A Valentine’s Day card is usually signed with a message of love, but on Wednesday, Valentine’s Day cards were signed with messages of support and solidarity with faculty fighting for pay increases.
The California Faculty Association (CFA) and the California State University Students for Quality Education (SQE) had a booth set up near the Henry Madden Library at Fresno State to inform students and faculty about the “Fight for Five” campaign.
The campaign was organized by CSU faculty to negotiate a 5 percent salary increase. If no agreement is reached, then the faculty has voted to hold a five-day strike on all 23 CSU campuses from April 13 to 19.
At the booth, there was a valentine for faculty to sign that reads “I don’t want to strike, but I will.” The card will be delivered to Fresno State President Dr. Joseph Castro asking him to support the faculty in the event that an agreement on salary increases cannot be reached.
Judith Scott, faculty member in the department of communication and the lecturer representative for the CFA, said that if the CSU Chancellor’s Office doesn’t give faculty a 5 percent pay increase, then faculty will stage the five-day strike.
For students in Scott’s class, she said it meant that they won’t have class for those days. Scott said that it is really important for students to support faculty during this time.
“I reminded my students this morning [that] we never stopped loving you,” Scott said. “We were loving you through hard times when we didn’t get raises and we had to take days off without pay.”
Scott said that faculty has waited six years without any raises, but that now that times are better, it deserves to get more pay.
“We have lecturers on this campus that get paid much lower than the tenured faculty,” Scott said. “So we’re fighting for everybody, so that everybody could get lifted up a bit.”
There was also a valentine for students to sign that read: “I stand with faculty.” This message from students will also be sent to Castro to ask that he join students in supporting faculty.
English and women’s studies student Sam Retton, who was at the booth on behalf of SQE, said students are often disconnected from what is going on at higher levels of the CSU system, and therefore do not know why there is a possibility of a faculty strike.
“We want students to know that faculty are not just money hungry and looking to screw them over,” Retton said. “Actually, faculty are really concerned for their students, which is why they need the pay increase.”
Student support for faculty is “crucial” in the event of a strike, Retton said.
“If it comes to a strike and faculty are on the picket line, that’s like shutting down half the university,” Retton said. “But if students join them on the picket line, the whole CSU system is completely down.”
Sociology student Cinthia Quesada took a photo with an “I stand with faculty” sign.
Quesada said she believes faculty deserve to get their wages increased.
“They put more effort in off-hours as well, and I think they should be compensated for it,” Quesada said.
Scott said she hoped students would stand on the picket line next to their professors.
“We are doing this for [the students’] future as well,” Scott said. “If we can get better pay for us now, then these positions will eventually open and our students can walk into them, and if they do, we fought together for better pay for everybody.”
Retton said that SQE encourages students to speak up or get in touch with the people that make the decisions for them.
“There are thousands and thousands and thousands of us,” Retton said. “We severely outnumber the people in charge, so it’s time to take back our power. We want our faculty to be paid fairly, and we don’t want any more fee increases.”
