FOLLOWING THE IN-PROGRESS tentative agreement between the CFA and CSU administrators, faculty are breathing sighs of relief to be back to their jobs. Many of us, like myself, voted to strike and would much rather be in the classroom than on the picket line. As educators, we are committed to our schools and our students. Many, if not most of us, chose to be employees of a regional public university because we support broad access to knowledge.
The public regional system has relied on people having intergenerational wealth, spousal and/or other income streams to “make it” in the Bay Area. I was raised in a single parent home. For the most part, our household was sad. My mom commuted long distances to work and she was paid a salary that made it difficult to have purchasing power. Eating at Sonic, we would get the cheeseburger, but not the chicken sandwich. I witnessed up close the class divide as I had a relative who had married into money. I remember the feeling of going out to eat with these family members. It was exciting to know that these family members were going to pay for our food. However, it also felt we were less than these other family members because we were the charity side of the family. That monetary gap motivated me to pursue a higher education. I wanted to be able to take care of myself and any dependents I might have.
My twenty-year old self thought that by getting a Ph.D. and pursuing a career as a professor, that I would be able to rise out of the class position that I was born into. That I would be able to afford housing and also the food I wanted. Now in my forties, I can afford a chicken sandwich. I can’t afford stable housing.
Housing stability: the new chicken sandwich
The semester I went up for tenure, I experienced a series of traumatic crises and hardships, one after the other. I ended up losing my rental housing. I found myself in a situation where I did not have the resources to put a deposit on new housing. My daughter was one, about to turn two. I ended up, fortunately, being accepted into a shelter. We stayed there for three months. During those three months, I was able to save the money that would normally go to rent. I know the university cares to provide salaries so that only-parents can have stable housing, even if they don’t have inter-generational wealth nor spousal support.
There are many professors who do not have inter-generational wealth and there are many professors who are single income earners. As a single, “only” parent, I feel pressure to procure myself as a “good catch” on the marriage market: to marry up in order to have a more solid housing situation for myself and my child. And, this awareness that my life would be better if only I could be as successful in the dating world as I am in my professional work feels anti-feminist.
So, positioning to advocate for better wages is not about being able to afford vegan chicken sandwiches. I got that. What I want is stable and secure housing without feeling the need to trade sex for spousal support.
Costco wrote a letter saying they were disappointed that they created the working conditions within which workers would feel the need to strike. I did not see that sentiment from the upper echelons of my administration. And yet, they know most of us worked hard to receive doctoral degrees, that we collectively teach hundreds of thousands of students every semester and they know the housing market that we are in. In the San Jose area, the average rent for a one bedroom space is $2,440 per month and housing mortgages are hovering upwards of $10,000 per month. Our salaries don’t suffice in this housing market. And yet, officially, administration rhetoric approached the walk out as if they were antagonistic to our asks.
Cheering for the team
I’m on the SJSU University Sustainability Board. As a society, we are increasingly exposed to how important environmental sustainability is. Without it, we won’t have a world to live in. Social sustainability is just as important. This idea of having the haves and the have nots? It’s not sustainable. And it needs to change. Will our increases in salary make it so that we all have stable housing? No, not in this market. However, their negotiating with us demonstrates that the administration understands the value we bring. And, when I feel supported by an administration that is trustworthy, my productivity is healthier. Not only for my success at the University, but also for student success. Students don’t want to hear that their professors spend time living in shelters.
I want the full administration to cheer for us faculty members as loudly and as unapologetically as they cheer for our student athletes at a homecoming game.
It is sustainable for the university administration to see faculty as part of a team. A team formed of all levels of CSU affiliated persons, including administration, faculty, alumni and students. A team composed of, in the case of SJSU, Spartans. I want the full administration to cheer for us faculty members as loudly and as unapologetically as they cheer for our student athletes at a homecoming game.
Guaranteed, we will be in contract negotiations again. In the interim, there are things that the administration and faculty could do together that would make sense given our socioeconomic times. We could consider offering differentiated pay to faculty based on regional cost of living. We could work with our in-house CSU lobbyists to support the California legislature to implement a tax on our local millionaires and billionaires to provide for public regional education. And, we can remember it is classist, and of course with nearly all things classist, racist and sexist, to not align with workers. We can take these actions to work together as though we want all university employees to have secure and stable housing options because solidarity is a renewable resource.
Megan Thiele Strong, Ph.D., is a Sociology professor at San Jose State University and a 2023-24 Public Voices Fellow at the The OpEd Project.