CFA-LA Faculty August Town Hall Meeting
Thursday, August 22 from 4:00-5:30 PM (Hybrid)
Dear Faculty Colleagues,
We hope you’ve had an opportunity to find some rest and relaxation this summer. Although there are still a couple of weeks until the official start of Fall 2024, we are reaching out to you with an important matter that requires our attention and collective action. As you may already be aware, on July 18, 2024, President Eanes announced a staggering $32.4 million deficit, attributing it to a decline in student enrollment, employee raises, and outstanding campus expenses. The austere financial situation has resulted in significant cuts to classes and the loss of work for hundreds of Lecturer faculty, which will lead to increased workload for the remaining faculty, and the potential disruption of support for our students.
While President Eanes has called for conversations regarding future actions, it is important to recognize that her administration has already bypassed shared governance by imposing draconian cuts on colleges and departments. This summer, department chairs across campus have been forced to cut 12-15% of their course offerings resulting in the loss of work for hundreds of Lecturers and in some departments faculty have had their class sizes increased. However, there were no conversations with faculty about ways to address the looming deficit before administrators made the cuts.
Last semester, Interim Provost Bippus initially imposed a round of budget cuts, which appeared to have the harshest impact on the Colleges of Arts & Letters and Natural & Social Sciences. Throughout Spring 2024, CFA-LA and the Chairs Caucus vigorously opposed the impending cuts to Lecturer faculty and engaged in extensive dialogue with university leadership, including deans, AVPs of Faculty Affairs, and the President, to express our concerns. We emphasized the devastating impact of these cuts on academic programs, research, and curriculum integrity. In addition, we collected hundreds of signatures from Cal State LA faculty members calling upon administrators to reduce class sizes to enhance educational quality while preserving jobs.
In April 2024, Interim Provost Bippus announced in the Academic Senate that the cuts had been reversed and most departments were able to reinstate the courses they initially lost. At that time, it appeared that prospects of budget cuts were behind us. So, the fact that administrators waited until the middle of summer to reimpose course cuts on a much larger scale, demonstrates that they have little interest in having productive conversations with faculty, let alone allowing us to take part in decision-making.
We have several questions for President Eanes concerning the budget shortfall:
First, why is the campus expected to pay for the raises in 2023-2024, when the Chancellor originally suggested that the 5% raises were directly tied to the compact money coming from the Governor?
Second, how did the amount of total compensation balloon from $11,000,000 announced earlier this summer to $25,125,000 in the President’s July 18 memo?
Third, has Cal State LA tapped its reserves to cover some of the deficit? We know that the CSU has over $8 billion in reserves that it should use before people lose work.
Finally, will the President be transparent about the specific cost of commencement and other unpaid campus projects?
Faculty must be actively involved in shaping the future of our campus, especially during times of austerity. It is crucial that CFA and Academic Senate come together as a united front to advocate for genuine shared governance, rather than receiving details about administrative plans after the fact. By collaborating, we can ensure that our voices are heard and that our contribution to decision-making regarding resource allocation – crucial to the success of both faculty and students – is genuinely considered. Through our collective expertise, insights, and commitment, we can navigate these challenges and foster an environment of trust and respect.
To address the impending cuts, we are calling a hybrid Faculty Town Hall Meeting Against Austerity Measures on Thursday, August 22, 2024, from 4:00-5:30 PM. The in-person campus location for the meeting will be announced with a hybrid option, but you can register here to attend.
It is vital that we organize against these austerity measures, so we can send a powerful message to the administration that our students and faculty colleagues deserve better.
In Solidarity,
CFA-LA Executive Board
