Contract proposals ? which will eventually set the salaries and working conditions of faculty in the California State University system ? have been completed by the California Faculty Association and the California State University.
Negotiations are tentatively set to begin this month.
According to CSU chief negotiator Sam Strafaci, their proposal will be similar to the current salary contract.
The CFA proposals, according to CFA president Susan Meisenhelder, will call for sweeping changes.
The CFA and CSU are locked in a debate over many issues in the contract negotiations and CFA has publicly discussed a work stoppage if an agreement cannot be reached. One of the most controversial aspects of salaries is the Faculty Merit Increase, a percentage of salary increase based on faculty performance. It currently comprises 28 percent of the total annual raises for CSU faculty, under the current salary contract which expires July 1. Faculty workload and the hiring of more tenure track faculty have also been central issues addressed by the CFA.
The CSU proposal has been completed and will eventually be posted in all CSU campus libraries, according to Strafaci.
Ken Swisher, a spokesman for CSU Chancellor Charles Reed, said he had not seen the CSU proposal, and declined to state when it would be made available.
"Bargaining is supposed to go on at the table, not through the media," he said. But according to Strafaci, the CSU proposal is similar to the current contract, which includes FMI.
"We have suggested some minor proposals here and there," Strafaci said.Most of the compromise will be done at the bargaining table, he said."They have to explain to us in some detail what they want," Strafaci said.According to Swisher, the CSU is committed to FMI.
"We are willing to look at the way merit pay is implemented," Swisher said.The CFA proposal emphasizes more sweeping changes than the CSU proposal does. Meisenhelder mentioned the hiring of more tenured faculty as a crucial point in the proposal.
"What has happened in the last five years is scary," Meisenhelder said.
According to CFA numbers, the CSU system has seen a net gain of 1,462 lecturers in the last five years, compared with one tenured professor in that time.