An article in The Los Angeles Times titled “Cal State budget plan includes hiring more than 500 full-time faculty” notes that “Hundreds of new full-time faculty would be hired to teach high-demand courses at California State University campuses under a budget plan to be considered by trustees Tuesday.” Carla Rivera, in her November 5, 2013 article for L.A. Now, goes on to say, “Under the proposal, about $13 million would be used to hire more than 500 full-time faculty members, enabling campuses to increase the number of classes in highly sought subjects such as English, algebra, geography, and biology.
An additional $8 million would pay for 70 new academic advisors, a crucial component in the system’s push to have students meet graduation requirements more quickly. “These are areas that took a big hit when we went into recession and we haven’t been able to replenish,” Cal State system spokesman Mike Uhlenkamp said.
The Board of Trustees is scheduled to act on the budget plan when it convenes in Long Beach. Gov. Jerry Brown, a member of the board, is to attend the meeting, which will continue Wednesday. The overall 2014-15 spending plan seeks an additional $237.6 million from the state, slightly less than the $250-million preliminary plan presented to the board in September. “It’s slightly down, but we did feel it’s realistic based on the needs we have,” Uhlenkamp said.
More than 430,000 students attend Cal State’s 23 campuses, which make up the largest higher education system in the nation. Since 2008, the system has lost nearly $1 billion in state support and has greatly curtailed the hiring and replacement of full-time tenure-track faculty while relying more on part-time lecturers. Increasing the ranks of full-time faculty would provide greater stability for students and expand the base of qualified professors to teach “bottleneck” courses — those that are most in demand or needed for degrees but that have high failure rates.” (Read the entire article here.)
Editor’s note: Many thanks to Professor Kostas Goulias for bringing this material to our attention.
