Thousands of faculty members took to the streets Tuesday during the first day of “Informational Picketing” to raise awareness about issues frustrating the California State University faculty, including CFA’s fight for fairness in bargaining with the CSU chancellor and that he pay the modest raises recommended by two different fact-finding reports.

At San Francisco State, 300 demonstrators picketed the main entrance at Holloway and 19th Avenues. The action drew hundreds of onlookers, dozens of media outlets and countless honks from passing cars.

In Sacramento, faculty members held an early morning picket on J Street that drew scores of faculty members as well as support from Assemblymember Richard Pan.

At Dominguez Hills, faculty held a spirited march around campus and through buildings, with frequent rally stops to chant via “human microphone” about faculty working conditions and student learning conditions. Faculty members on the march and on the way to class stopped at a table to sign up for picket shifts next week when the faculty goes on strike. An overhead airplane pulled a banner declaring the Nov 17 strike.

At press time, accounts of successful picket lines on other campuses flowed in from up and down the state.

View pictures and video of these events being posted over the coming days on the CFA Facebook page and also in the Action Gallery on the CFA website.

As Tuesday wound to a close, CFA President Lillian Taiz took stock of the day saying, “We are seeing a growing movement amongst rank and file faculty members who are ready to stand up and take action against the Chancellor’s misplaced priorities. Like so many other people in this country, we have been making so many sacrifices – working more and being paid less – and like so many of them we are finally standing and saying, “Enough is Enough.”

“The winds of changes are shifting and are now very much at our backs as we approach the Nov 17, one-day strikes at CSU East Bay and Dominguez Hills,” she said.