A Strike Is Coming to the Nation’s Largest Public University System
The California Faculty Association is calling for a weeklong strike at the largest public university system in the United States to fight against cuts and preserve a vital public good.
California Faculty Association members picket on Wednesday, December 6, 2023. (Brittany Murray / MediaNews Group / Long Beach Press-Telegram via Getty Images)
For over a decade, the administration at California State University (CSU) has been disinvesting in the United States’ largest public university system. The result has been the destruction of the institution’s academic integrity and the undermining of its basic goal: to serve the public good. Thankfully, a formidable opposition is growing among the faculty.
This came to a head when, after a recent breakdown in negotiations with CSU management, the California Faculty Association (CFA) pledged to strike at all twenty-three campuses beginning this Monday, January 22. The twenty-nine thousand striking teachers are officially walking out over a bargaining impasse, but the conflict has roots far deeper than the recent breakdown in negotiations.
Buildup to a Strike
Once a promising statewide public university system designed to provide tuition-free education to California’s working class, the CSU has degenerated into a corporatized behemoth that mocks the democratic values upon which it was founded. Students drown in debt to pay never-ending fee increases, professors scrape by on salaries smaller than those of preschool teachers, while unaccountable administrators rake in six-figure salaries and fringe benefits like free cars and homes.
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