Cal State LA To Hire 27 Faculty Staffers
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — California State University, Los Angeles, is set to hire over two dozen new faculty members, officials announced Monday.
After several years of cutbacks during the economic recession, Cal State officials will resume hiring to add 700 full-time staffers, including 27 new tenure-track faculty positions at the CSULA campus, KNX 1070's Jon Baird reports.
President Bill Covino made the announcement at CSULA's University Convocation, where he also presented his vision for the new academic year, which includes launching a "Mind Matters" campaign focused on students' academic and personal well-being to help reduce their everyday stress and anxiety.
According to Covino, Proposition 30 helped stabilize the CSU system and helped them avoid enduring additional budget cuts.
"We just decided to be aggressive," said Covino. "We're recovering from the recession."
The hiring spree was first introduced in June, when CSU officials announced enrollment was expected to rise cross the 23-campus CSU system after a record 760,000 undergraduates applied for admission.
Salaries for new professors will start at $68,000 and range all the way to $110,000, according to CSU officials.
Christina Ruiz-Mesa is among those who just got hired as an assistant professor in communication studies at CSULA.
"I had come to California and applied everywhere, and there were no jobs available," Ruiz-Mesa said. "I took a temporary staff position at a front desk for almost a year before a faculty job became open."
The effort comes after budget cuts forced CSU officials to cut the number of full-time, tenured faculty members or those on track to tenure from nearly 11,000 in 2008 to about 9,800 in 2013, according to The Times.
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