said.

“We have not had a serous raise since 2007, and the report makes it clear that is not acceptable,” said Marx, a sociology instructor at Cal State San Bernardino and a faculty member there for 21 years. “We’ve had little one and two percent raises, but those haven’t even kept up with the cost of living.”

The faculty association, which represents approximately 25,000 professors, instructors, coaches, librarians and other academic professionals, is planning a five-day strike that will start April 13, Marx said.

But the report also stated that the requested salary hike would cost the Cal State system $70 million, and that the money to pay for it would have to come from “commitments made to unspecified programs,” the Cal State Chancellor’s office noted in a posting on its website.