One of the many highlights about California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB) for students is the low cost of enrollment. It is one of the least expensive CSU’s to attend, but this comes at a cost for our teachers.
CSUMB is one of the worst paying CalStates in the system, with some teachers making wages comparable to a 7-Eleven employee.
Recently, a petition went out through The Action Network about the situation. Through signing this petition, CSUMB students and faculty were able to send a pre-written email to President Ochoa on the issue, demanding he stand up for faculty and help them receive adequate pay.
Fourth-year communication design student, Val Ramirez signed the petition prior to when it ended. They stated “I think it’s great that teachers are using their platform and educating the population. I found the link through Instagram and I feel that social media is a great way to get something done”
Once the petition closed, it received approximately 300 signatures. Communication design lecturer Wes Modes mentioned the petition received more signatures than expected for the CSUMB’s student enrollment.
According to openpayrolls.com, the average pay for employees of the entire CSU system in 2020 was $62,930 with 136,531 employee records on file. This is already 10.9 percent lower than other universities and colleges.
However, this takes into account a variety of different positions within the system, rather than just teachers. Looking at the employee profile available for download on calstate.edu, it states that in 2019 the average salary for full-time lecturers is $65,944 for the academic year. It also includes a head count of 2,718 total lecturers.
For full-time lecturers working a 12-month year rather than just the academic year, they have an average salary of $88,497. There are only 131 lecturers in this category.
As for part-time lecturers, the employee profile states there are 12,741 employees with an average salary of $59,751 working through the academic year.
Average salaries between the different CSU’s is not available to the public. However, taking the listed salaries of 20 randomly selected CSUMB lecturers on openpayrolls.com, the average salary for 2020 is only $38,061.
Openpayrolls.com does not disclose how many classes each lecturer is teaching; however, this average is shockingly low in comparison to the average listed on their site as well as the CSU site.
“I do hope that some changes can be made in our school system, since students are taking the initiative to share this information with others, I feel like we can really help all the teachers out there,” Ramirez said.
Fellow fourth-year communication design student, Victoria White held a similar outlook to Ramirez.
She explained “I had no idea that our professors got paid so little, after all the hard work that they put in to help us learn and grow as professionals they absolutely deserve to be paid more. I signed the petition because they all go above and beyond to help us, this was the least I could do to return the favor!”
President Ochoa has not yet acknowledged the petition publicly, nor has the Lutrinae received a response from him at the time of publication. If the Lutrinae receives a response from President Ochoa, this article will be updated on our website.