East Bay strike shuts state universities

It’s not quite Thanksgiving break yet, but unknowing visitors to the Cal State East Bay campus Thursday would have noticed scheduled classes were not in session.

Hundreds of Hayward-based faculty members were joined by teachers from San Jose State University and 10 other CSU campuses to rally over a pay dispute, tuition hikes and university leadership. Their rally was bookended by a Thursday evening lecture with civil rights activist and Princeton University professor Dr. Cornel West.

The system-wide faculty strike, which is considered the institution’s first-ever, came after the CSU board of trustees voted Wednesday to raise student tuition by 9 percent.

Cal State East Bay was chosen location for the faculty strike because of the school’s large population of working class students and students of color, who are most hurt by reduced funding, California Faculty Asssociation president Lillian Taiz told the San Jose Mercury News.