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Faculty Launch 'Teach-In' to Address, Protest Problems Facing CSU

By: Mason Harrison

Posted: 9/21/09

As state budget cuts to higher education and accrediting woes make uncertain the future of the university, CSU faculty are planning a Vietnam-era style "teach-in" Sept. 23 to inform the university's student body of the challenges facing the school. Organizers of the event are expecting hundreds of students and dozens of faculty to participate and are calling it the first of what may be a number of such events in the future.

"A teach-in is an old tactic that folks used in social movements like those against the Vietnam War," said Prof. Louis McFarland, an organizer of the event. "It's a way to give information and a way to protest." McFarland said the idea for a teach-in was hatched over the summer when a committee was formed to explore the idea and gauge interest among the faculty. "We have received a lot interest in holding a teach-in," McFarland said.

The event will focus on a number of areas, including shared governance; the mission of the university; the school's relationship with the media; the university's ties to the community; and the nature of students' education at CSU. Participants will muster at the board of trustees meeting on Sept. 23 at 7:30 a.m. and meet for informational sessions throughout the day starting at 10:00 a.m. in the A, B and C conference rooms of the student union.

"Faculty have always been at the forefront of running universities," McFarland said, referring to the faculty's push for shared governance, adding, "that's not what is happening here." McFarland stated that CSU has a top-down style of governance, referring to it as a "business or corporate model." "All players should have a share [in the operations of the university]. We are requesting that the administration implement a much more democratic approach [to governance]."

McFarland said organizers of the teach-in are hoping to forge a document that will be littered with action items that they can possibly take to the state legislature. "By the end of the calendar year, we are hoping to have a document on shared governance. I'm sure we will go to the legislature." McFarland and others call the current governing structure - that features an occasional faculty member with muted influence on specific committees - tokenism. "Down with tokenism," McFarland said. Organizers are hoping the state legislature can mandate certain changes in the governing structure of the university.

But for all of their differences and disappointments with the administration, i.e., the establishment of a West Side campus, the university's approach to staving off the possible loss of accreditation and the process by which Wayne Watson was selected as the new president of the university, faculty, McFarland said, are not seeking to establish an adversarial relationship with administrators.

"We are not trying to make them enemies," McFarland said. "We're in a crisis moment here and a lot of people don't get that. They need to come out and find out."