Dear Students,

You are no doubt aware of California's budget deficit and economic crisis.  The California State University System (CSU) is facing a $585 million dollar reduction in funding.  The cut to CSUN is in the tens of millions.  By cutting back on salaries for faculty, administrators, managers, staff workers, maintenance workers, nurses, instructors, librarians, etc., our campus can make up a part of this shortfall.  These cuts come in addition to your recent 32% increase in tuition.  All of these are ways this campus is trying to deal with the reality of the budget cuts to CSUN.

In order to save jobs of colleagues, most of the workers mentioned above voted for a furlough plan, which means the workers will see a ~10% reduction in pay over the school year and a corresponding reduction in workload. This semester you will see the whole campus closed on designated days.  The faculty will also personally select nine furlough days for the semester, days which we must designate in writing.  We cannot do any work on a furlough day: no returning or taking of phone calls, no reading emails, no grading papers, no teaching, nothing.

You are paying more for your education now than ever before but note that these new rules for faculty mean that your instructors may have to cancel some class meetings, may not get papers back as quickly as in the past and in many cases cannot do what we normally do to help our students as in years past.  As you know many course sections cannot be offered, only limited seats are available, and classes have been canceled.  Please know that this situation is outrageous and heart breaking for us.  We want you to have the best academic preparation possible, but that goal is becoming more difficult to reach given the economic realities we all face. We encourage you to step up and get involved in your higher education, your future, and the future of California. 

There is no shortage of government money when it comes to waging wars, bailing out investment bankers, and paying corporate executives massive bonuses, all to the tune of trillions of dollars.  And yet, we are told that there is not enough money for healthcare, transportation, protecting the environment, or education.  The corporate controlled government would rather bomb hospitals and schools in Iraq and Afghanistan than build and fund them here.  They tell us that there is never enough money for the people who actually work to create the wealth that the capitalists spend on destruction.

Contact your representatives and tell them what you think. Contact the Governor.  Consider attending rallies and events that will occur on campus this semester.  Consider joining the Students for a Quality Education (SQE) group on campus.  By taking action, change is possible.

Go to  www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html  to find out who your assembly and legislative representatives are.

Please note Furlough Days for this class: 

October 26, November 25, December 9