September-October 2000

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Faculty Union Looks at Higher Education in California

What can faculty members do if they find themselves teaching in a troubled university system? According to the California Faculty Association (CFA), they can let people know about their problems. The CFA, an affiliate of the AAUP, is the collective bargaining representative for faculty in the California State University system.

Following union elections last year, new CFA officers, headed by president Susan Meisenhelder, an English professor at the university’s San Bernardino campus, initiated a series of public hearings. Faculty members, students, elected officials, higher education experts, and labor and business leaders have testified at these hearings about the role of the comprehensive public university in California and about ways to restore and preserve the quality of education it provides.

Meisenhelder sees the hearings as a chance for "faculty to present a vision of the university that contrasts with that of the corporate university. . . . The project will permit us to move from what often appears a defensive position on key issues and will give us the initiative, based on sound principles, on the campuses, in the legislature, and among opinion makers in the state."

The first hearing took place at San Jose State University on March 14. More than two hundred people showed up to hear testimony from speakers, including presidential candidate Ralph Nader, AAUP general secretary Mary Burgan, and historian David Noble, author of Digital Diploma Mills.

In her presentation, Burgan suggested ways faculty can counter the solutions of "pedagogical gurus" to problems in higher education. "To get the culture to afford real student learning," she said, "we have to do what you’re doing here, which is to talk about learning, to articulate our thoughts, to write about them, and to take them to the state legislature so they can be supported."

Nader, the keynote speaker, applauded the CFA for its efforts, saying, "When a faculty union pioneers, the way you’re beginning to pioneer, you’re entitled to ask others . . . how we are going to help. And the answer to that is that we are going to pay considerably more attention to the corporatization of universities in our circle of citizen groups."

The hearings will continue through the fall and culminate in a statewide conference to chart a future for the CSU. For additional information and transcripts of testimony, visit the CFA Web site <www.calfac.org>.