Students at the California State University�s 23 campuses will be greeted with more than just new classes and teachers on the first week of next semester. California Faculty Association members are planning informational picket lines to inform students about troubled faculty contract negotiations.

�It�s not a strike,� said CFA communications director Alice Sunshine. �We won�t be asking people not to cross picket lines.�

On Dec. 15, the CFA will have its final mediation meeting, at which the mediator is expected to make a decision.

�We always hope that we will get a settlement, but it hasn�t happened so far,� Sunshine said.

If a settlement is not reached, the process will move into the fact-finding stage, in which a new mediator will meet with both sides and then present non-binding recommendations to the governor and state legislators for a course of action.

If a settlement is not reached, the administration has the right to implement whatever contract they deem appropriate, and the faculty gets new rights as well.

�If there�s still no settlement after fact finding, at that point it becomes legal for our side to go on strike,� Sunshine said.