Bella Slosberg is a journalism senior at Cal Poly. The views expressed in this letter do not necessarily reflect those of Mustang News.
Sometimes I find myself staring at a blank screen hoping that I’ll be able to find words strong enough to encapsulate the message I want to convey. Today was one of those days.
After a few hours of attempting to jot down everything I wanted to say to my professors but never fully succeeding, I clicked the blue send arrow in the corner of my outlook window.
A summary of my email is written below:
“To all my professors who have continuously gone above and beyond; I’m sorry that you have to go through such extreme measures to advocate for yourself and the value of your work, but I’m inspired by your bravery to stand up for what you deserve as faculty and for what we deserve as students. I can’t imagine how hard this must be, but I hope you know that I support you, value you, appreciate you, and will be standing beside you at the picket line.”
While some people are educated on the strike, other students seem to be viewing it as an exciting opportunity for a multi day weekend and seem to lack knowledge of what faculty are truly asking for. For those of you in that position, I highly encourage you to take a moment to educate yourself on the matter at hand and to step back to view it from a lens that focuses on more than just yourself.
Below is an excerpt from the CFA explaining the scope of what they are asking for:
“We are bargaining to increase salaries by 12% for ALL faculty, and ensuring pay equity by raising the salary floor for the lowest-paid faculty in Range A by $10,000, which will increase the minimum full-time academic year base salary to be no less than $64,360, and in Range B by $5,000, which will increase the minimum full-time academic year base salary to no less than $69,860 (this moves everyone in those ranges upwards and applies to corresponding coach, counselor, and librarian classifications, and tenure-track professors). We are bargaining to implement minimum course cap standards to address workload creep, and to set counselor-to-student staffing ratios at 1:1,000 to 1:1,500 to improve student access to mental health services. We want to improve campus safety and community wellbeing, particularly for marginalized faculty, students, and staff, by limiting the imposition of police power, which includes ending the practice of dispatching police on faculty unless required by law; as well as to provide CSU employees with the opportunity for union representation or legal counsel when being interviewed by campus police and the dignity of being interviewed in a private location with officers who are unarmed. We want to provide safe gender-inclusive restrooms and changing rooms for queer and transgender faculty as well as designated lactation spaces and milk storage for nursing parents on all campuses. We want to expand paid parental leave from 30 days to one semester/term.”
The strike is about far more than just money, and faculty are asking for a variety of things that will directly impact our experiences as students.
Their working conditions are our learning conditions, and the CFA is working to improve both.
Beyond thinking about what the strike is asking for, I encourage you to take a moment to think about the emotional impact it could be having on our professors and other CSU faculty, along with what many faculty members are sacrificing to be a part of the strike.
My professors have made it clear that teaching is important to them and that we are important to them, and some of my professors have even apologized for the potential impact the strike could have on our learning.
I haven’t met a single faculty member that wants to be going on strike. However, the fact that 95% of the CFA Union voted in favor of the strike knowing the effect it could potentially have on students and the fact that they will lose a week’s worth of pay proves to me the importance of the situation.
All but one of my professors will be striking next week and during an in class discussion about the strike, I asked my professor her reasoning behind her choice not to strike. She let us know that the chance of a week without pay is not a risk she can take for her family currently and that she would be participating in the strike if money was not a factor.
Cal Poly professors come to Cal Poly to teach and don’t want to feel as if striking is the only way to prove that their work is worth a 12% raise, gender neutral bathrooms, lactation rooms, etc.
And so to conclude; to my professors who go above and beyond and CSU faculty as a whole, I’m sorry that you have to go through such extreme measures to advocate for yourself and the value of your work, but I’m inspired by your bravery to stand up for what you deserve as faculty and for what we deserve as students.
To all faculty members regardless of your stance on the strike I hope you know that I support you, value you, and appreciate you.
To students, I hope my opinions have opened your eyes to another perspective on the topic. Whether or not you are in favor of the strike, I hope you’ll take a moment to express gratitude for the countless professors and faculty members who put their all into their job and go above and beyond to help us succeed in our goals.