President's Message

Dear Colleague,

On behalf of the more than 29,000 faculty members represented by the California Faculty Association, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the California State University, the largest four-year public university system in the nation.

We are fortunate to have collective bargaining rights guaranteed by law. For nearly 40 years, CFA has served as the faculty’s elected representative for employment matters with the CSU administration. CFA is a state and national leader and advocate in the higher education labor movement and its members and leaders serve on many boards and are active in many higher education academic associations.

CFA Bargaining Unit 3 includes tenured and tenure-track faculty (including department chairs and directors), lecturer faculty, counselor faculty, librarian faculty, and coach faculty at the 23 CSU campuses. Join your colleagues and become a member of CFA.

Winning For Faculty

Our diligent work over the last academic year to protect, expand, and enforce faculty rights guaranteed under our Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is a powerful example of how CFA work is centered on assisting and supporting faculty in your careers in the CSU, including improving our working conditions.

Our most recent reopener bargaining gains were ratified in Spring 2024 after one-day strikes on four campuses in December 2023 and one-day of a planned weeklong strike in January 2024. That hard-fought agreement offers a vision for the CSU rooted in our anti-racism and social justice principles, including safety on campus, adequate and humane paid parental leave, gender inclusive restrooms, and wages that respect the work faculty perform to make the CSU a premier site of student success and faculty achievement. Our bargaining wins raised the salary floor for the most precarious and vulnerable faculty, among other gains.  

With CFA, faculty have a powerful voice to shape working conditions through bargaining and mobilizing for a strong contract. Bargaining for a new contract will begin in Spring 2025. Please look for a bargaining survey this fall where you can offer your input on ideas for the next contract.

CFA members always advocate for a system-wide budget to support the best learning conditions for students, Title IX enforcement, dismantling systemic inequity and oppression at every level of campus life, and combatting anti-Blackness in the CSU system. Protecting our Academic Freedom rights, producing a series of Equity Papers addressing various areas of inequity and challenge for students and faculty in the CSU, and demanding that the Chancellor’s Office and Board of Trustees be accountable and responsible to the current generation of students and faculty are examples of work that will guide our efforts during the 2024-25 Academic Year.

We are invested in helping our newest colleagues establish successful careers in the CSU. We hope you will become familiar with the faculty contract, which can be found at calfac.org/contract. Our CBA serves the interests of faculty and our students, as we know faculty working conditions are also student learning conditions.

We Are Stronger Together

Our union is at its strongest when members attend meetings, volunteer, and serve as elected union leaders. We invite you to work directly with your CFA chapter to get involved in the bargaining campaign along with anti-racism and social justice work on campus. 

It takes all of us working together to win outstanding contracts, enforce our rights, and enjoy our hard-fought protections.

Sign Up for CFA Membership and Join our Fight for a Better CSU!

So, how can you help?

First and foremost, please join your colleagues and become a member of CFA.

By joining CFA now, you are sending an important message to management about our commitment to winning at the bargaining table, protecting our professional role as faculty in the CSU, and enhancing the quality of education our students receive. We need to show strength now for full contract bargaining in 2025. 

CFA member dues support our essential work, like contract bargaining and faculty rights. Every new member ensures we represent faculty sentiment on faculty rights, retirement, pay, and working conditions. Our efforts also include organizing to secure state funding for the CSU and sponsoring legislation that provides the best learning and working conditions.

Join us in helping to ensure the future of your campus, the CSU, and public higher education – go to calfac.org/join-CFA to complete a membership form.

To find out more about your campus chapter and how to connect with your chapter colleagues, visit calfac.org/cfa-chapters.

Once again, we extend our warmest welcome to you. We are pleased to have you as a new colleague and are committed to supporting your work in the university. I look forward to meeting you in person and/or virtually during this academic year.

In union,

Charles Toombs,
CFA President
Professor of Africana Studies
San Diego State University