Address the dysfunction

Rumblings of worker dissatisfaction at Chico State have surfaced over the past couple of months. In September, the Academic Senate passed a resolution asking the Chancellor’s Office for outside review and, more recently, a campus-wide survey revealed widespread distrust of administration, a perception of pay inequality and complaints of poor communication from officials in Kendall Hall. (See “Anxiety in Academia,” Newslines, Nov. 13.)

Key terms the survey’s authors repeatedly encountered included: “oppressive,” “abusive,” “isolation,” “overbearing,” “greedy,” “favoritism,” “unethical,” “detached” and “dictatorship.”

The underlying issue here is that the university has lost 164 tenure-track faculty members since 2009, and has hired back only 100. That inability to retain or attract faculty in the face of increasing enrollment figures and pressure to graduate students has contributed to low morale.

Meanwhile, a microcosm of corporate America is playing out. The wealthy (i.e., university administration) have seen higher wages, while those of the average person (i.e., staff and faculty members) remain stagnant. Last week, the CSU Board of Trustees approved contracts with a handful of unions, including the California Faculty Association, but it seems unlikely these employees will be mollified by the long-overdue pay increase.

It would be easy to dismiss these seemingly insular problems. However, from what faculty has stated, these issues are affecting what’s most important: providing students a quality education. Moreover, Chico State is arguably our community’s most vital institution; it attracts students and instructors from around the world, and that annual influx is the lifeblood of Chico. That’s why Chico State’s poor health should be alarming to the broader community.

We urge President Paul Zingg and the Academic Senate to keep these issues on the front burner, and for the Chancellor’s Office to thoroughly investigate the conditions described in the resolution. It’s in everyone’s interest to address this dysfunction.