California Faculty Association is frustrated over the placement of what it believes are misleading and inaccurate ads by the California State University, said California Faculty Association President John Travis. –

The ads, which appeared in 18 CSU newspapers including The State Hornet, state that the union’s bargaining team did not allow its members to review or comment on the CSU’s latest offer of a 24.87 percent salary increase.

“The CSU and the bargaining team were extremely disappointed,” said Paul Browning, a spokesman for the chancellor’s office. “We felt that we put together a generous salary agreement.”

Faculty should have been aware of the offer at the time it was made, Browning said. He added that the ads are helping to get the information out now.

“We feel that the offer should have been taken to the faculty,” Browning said. “They should have had the chance to evaluate our offer and decide if it should be accepted. … Nobody gave them that chance.”

But some professors disagree with Browning’s statements.

Government professor Kimberly Nalder said if the offer was really an almost 25 percent raise, then the union would have taken it.

“It turns out that the offer counted cost-of-living increases from last year, money that the Legislature has not appropriated and is spread out over four years,” Nalder said. “Essentially, the real offer doesn’t even make up for inflation since our last raises.”

Nalder said the union keeps faculty members informed about negotiations, adding that faculty members get regular e-mail updates and that a website devoted to the topic is available.

The union’s members said the ads are not only distasteful and inaccurate but a misuse of tax dollars as well.

The ads are misleading, Travis said, and the salary proposal shown was highly inflated from what was offered. He added that it was a bad use of state money.

“We are still in the process of bargaining,” Travis said. “Why they would spend any additional money at this time is beyond me.”

A Chico State student informed the union that the money spent on the ads was taken out of the general fund, Travis said. The possibility that the ads were paid-by taxpayers’ dollars is a matter of concern, he said.

“We don’t think that the administration is making good decisions,” Travis said. “It’s another example of how they are wasting money they claim not to have.”

But the CSU said the public knew where the funds for the ads came from.

“The ads were not a secret,” Browning said. ” The money and where it came from was not a secret either. It was taken out of the communications budget. We don’t always announce everything. … We do what we think is best for the CSU faculty, staff and students.”

Clara Potes-Fellow, a CSU spokeswoman, said she thinks the CSU’s actions were justified and the next logical step.

“The CSU placed the ads because we think that it is important to inform the campus community about negotiations,” Potes-Fellow said. “The more vehicles we use to get the message out there the more chances we have to get a response. We wanted to get the information out there.”

While the ads seem like a good idea to the CSU, many union members are offended by what they represent.

“I am offended by the fact that the chancellor’s office would try to influence the faculty members this way,” said Cecil Canton, Sacramento State chapter president of the union. “It is inappropriate and unfair for them to say that faculty members were not allowed to see the offer-.Our job is to inform the faculty of what is going on in the bargaining process.”

Ashley Evans can be reached at [email protected]