Letters to the Editor

Facts on faculty pay important

Some folks noticed that there was recently a faculty demonstration at President Welty’s office to agitate for a fair contract with pay raises.

The Collegian was kind enough to cover this action, but this is yet another article with no actual figures and no highlighting of the fact that we faculty are not on an automatically increasing pay step scale like other kinds of teachers in the state.

There is mention of the fact that public school teachers often make more than us, but no explanation that this is because they are on an automatically increasing pay scale.

Can’t we get a reporter to write the facts down? The current base pay generally offered to first year professors is approximately $45,000 per year.

Higher starting salaries are sometimes negotiated for exceptional cases. Professors are not guaranteed any pay increases at all during their careers except when promoted to a higher rank (there are three ranks of professor at Fresno State).

Any pay increases including cost-of-living and salary step climbing must be vigorously negotiated by the CFA, and are only agreed to at the whim of the CSU administration. In spite of having no guaranteed pay increases, faculty also cannot argue for an individual pay raise based on merit and achievements.

People in Fresno tend to think we all make $90K per year with a plush annual increment guaranteed. We are certainly a long way from that kind of decadence!

Sean A. Fulop
Assistant Professor
Department of Linguistics

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