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CSUF still struggles hiring diverse staff

Gaming space added to TSU Lifestyle

Track & field wins conference Sports

The Student Voice of California State University, Fullerton

Volume 113 Issue 16

University still recovering from widespread staff vacancies

EMILY MELGAR Staff Writer

With 54% white faculty, Cal State Fullerton demographics still show a lack of diversity. While the university is designated as a Hispanic-Serving Intuition, meaning at least 25% of its student body are Hispanic, only 15% of faculty are Hispanic or Latino. Of the 40,386 students attending CSUF, in fall 2022, 50.2% were Hispanic or Latinx. A Latinx professor in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at CSUF, who asked not to be identified by name, said they think this is due to the university’s lack of effort put into hiring diverse faculty. “I see that as not just a problem at Cal State Fullerton, but it seems like it’s quite broad,” the professor said. According to data reported in September 2022 by Long Beach State, another HSI in the CSU, its student population is 47% Hispanic or Latino. Meanwhile, in the fall of 2021, only around 11% of tenured or tenure-track faculty were Hispanic or Latino, while almost 55% were white. Evelyn Soria, a second-year psychology major, is a Mexican American student at CSUF. She said it impacts Hispanic and Latino students to not have professors who look and speak like them. Deanne Leone, associate dean of the College of Communications, said that there is a commitment on this campus to care about students. Leone said students need to see people who look like them, feel like them and understand their experiences. Leone said the College of Communications has started cluster hiring and that in the world of human resources, there are ways to create more diversified hires. “It definitely starts with recruitment, advertising, being honest about internally what our errors and issues are, how we need to be more clear with ourselves is some of the starting points around that,” Leone said. Leone also said how the university proposes jobs and descriptions SEE RECRUIT

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Both the COVID-19 pandemic and increased resignations resulted in numerous empty faculty positions in several colleges and departments.

MELISSA RENDON EMILY MELGAR MATTHEW ROSOFF HUY NGUYEN EMILIO MELENDEZ Staff Writers

After almost three years, Cal State Fullerton is beginning to see faculty employment rates return since the start of the pandemic. As of publication, there are a total of 73 vacant positions for both temporary and tenured faculty. For most colleges at CSUF, the initial increase in vacancies began around the same time the university went virtual, some departments were impacted more than others. According to CSU tenure density data, in 2021, CSUF had a student-to-faculty ratio of about 22-to1, representing 22 students for every instructional faculty member. The data also shows that the number of students divided among faculty at CSUF is greater than the CSU systemwide ratio of 20-to-1. This ratio is higher than the national average, which is 15-to-1, indicating students could experience larger class sizes and

fewer opportunities to connect with professors, particularly in lower-level courses. “Because students and administrators and faculty rely on staff quite a bit to accomplish the work of the academic unit, staff are essential to proper academic unit operation,” said James Hussar, the interim chair of the visual arts department. David Forgues, the vice president for Human Resources, Diversity and Inclusion, said the turnover and vacancies in faculty and staff mirrored what happened elsewhere with employers, as a result of the pandemic and has come to be known as “the Great Resignation.” According to an article by Dr. Simone Phipps, a management professor from Middle Georgia State University, there was a spike in U.S. workers resigning from their jobs due to complications within their field that the pandemic brought along in 2021. Harvard Business School professors Joseph Fuller and William Kerr asserted the trend in resignations began long before COVID, but because of the drastic workforce changes during the pandemic, numbers increased. “I think we were affected by the Great Resignation as much as

everyone else was. There was a great deal of uncertainty out there at the time for sure, as the pandemic took hold,” Forgues said. A study conducted in 2022 by the Pew Research Center found that the top reasons why U.S. workers left their jobs during the Great Resignation were low pay, lack of opportunities for advancement and feeling disrespected in the workplace. At CSUF, the three colleges that were potentially most impacted by COVID and the vacant positions were the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, College of Health and Human Development and College of Engineering and Computer Science. In fall of 2019, these departments respectively had a headcount of 245, 348 and 139 faculty members. These numbers decreased to 219, 318 and 126 faculty members remaining in their respective departments in fall of 2021. Dave Mickey, the associate dean of the arts department, said that their department has received fewer applicants now, compared to pre-COVID, but he said he believes that they are in good shape. However, the department currently has three vacancies due to promotion, retirement and moving out of state.

Currently, on the CSUF Career Open Position page, the Department of Business and Economics has six open positions in instructional faculty. All vacancies are for temporary lecturers and will remain open until May 31. Since the fall of 2021, a total of five full-time faculty left the College of Engineering and Computer Science. Four of them entered the Faculty Early Retirement Program and one of them sought a different opportunity. Deanna Leone, the associate dean of the College of Communications, said the College of Communications has also seen changes in staff and faculty and they are anticipating six retirements. “I think the economy is part of it. I think anytime people go through a major life change, they question how they want to spend their time. Anytime there’s a major economic shift, people question what they need to take care of themselves and their families,” Leone said. CSUF’s Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages program, which teaches English as a second language to aspiring English SEE STAFF