Currently in a bargaining cycle, the California Faculty Association is requesting a cost-of-living adjustment based on rising inflation rates, with a 2% annual increase. 

The CSU chancellor’s office has offered a one-time 3% taxable bonus for the 2025-2026 academic year, with a 3% general salary increase beginning 2027-2028. 

The CFA, joined by the CSU Employees Union, Academic Professionals of California and Teamsters, gathered this Wednesday to voice concerns regarding faculty benefits, wage increases and artificial intelligence barriers in education. 

“They came to us with a 3% one-time bonus that’s not part of our pension, it is not a raise, it will be taxed as a bonus,” said Christina Ceisel, professor of communications and president of Cal State Fullerton’s CFA chapter. “Very few faculty make over $100,000, but supposing you did, that’s a $3,000 bonus that comes down to $1,200 by the time you’re taxed, one time for a year of work.” 

CSU management proposed reopening negotiations on healthcare and benefits for system faculty and staff members. The unions, amid the current bargaining cycle, have countered their offers to continue bargaining. 

“For a lot of the faculty and staff, the healthcare, the benefits are what keep us here despite the low salaries,” Ceisel said. 

The CSUEU, another staff union, is requesting a 9% annual wage increase, which the CSU countered with an offer of 1%, according to VJ Kuan-Roberts, a facilities coordinator for Pollak Library and current president of CSUF’s CSUEU chapter. 

“Workers from across different unions — from faculty to groundskeepers to IT specialists — are all coming together to demand better from CSU management,” Kuan-Roberts said in an email to the Daily Titan. “A 1% offer is an insult. And workers are prepared to use the last tool we have — to strike and withhold our labor — if we have to.”

Salary negotiations have been a recurring topic in bargaining cycles, with AI now raising concerns from faculty. The employee unions have requested that a new article be written specifically to outline faculty protections in response to the growing implementation of AI. This would include protection for intellectual property, the right to refuse the use of AI and resources to adapt classrooms to AI appropriately. 

“They’re refusing to work with us on AI protections. We wanna make sure that all faculty, counselors and librarians are humans — that we won’t be replaced by AI. They are really stalling and refusing to even acknowledge our requests for an article in the contract about that,” Ceisel said. 

This June, Governor Gavin Newsom signed the 2026-2027 budget, including a nearly 7% increase in funding for the CSU. Compared to the 2026-2026 budget, this includes an additional $365.7 million in ongoing funding. 

CSU faculty have voiced concern about the misallocation of this additional funding, citing little progress in salary and benefits negotiations. 

“It’s disheartening, it makes me really upset that our administrators, our presidents, are making in some cases more than the governor of the state of California,” said Ashley Riley, RN-BSN adviser for CSUF and stewart for ACP. “And then when we are asking for better pay they are not bargaining in good faith.”

The CSU is in an active bargaining cycle with faculty, with the next meeting being set for early September. 

This story has been updated to reflect that CSUEU is a staff union.