Panel says CSU should give faculty the 5 percent raise they asked for

An independent fact-finder tasked with looking into the pay fight between Califoia State University and its faculty has determined that the 23-campus system should give professors the raise they’ve been demanding for nearly a year.

Boie Prouty Castrey, independent chairwoman of a three-person panel that included one representative from CSU and one representative from the faculty side, issued a non-binding recommendation that the university should give professors the 5 percent pay raise they demand, as well as up to 2.65 percent pay service step pay increases to 43 percent of faculty, according to a report released Monday.

The 26,000-member Califoia Faculty Association has threatened a strike at all 23 campuses on April 13-15 and April 18-19 if the Long Beach-based Chancellor’s Office of the CSU does not move from its 3 percent pay raise offer and give the union — which represents tenured and tenure-track instructional faculty, lecturers, librarians, counselors, and coaches — a 5 percent raise.

The administration, however, says it doesn’t have the money to divert to more pay at a time when it has committed spending to other priorities.

Union members currently are in the second-year of a three-year contract.

More to come.