The words “faculty strike” may conjure up daydreams of cancelled classes for most college students, but there is a lot more to consider than a day off.

The California Faculty Association has swept through the state with informational picket lines at several California State University campuses in effort to raise awareness of their dissatisfaction with the CSU administration over labor contracts. With bargaining halted, the union has finally had it with the CSU big wigs and is in the process of using its last-ditch efforts to reach an agreement without having to resort to a strike.

A possible strike over our teachers’ labor contracts may seem like something that we can pretty much remove ourselves from, but the complexity of the budget and relationship between the union and the CSU administration is troubling when a solution to the problem may equal fee increases for us. It is because of reasons like this that the union has adopted the slogan, “I don’t want to strike…but I will.”

The 24.5 percent salary increase over the next four years offered by CSU was rejected by the union on the grounds that the increase is entirely contingent on future budgets, which means any unforeseen setbacks in the budget would directly impact faculty members’ salaries. Such practices were referred to as careful and responsible budgeting by CSU spokespersons, which struck us as suspicious in light of the recent pay raises that were approved for 28 of the CSU’s top executives, including SF State President Robert Corrigan.

The union’s frustration over unfair contracts and other questionable practices by the CSU administration is hardly a new situation. Negotiations between the groups have been riddled with strife and discord for nearly two years as faculty and students have repeatedly taken the hit every time a budget crisis arises. Fees have increased, courses have been cut, faculty has been laid off and class sizes have increased, while top university officials have only seen their salaries go up. It was also learned late last year that the university administration mismanaged taxpayers’ money and paid millions of dollars in compensation to exiting officials. If such funds are available, why can’t they pay a fair wage to the teachers? More importantly, where exactly is this money coming from?

As the nation’s largest public university system, the CSU should have a clear mission to provide a quality education to the majority of the state’s students at a relatively affordable price and take care of its faculty accordingly. However, it seems as if the administration running that system has abandoned its duty to us and our teachers and has chosen instead to cater to top executives who are largely removed from the day-to-day workings on campus.

The California Faculty Association has the highest membership here at SF State, which means that most of our teachers are involved with this issue. By default, most of us should know what’s going on.

As students, we support the interests of the union, but we are concerned about the implications a strike may have on us. We want our faculty members to receive the salary they deserve, but we don’t want to lose any more services or pay higher fees. With a budget operating without much transparency by a self-serving administration, it is in our best interest to watch them closely.