Our Way Forward

CFA demands a seat at the table when deciding how to manage and move past COVID-19 to maintain faculty rights; defend access and equity, safety and appropriate instruction for our students; and defend our union.

Last week, CFA released its full guidelines for the CSU for the upcoming term, “Our Way Forward: A Union Guideline for Fall 2020 and Beyond.”

CFA initially released its long-term plan to defend quality higher education on May 1 called Our Way Forward. Two weeks later, the union released an additional list of demands that faculty be provided with safe, healthy, and clean facilities; that they have the necessary technology and equipment; that their workload be reasonable and manageable; and that they be free from retribution or retaliation for exercising their rights. It previewed the full guidelines released last week.

You can read our guidelines here.

Highlights of the document include:

1. Sanitization is essential. All areas of campus used for in-person instruction must be cleaned and sanitized on a regular schedule, and in between each use. Physical distance and PPE guidelines must be followed.
2. Importance of mental health counselors during this crisis. The time to hire additional mental health counselors is now. CFA demands that the CSU meet the International Accreditation of Counseling Services (IACS) standard of 1,500 students to one counselor.
3. Protecting coaches and student athletes. This health crisis should not be used as an excuse for CSU leadership to eliminate any individual sport, and coaches should be retained for similar assignments as outlined in the contract rather than suffer a loss of work. No athletic programs should be eliminated, coaches must be consulted on all major decisions affecting their programs and positions, and student athletes must retain their scholarships.
4. Access and equity are core values. We must lift up our most vulnerable students and faculty. Teaching in virtual modes requires specific technological needs: all faculty should have access to what they need to do their jobs, including but not limited to mobile computing, software updates, electronic document transmission, and sufficient internet access. 
5. No militarization of police or racial profiling of our faculty and students. Trainings should be in place to assure that there is no militarization of police or racial profiling of our faculty and students. It must be mandated that university police departments be provided COVID-19 bias trainings to ensure that there is no racial profiling of our faculty, students, or staff.

CFA officers wrote last week that “we owe getting this moment right to ourselves and to our students. In planning for the recovery, we need faculty to be involved, too.”

CFA wants to encourage members to connect with their local chapter to join CFA’s efforts in the rebuilding that we all must engage in. If you are not a member, CFA invites you to join our union.