Though often criticized by the faculty union, the CSU Board of Trustees did fulfill its promise to ask the Governor for funds to increase the number of faculty on tenure-track at the Nov. 13 Long Beach meeting.

"We have been pushing this issue for years," said John Travis, Political Action/Legislative Chair of the California Faculty Association.

Back in 2002, the CFA had won passage of a resolution to fund hiring of more tenure track faculty, called ACR 73, in the State Assembly. Concerned over the CSU's increasing reliance on temporary faculty, the Legislature created an eight-year plan to have tenure-track faculty reach 75 percent of the teaching corps.

Up until now the resolution has been mostly ineffective because it has been vastly underfunded by the state legislature.

But the new contract won by faculty in May changes everything. It includes language that university officials and the union will "jointly request from the Legislature the amount of monies necessary to fully implement" ACR 73.

$42.9 million has been earmarked in the support budget request the CSU Board sent to the state on Nov.14.

"At this stage we are pleased that they've made this a priority as the contract requested," Travis said. "We are hoping that they are going to follow that up with an advocacy program."

The tenure status means faculty make more money, cannot be fired at will and are guaranteed to teach all their classes at one campus, instead of stretching across the Bay Area to teach.

Only tenured faculty can join personnel committees and hold governance jobs that are necessary in universities. Hiring more of them, Travis said, relieves the administrative workload of each one.

Students benefit by having faculty members that can not just teach but can advise them, by ensuring that these teachers will be back year after year, according to the CFA.