Dr. Honora Chapman, Academic Senate representative of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures, addressed concerns of low wages for California State University professors during the Associated Students, Inc. meeting Wednesday.

“CSU faculty salaries have deteriorated significantly over the past 10 years,” Chapman said.

She presented a paper titled “Race to the Bottom: CSU’s 10-year Failure to Fund Its Core Mission.” According to the paper, CSU faculty salaries have not kept up with inflation during the past 10 years.

“The loss in purchasing power ranges from $7,114 at San Diego State to a loss of more than $13,796 at Chico State. This means that CSU faculty members teaching at Chico have experienced the equivalent of a 15.5 percent pay cut over the past 10 years,” according to the paper.

Fresno State is only two places above Chico State at a loss of $13,023.

Chapman said it’s difficult for students to succeed when many of the faculty members are not full-time professors.

“How can you receive excellent teaching, advising and mentoring from a part-time faculty member who has to work at several places to survive?” Chapman said. “How do you expect to be inspired by faculty who don’t have time to do research or creative activities?”

According to Chapman, about 50 percent of the CSU faculty is contingent.

Chapman said at least 75 percent of faculty must be tenure-track for an institution to provide high-quality classroom experience.

She added that the CSU is the only one where faculty salaries have been consistently losing ground.

“Every single UC campus saw a real dollar increase in its average faculty salary, ranging from a real increase of $2,226 at UC Riverside to an increase of $17,890 at UC San Francisco,” Chapman said. “In stark contrast, faculty at all CSU campuses experienced a loss in average salary purchasing power over the same period.”