Tuesday

May 12, 1998

Editorial

The rules of the game

Comments have ranged from mere displeasure to asking that "Uncle Nick" be fired. One member of the university administration encouraged the Women's Resource Center to express its "disdain for the expressed degradation of women in both the advertisement and the supposed humor column."

This administrator also asked students to express their disdain for such articles and to question the State Hornet's standards of professional journalism.

To address the issue of the humor column, there are two types of writers at a newspaper -- reporters and columnists. Columnists express their own opinions -- opinions that may not agree with those of our readers. The State Hornet welcomes any and all opinions and tries to accommodate all the diverse views at CSUS. But -- and this is crucial -- we feel that to stifle the free expression of any viewpoint, no matter how much one may disagree, is a clear threat to our most basic of freedoms: the freedom of speech.

While we regret offending any reader, it is not our responsibility to ensure our writers follow any particular social philosophy. One of the most important roles this newspaper has is providing a forum for the free expression of ideas, no matter how distasteful they may be.

As for the advertisement, the State Hornet is a self-sufficient operation. The newspaper receives the vast majority of its funding -- 90 percent for the current fiscal year -- from advertising revenue. The remainder comes from instructional funds because the newspaper is a laboratory for journalism students.

The editorial board's policy is that any legal product or service can purchase advertising space. The only advertisements we cannot carry, by direction of the CSU chancellor, are for sales of term papers or term paper preparation services. It is not a newspaper's role to carry out social policy through advertising. Our readers can make their own decisions about which businesses to support.

In addition to contacting the newspaper directly, readers can express their concerns to the State Hornet Publications Board, which sets newspaper policy. The board has two student members, elected from the student body, as well as representatives of the administration and faculty. All are there to represent concerns about the newspaper.

Finally, this newspaper is an independent, student-run publication. It follows the standards of the Society of Professional Journalists. These are the same standards used by most major newspapers across the country. It is our firm belief -- and those of the founding fathers -- that we serve our readers best by protecting not only the speech that readers love, but the speech they hate. Nowhere should free and open expression be held more sacred than at a university.

Commentary

Do we get our money's worth?

Driven by full-time faculty retirements and California economics, part-time faculty hiring system-wide has risen consistently since 1990, leading the California Faculty Association, Academic Senates and individual instructors to ask: Is the California State University best served by large numbers of part-time faculty than by hiring full-timers?

Based on reporting I've conducted for the State Hornet over the past month, it is not.

There are benefits to part-time faculty. There are tasks part-timers perform admirably: filling in for instructors on sabbatical, lending professional expertise to a department for upper-division offerings and allowing departments meet enrollment demands for required classes. They are some of the nicest instructors I've ever had in the classroom.

However, after speaking to faculty at three campuses, the CSU's spokesman and seeing the comments of Chancellor Charles Reed, I've concluded the CSU needs to define its use of part-time faculty.

Are part-timers used to add expertise to a department by offering special seminars? Is it to cover the enrollment increase since 1994? Do they replace retiring faculty? The full-time faculty I have spoken to indicate the latter.

The problems? First of all, part-timers, in general, do not hold office hours as frequently as full-timers. This makes them less available to a student population we are told both works more hours and takes more units per semester than at any time in history.

Secondly, part-timers statewide lack offices -- and often desks -- to call their own. Part-timers are frequently unconnected to the university since they either hold a full-time job or teach at multiple institutions to put food on the table.

Third, hired semester to semester, they have little assurance of job security. If a part-timer makes a class difficult and students complain, the part-timer might not be asked back.

If controversial topics are brought up and someone complains, the part-timer might not be asked back. If part-timers take an unpopular stand on campus issues, there is a real possibility they will not be back. The determining factor could be any number of things.

Of course, the part-timer I have might also need some help teaching a class. It might be his or her first attempt. But is that support network there? Apart from some departments, like Social Work, it does not seem to be. Remember, poor evaluations are deadly for part-timers. As one student put it, there is no mid-semester evaluation of faculty to let them know if they need to improve or not.

I worry I will not be challenged as much by part-timers. Are they going to present material that is controversial? Probably not. My education should present a variety of view-points to examine. When these viewpoints are tempered because of concerns over job security, I'm the one that loses.

Fourth, many part-time hires are made within weeks of the beginning of each semester. This means the time to prepare lectures and become familiar with class reading material is almost nil. According to some of the students, the result is the prevalent use of videos, guests and direct reading from texts.

Most full-time faculty I know have spent years developing courses, selecting books and refining lectures. Of course, they know they are going to teach that same class down the road.

Developing class material is a worthwhile time investment. For part-timers, it seems ridiculous to take away from family or another job by developing course material if they might not be back.

As a large portion of the CSU faculty approach retirement, a serious decision must be made about how to best maintain the quality of education throughout the system.

Is our future in the hands of a new wave of full-time faculty with a reason to commit to the institution? Or will it be hard-working part-timers with nothing to hold them here if something better comes along?

Let us hope Chancellor Charles Reed and campus presidents commit to providing the best education possible.

Letter to the Editor

Alumni Association offers apology to honor graduates for Convocation invites

While the event was open to all students, not all honors students received an invitation due to space considerations.

As the event was being organized, the planning committee concluded that the Music Recital Hall, which seats just over 300, was not large enough to accommodate all 600-plus graduates, along with their families and friends.

The committee felt that more hard feelings would result if invited students were turned away at the door due to space limitations.

As anticipated, the event was crowded. However, after hearing from some disappointed students and faculty, it is clear that the decision not to send an invitation to all honors graduates was an unpopular one.

Next year, with the completion of the new University Union addition, there should be adequate space to accommodate everyone who wishes to participate in the Convocation.

We will make every effort to invite all honors graduates to the event.

Every student who has attained such a high level of scholastic achievement deserves to be recognized by the university.

Stephen T. Black
Executive Director
CSUS Alumni Association.

State Hornet

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