Yesterday, after faculty on all 23 CSU campuses went on strike to demand better pay and working conditions, the CSU administration and the California Faculty Association (CFA) reached a tentative agreement that earned faculty a number of victories in their contract, such as salary floor increases for the lowest paid faculty members and extended paid family leave.
The agreement was finalized yesterday in the late evening.
Dr. Dave Colnic, a Political Science professor at CSU Stanislaus and the Association Vice President of the Northern California division of the CFA, was contacted at 5:15 p.m. yesterday that the CFA officers would be holding a meeting in fifteen minutes to consider the agreement. 
After multiple meetings, the CFA would announce near 9 p.m. yesterday night that they had accepted the tentative agreement.
Dr. Colnic felt the biggest victory they earned in the new agreement was a $6,000 salary floor increase for the lowest paid classifications of faculty, and a $3,000 salary floor increase for the second lowest paid.
“I’m just incredibly excited about that,” Colnic said, “Not only for the money it puts in the pockets of the most poorly paid folks in our system, the ones who can’t afford to work here and so were leaving, I think it changes the context of contract negotiations moving forward.”
With the general salary increases of 5% this year and another 5% next year contingent on the CSU’s state funding not receiving cuts, the lowest paid category of faculty will receive a 20% total raise to their salaries and the second lowest paid will receive a 15% raise.
Another major victory for the CFA is that they’ll be able to return to the bargaining table in 2025, rather than the CSU’s previous proposal that would close renegotiations for three years.
Colnic was confident that this will give the CFA to bargain under more favorable conditions next year.
“We know that this is not the easiest budget year to be starting a full contract negotiation,” Colnic said, “I think all signs point to a healthier next year.”
Colnic also shared that another major victory was an extension of paid family leave from 6 weeks to 10 weeks. During their negotiations, the CSU had proposed an extension to 8 weeks, but the strike pushed them further.
Ten weeks of paid family leave will make faculty who have children while classes are in session significantly less likely to have to return to work partway through the semester.
For a list of further victories earned in the tentative agreement, refer to the CFA’s press release.
CSU Stanislaus students, meanwhile, felt little disruptions to their education as a result of the strike.
Kyle Eichman (Sophomore, Criminal Justice) never felt concerned that the strike would impact his path towards graduation and was confident that it would turn out well.
“All I know is that it only took one day and everything seems pretty good,” he said.
This is likely due to the fact that the now resolved scheduled week of strikes only would have conflicted with the Friday classes on January 26th on Stan State’s academic calendar.
For other campuses, however, including the most populous ones such as Fullerton, Long Beach, and San Diego, they had either began classes on the first day of striking or prior to it.
Another Stan State student, Isabela Moreno (Sophomore, Undeclared) spoke to a larger issue of students lacking an understanding of the stakes of the strike.
“If there was, I guess, I don’t know, more people going out and spreading information, I’d feel a certain type of way,” she said.
While generally supportive of their faculty members, these two students felt that communications from the administration, the CFA, and their instructors made the details of the labor negotiations and the strike unclear.