Get out the party hats, confetti and the bubbly. The California Faculty Association and the California State University have tentatively agreed on a new contract for the faculty. This means the proposed strike will be postponed, although many students were looking forward to it, I’m sure. It looks like our professors won’t get to burn down our campus and beat those who cross the picket line. If the new contract is ratified, CSU faculty will receive an almost 21 percent increase in base pay with step increases for those eligible at almost 25 percent over four years. This is good news for the faculty, and I hope the contract is ratified because the faculty deserve the increase (if not a little more).

Although this may be a victory for the faculty, the students still haven’t gotten what they deserve. Sacramento State students are still left with transient class offerings, exorbitant prices for textbooks and parking, a high cost of living and the constant increase in student fees. The faculty may get its demands met, and rightfully so, but student needs go largely ignored and they only get attention when they wear sombreros and “chief” each other.

I know Sac State exists amid an atmosphere of apathy, but I also believe that our degraded public university system is spitting out students who are less prepared and less well-rounded than graduates in previous years through no fault of the faculty or students themselves. Packed classrooms with overworked professors coupled with cancelled classes are draining the intellectual pool that should provide students with a vigorous and well-rounded education. To make matters worse, students are having to pay higher prices for what I think is becoming a lower quality of education.

I know at least in my major, government, classes are regularly cancelled and almost 1/3 of the listed classes for the upcoming academic year have no open sections in either fall or spring. Students are missing out on classes that could potentially add to their enrichment and knowledge base that many graduates at other better-managed universities have.

As nerdy and disturbing as it sounds, I sometimes think about what the money spent on signs, landscaping, a recreation/wellness center and what was spent on a bloated payroll for useless administrators could have went toward. Oh, maybe something crazy like new buildings for classrooms or expanding degree offerings. I actually feel bad for the current freshmen and future Sac State students, if things continue, eight years to graduate may be the norm.

Judging by the amount of classes cancelled in the 2006-07 academic year and what is offered for the 2007-08 academic year, we might as well torch the school. I am concerned at the amount of cancelled classes. Furthermore, almost 1/3 of all the government classes listed for the 2007-08 academic year don’t have any open sections for the fall or spring semesters). Although theoretically, if the school is able to hire new faculty and retain current faculty, assuming the new contract is ratified, more classes with more sections available should be the result.

However, there is still the problem of the lack of investment in instruction and in building new classrooms, which would reduce class sizes. There is also the ever-increasing student fees and other expenses college students face that require more time being spent to work to pay for those expenses and less time to focus on school. I know I constantly complain about students getting stiffed and berate the Sac State and CSU administrators, but the only reason universities exist is because of students.

CSU Chancellor Greed, I mean Reed, recently said that faculty are the schools’ “greatest asset.” While faculty are, of course, hugely important, they would be out of jobs and so would Reed, if there weren’t students to fill up classrooms at the 23 CSU campuses. Again, I feel it necessary to belittle and harass our administrators for doing a terrible job managing our education. There has to be someone out there, other than ourselves and our faculty, who values a college education. If Alex G. Spanos is reading this: S.O.S., send money fast, education sucking, classrooms?about?to?burst!

Scott Allen can be reached at [email protected]