CFA San José
Chapter
Get in Touch
Chapter Information
Chapter President: Ray Buyco
Lecturer Representative: Alicia Henderson
Faculty Rights Chair: Janet Stemwedel
Field Representative: Shamako Noble
Click here for Executive Board
Click here for San Jose State
Click here for CFA SJSU Page
Become A CFA Member
Join thousands of tenure-track faculty, lecturers, counselors, librarians, and coaches to protect academic freedom, faculty rights, safe workplaces, student learning, fair pay, nand fight for racial and social justice.
Chapter Calendar
Follow your chapter’s upcoming events with its google calendar.
The CFA Disaster Relief Fund FAQ can be found here: CFA Disaster Relief Fund FAQ.pdf
Please note that for the Los Angeles fires occurring in January 2025, eligibility is being extended to:
- All CFA active members including anyone who signed up for membership before the start of the fires.
- CFA’s SQE Interns
- CFA’s Chapter Office Managers
CFA full-time staff are also eligible for CFA’s Disaster Relief Fund. The process for submission is the same for all.
All applications are reviewed for membership and eligibility.
For any questions please email me, Parvinder, or membership@calfac.org.
Chapter Contacts Cont.
Connect with your CFA team!
Janet Stemwedel
Vice President & Faculty Rights Committee Chair
Vacant
College of education – tenured track
Abe Wolcott
College of Science – tenured track
Vacant
College of engineering – tenured track
Vacant
College of health and human sciences – tenured track
Megan Gorman-DaRif
College of humanities and the arts – tenured track
Julia Curry
College of social sciences – tenured track
Vacant
College of coaches
Carli Lowe
College of library
Janet Kitajima
College of education – lecturer
Vacant
College of Science – lecturer
Vacant
College of engineering – lecturer
Vacant
College of health and human sciences – lecturer
Vacant
College of humanities and the arts – lecturer
Jennifer Morrison
College of social sciences – lecturer
Vacant
College of counseling
We are calling for more volunteers to help support our committees including: Faculty Rights, Membership & Organizing, Communications, Political Action, Bylaws, Outreach, and general event support. Please fill out this form to express you interest or reach out directly to a committee chair.
CFA SJSU Chapter News
- 2/10 CFA-SJSU Update: Fighting Forward: Sonoma State, Workshops and Opportunities for Service
- 2/3 CFA-SJSU Update: Save Sonoma State/First E-Board Meeting Tuesday 2/4, 12:00-1:30 pm
- 1/29 CFA-SJSU Announcement: Support Sonoma State
- 1/27 CFA-SJSU Update: Welcome (again) to Spring Semester!
- 1/23 CFA-SJSU Update: Welcome to Spring Semester!
- 12/9 CFA-SJSU Update: CFA Holiday Party; Request for Faculty Meeting Dates; Lecturer Council Vote
- 12/2 CFA-SJSU Update: Last E-Board Meeting of 2024; Results of Bargaining Representative Election; CFA Holiday Party; Request for Faculty Meeting Date
- 11/21 CFA-SJSU Membership Announcement: General Membership Meeting Nov 26 12-1:30pm MLK 225
- 11/11 CFA-SJSU Update: Bargaining Survey; Academic Senate Referendum; Membership Drive November 12th-13th; Lecturer Council Vote; General Membership Meeting
- 10/29 CFA-SJSU Update: Bargaining Survey; Lecturer Council on October 30th; U.S. Election Day is November 5th – VOTE!
- 10/21 CFA-SJSU Update: Bargaining Survey; Academic Senate Referenda Forthcoming; Lecturer Council on October 30th; U.S. Election Day is November 5th – VOTE!
- 10/14 CFA-SJSU Update: Next E-Board Meeting on October 15th; Bargaining Survey; Academic Senate Referenda Forthcoming
- 10/7 CFA-SJSU Update: Bargaining Survey; Second Unionwide TPM Town Hall
- 9/23 CFA-SJSU Update: Lecturer Nuts-n-Bolts; Lecturer Council; Newsletter Archive
- 9/16 CFA-SJSU Update: Next E-Board Meeting; Tabling at SJSU Votes Festival; Lecturer Nuts-n-Bolts Workshops; CFA Statewide TPM Town Hall; Lecturer Council Meeting
- 9/9 CFA-SJSU Update: Range Elevation Workshops; TPM Policy Changes
- 9/3 CFA-SJSU Update: First E-Board Meeting of the Semester; Range Elevation Workshops
Students for Quality Education
A student organizing body fighting for educational rights in collaboration with CFA.
Students for Quality Education (SQE) was formed in 2007-2008 by students in the California State University system to build the student movement for educational rights in public higher education. We were assisted in our efforts by the California Faculty Association (CFA). (Read more)
Campaigns/focuses:
- For the CSU to implement proactive and accessible decision making and funding transparency through policy led by students, faculty, and staff and with disclosure of all CSU investments
- Get gubernatorial candidates to commit to focusing on the CFA Master Plan or Higher Education and to have it part of their public platform for the 2026 gubernatorial election
- For the CSU to divest from occupation, the military industrial complex and policing and to reinvest in education and its own students/faculty/and staff
Membership & Organizing
The Membership & Organizing (M&O) Committee focuses on outreach, building connections, and uniting members of the CFA SJSU Chapter. They lead communication and strategy efforts through College and Department Representatives to keep members informed and engaged.
Article IX. Campus Representatives (CFA Bylaws)
Section 1. College & General Unit Representatives
A. College and General Unit (Librarians, Coaches, Counselors) Representatives Represent the members of their college or unit within CFA Chapter. They are critical to communications in the CFA membership.They shall represent the interest of their units in the Executive Board as described in Article VI.
B. Duties: College and General Unit Representatives are members of the Membership and Organizing Committee and are expected to attend M&O meetings. They are expected to be the lead organizers in their unit by regularly interacting with and helping department representatives recruit and communicate with members. Librarians, counselors and coaches are expected to directly engage with their units regarding organizing, communication, and recruitment. College and General Unit Representatives are also voting members of the Executive Board.
C. Terms of Office: College and General Unit Representatives serve two years, being elected in odd-numbered years through at-large election by the membership.
D. Interim Appointments of College and General Unit Representatives: If an elected college or general unit representative must leave their position before their two-year term ends, there will be a process of appointment within the Executive Board, with an Executive Board member nominating an interim replacement, and a simple majority of the Board voting to confirm the interim officer.
Section 2. Department Representatives
A. Department Representatives: Represent Academic Departments within CFA Chapter. They are critical to communications in the CFA membership. They shall represent the interest of their departments in the Executive Board as described in Article VI.
B. Duties of Department Representatives: Department Representatives are the primary CFA contact persons within each Department. These representatives will be asked to help in the solicitation of viewpoints on critical issues from the faculty, to help in the distribution of information to the faculty, and to serve as the primary contact for faculty regarding contract negotiations and other union issues. Department representatives are encouraged to attend meetings called by their College Representatives.
C. Appointment of Department Representatives: Departments determine the selection or election of these representatives. In addition, the M&O Committee, in conjunction with departments, can also appoint department representatives if there is a vacancy. While departments are encouraged to have at least two representatives (preferably one tenure/tenure-track and one lecturer), departments may choose to have additional representatives.
Faculty Rights
Please review the grievance forms and contact your CFA chapter office with any questions you may have about filing a grievance and further assistance.
Faculty Rights Chair-Janet Stemwedel
Faculty Rights Committee – Deanna Fassett
Chapter President – Ray Buyco
San Jose State Field Representative – Shamako Noble
CFA will help, but it is necessary that you choose the track, sign the grievance, file it on time and with the appropriate administrator, and provide the information necessary to understand and pursue a resolution of your problem.
These forms and resources will be helpful for anyone facing a grievance situation.
- Campus CFA Chapter Faculty Rights Representatives
- Lecturers’ Handbook
- Coaches Handbook
- Counselors Handbook
- Grievance Flow Chart
- Statutory Hearing Manual
- CFA Representation Policy
- EP&R 76-36: Faculty Workload Policies and Procedures This 1976 document is still relevant to faculty employment in the CSU today.
- App for Reporting Police Misconduct
- Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act (HEERA)
- Unfair Practice Charge Information
- Employment Law fact sheets – click on “Employment”(these cover non-labor law topics like discrimination, family leave, unemployment benefits, etc.)
- Discrimination: While the Collective Bargaining Agreement has an anti-discrimination provision in Article 16, faculty are protected by federal and state laws. For more information, go to California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Also see:
- Interim CSU Nondiscrimination Policy, the CSU’s “Systemwide Policy Prohibiting Discrimination, Harassment, Retaliation, Sexual Misconduct, Dating and Domestic Violence, and Stalking against Employees and Third Parties and Systemwide Procedure for Addressing Such Complaints by Employees and Third Parties.”
Do you want to support Faculty fighting for rights, justice and equity? Are you interested in or skilled in reading, interpreting and applying policy? Then consider joining our Faculty Rights Committee!!!
How much work would this be?
We’re working to build out the committee in order to make sure that none of its members need to take on a heavy burden, and to refine our mechanisms to ensure that collectively we’re staying on top of faculty requests for help, sharing essential information, and refining our strategies together. I can’t convert that to a firm hours/week ceiling, but I’m hopeful that it will end up averaging a few hours per week at most, and less than that most weeks.
What kind of work would this be?
The work of the FRC includes activities like:
-Helping other faculty members file grievances when they feel that they have been harmed by a violation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) or of University policy
-Helping other faculty members to mount arguments for more equitable pay
-Helping other faculty members to frame rebuttals to RTP or other evaluations — or to craft their narratives for such evaluations in the context of the policies that are supposed to guide these evaluations
-Helping other faculty members (such as department chairs) understand the CBA and/or University policy to avoid accidentally creating grievable situations
Generally, this is work aimed at making our University function more fairly for the Unit 3 faculty it employs — whether or not those faculty are CFA members. A lot of it is one-on-one work, but if you enjoy giving workshops, there’s an opportunity to do some of that. Some of the work of the FRC is oriented around understanding the rules, but some of it is oriented around persuading the University to treat compliance with the CBA and policy as a floor, rather than a ceiling.
In addition to regular check-ins the rest of the campus FRC, our CFA Field Rep and the CFA statewide Faculty Rights folks will be a resource to help you learn how to do this important work.
I hope you’ll consider this invitation (and maybe even suggest a colleague or two you think might also be interested). Please don’t hesitate to ask me any questions whose answers might make a difference to your decision!
Best,
Janet D. Stemwedel – Chair, Faculty Rights Committee (facrightschair.sj@calfac.org)
Shamako Noble – CFA SJSU Field Rep (snoble@calfac.org)
Campaigns and Issues
Austerity Cuts/Workload Campaigns
Academic Freedom and Shared Governance
CAPS not COPS
CALGET-C
Budget and Debt Campaign: Public University Education
Anti Racism and Social Justice
As a social justice union representing faculty in the California State University System, we are dedicated to anti-racism and social justice. We purposefully center and extend our anti-racism social justice work to address the structural racism that shapes our society and the CSU. Please refer to the CFA resources relevant to Anti Racism principles and reforms found HERE.
Lecturers’ Information
Feb. 11 – 12:00 pm – 1:15 pm Nuts N Bolts
https://sjsu.zoom.us/my/ahenderson?omn=84796973542
Feb 13 – 4:00 pm – 5:15 pm Nuts N Bolts
Political Work
Support Sonoma in their petition against faculty, staff, and support program cuts. Sign Here!
Updates Coming Soon…
- Immigration:
- CFA Immigration Task Force:
- https://www.calfac.org/resources/cfa-immigration-task-force/
Coming Soon…
Community
I. Working Partnerships
Join California Faculty Association
Join thousands of instructional faculty, librarians, counselors, and coaches to protect academic freedom, faculty rights, safe workplaces, higher education, student learning, and fight for racial and social justice.