The main faculty union at California State University today narrowly approved an unpaid furlough of two days per month, avoiding a new round of layoffs of thousands of part-time faculty members and cementing the system’s plan to close a $584-million budget deficit.
The California Faculty Association’s approval of the furloughs is a victory for Chancellor Charles B. Reed, who had warned of thousands of additional layoffs had the furlough proposal failed. About 54 percent of the union’s members voted to approve the furlough plan, while 46 percent voted no.
But in a sign of deep anger among faculty members about the direction of the nation’s largest public university system, the union also overwhelmingly approved a no-confidence vote in the chancellor, 79 percent to 4 percent. The union’s president said today the vote was a signal that Mr. Reed should resign.
“There was strong agreement that they want Chancellor Reed and the trustees to fight for public funding for CSU,” said the president, Lillian Taiz. “The vote of no confidence in his leadership is a serious and damning indication that the faculty do not believe that will happen.”
California’s budget crisis has reopened longstanding divisions between Cal State’s leadership and the faculty union, which represents 23,000 professors, lecturers, and others out of the university’s 45,000 employees.
Last month the faculty union accused the chancellor of “pre-recession management policies” and “self-interested leadership” for not fighting hard enough against deep cuts in state support. Union officials also criticized Mr. Reed during negotiations over the furlough plan for his unwillingness to guarantee that the plan would prevent future faculty layoffs.
A statement today from Cal State praised the furlough vote. In a separate statement, a spokeswoman for Mr. Reed noted that the union members who voted on the no-confidence measure represented “a fraction of our overall faculty.” The “faculty’s frustration should be directed toward policy makers in Sacramento,” the statement said.
Mr. Reed has said the furlough plan is necessary help the system quickly meet a huge deficit, which stems from a 20-percent reduction in state support. In addition to the furlough, Cal State will raise its tuition by 20 percent, cut campus budgets by a total of $190-million, and reduce its enrollment by 40,000 students by the end of the 2010-11 academic year.
