Rally at Board of Trustees to Amplify Our Message: Enough is Enough!

CSU management has fostered a deep mistrust among CSU faculty, students, and staff.

Their hidden agendas and lack of accountability have led to skyrocketing student tuition and fees, misallocation of funds, and a total absence of shared governance.

CFA members, Students for Quality Education, and our sibling unions are fed up, and we’re prepared to make our voices heard at the upcoming November CSU Board of Trustees meeting in Long Beach.

Register here and show your support on November 20!

With skyrocketing student tuition and fees, a lack of shared governance, and the misallocation of funds, CSU management continues to impede our ability to offer students a meaningful education.

Not only have they unnecessarily increased student tuition by 34 percent over the next five years, but they’ve also begun raising student fees at a time when the majority of CSU students are experiencing housing and food insecurity. These additional revenues are funneled into large-scale and state-of-the-art infrastructure projects (e.g. luxurious administrative buildings, sports stadiums, dining halls, and student housing) that ultimately divert resources away from real student-driven and learning-focused priorities.

It’s no wonder that the operating budget committed to debt service has increased from $341 to $440 million over the last five years. Instead of directing funds toward instruction, management has chosen to burden students with its own concocted financial strains, condemning them to years of financial debt after they graduate.

“Executive salaries and the expansion of capital projects continue to grow in the CSU, but when it comes to supporting students, faculty, and staff, management toes the line of austerity, time and time again,” said Vang Vang, CFA treasurer and Fresno State librarian.

To make matters worse, the Chancellor’s Office has also taken it upon themselves to silence and intimidate faculty and students who speak out about these concerns and other social justice issues. Through fear and repression, they’ve enacted a statewide interim Time, Place, and Manner policy aimed at controlling and stifling free speech. They claim the policy’s intent is to make campuses safer, but it has only increased police surveillance, heightened repression, and made faculty and students more fearful of retaliation and unjust punishment.

Despite faculty at both Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and CSU Maritime urging administrators for transparency and collaboration on the integration of the two campuses, the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo president stated recently in a town hall that faculty would only be consulted after the plans had already been set in motion.

“Enough is enough. We need to show management that this is the people’s university, and we will fight to keep it that way. Our taxpayer dollars are being squandered, and students’ futures are being stolen as they sink further into debt,” said Diane Blair, CFA secretary and Fresno State professor.

This is most evident in Chancellor Garcia’s new plan to revise the Graduation Initiative, which uses higher education merely as a means of escaping poverty and landing “good-paying jobs.” What the Chancellor has done, and continues to do, is deepen the problems that she creates for our students.

By framing education as a mere tool for financial gain, we are encouraging students to only value education when it pays the bills. As a result, the worth of education is reduced to a financial equation, a means to securing a slightly better position in the labor force. This approach undermines a liberal arts education, which continues to erode under the pressures of financializing and corporatizing the CSU.

If Garcia succeeds, faculty will continue to face layoffs and substandard working conditions, and students will question why they’ve taken on debilitating debt to be here.

We must hold Garcia accountable. We must hold the CSU Board of Trustees accountable for prioritizing their lenders on Wall Street rather than the communities that make up the CSU on each of our campuses. We will, as we have always done, continue to promote a safe and inclusive working and learning environment for those who should be at the heart of the university: the students, faculty, and staff.

Please join us on November 20 to make our voices heard and to liberate the CSU.