CFA-SJSU Candidates for Unity and Action 2024

Dear Colleagues,

I am nearing the end of my first term as your CFA chapter president. It has been one of the greatest honors of my life to have been elected to serve the faculty at San Jose State University.

Today, I ask for your vote to serve as your president for another two years.

We are much stronger now than we were two years ago when the pandemic helped create the conditions for disunity and internal strife. Two years ago, as a candidate, I ran on a platform of “Unity and Action.” As your president, I pledge to continue to keep the peace within our chapter. While there are many voices and views among us, we must make solidarity a priority in order to create the broad coalition of diverse faculty to allow us to advance our cause and hold the line against an ever-encroaching management bent on weakening our collective power.

Over the last two years, I have worked with leaders on the CFA -SJSU Executive Board to unify the chapter to work towards shared goals: defending faculty rights under the contract, defending shared governance, and organizing faculty to collectively fight for a fair contract. Importantly,  we have strengthened the chapter’s ability to govern itself by establishing meeting protocols that ensure all Executive Board and committee members have a voice and stake in the collective work we do.

In the defense of faculty rights, we have used diplomacy effectively to solve some of our problems with management. When that didn’t work, we filed grievances that were well grounded in the contract, winning some important cases and setting precedents at arbitration. I pledge to continue to uphold California and United States labor laws and protect CFA assets by fulfilling CFA’s legal obligation to defend all faculty who request assistance.

CFA has increased its presence on the Academic Senate. I was elected by College of Social Sciences’ department chairs to be an interim senator last fall and elected by the college this semester as a senator to serve this coming fall until 2027.

We have organized department chairs around the university through the University Council of Chairs and Directors with the help of their Vice Chair and CFA-SJSU UCCD representative Janet Stemwedel in order to communicate important CFA messaging and offer chairs contract training, particularly on the lecturers’ order of work provision (12.29).

We organized a historic strike on our campus in January with over two hundred people on the picket lines in the rain on Monday, January 22, and almost four hundred more signed up to take strike shifts throughout the week. In the last two years, we have recruited hundreds of new members, many of them in the ten months before the strike. That said, we still have considerable work to do to make the chapter even stronger to support CFA efforts to secure economic and social justice when the whole contract is opened in 2025.

I also ask for your help to elect and reelect proven leaders to the CFA-SJSU Executive Board this election. Your vote for my team and me will confirm that we have the popular support needed to govern and organize effectively.

Janet Stemwedel for Vice President. Janet is the Vice Chair of the University Council of Chairs and Directors, and has represented that body on the Executive Board since June 2022. She also serves on the Faculty Rights Committee and is the chair of the department of Philosophy. Please
vote for Janet Stemwedel for Vice President!

Karin Jeffery for Treasurer. Karin has been serving as your chapter Vice President and Membership and Organizing Chair since June 2022. She is a senior lecturer and the department representative for Psychology. Karin promises fiscal transparency to the membership by regularly reporting on the chapter’s finances. Please vote for Karin Jeffery as Treasurer!

Sabrina Pinnell for Secretary. Sabrina has worked tirelessly as your chapter secretary, communications committee chair, and contract action team (CAT) leader. We would not have been able to organize as effectively our campus without her. Please vote to reelect Sabrina Pinnell as Secretary!

Alicia Henderson for Lecturers Representative. Over the last two years, Alicia has worked to defend and advance lectures’ faculty rights and organized informational discussions such as the “Nuts & Bolts” and “Range Elevation” workshops. Please vote to reelect Alicia Henderson!

Chris Cox for Council for Racial & Social Justice Representative & Chapter CRSJ Committee Chair. Chris Cox has done incredible work as an Associate Vice President at the state level, having helped design the CFA Equity Conference among many other things. Please vote to reelect Chris Cox as Council for Racial & Social Justice Representative & Chapter CRSJ Committee Chair.

Andrew Delunas for Delegate-at-Large. Andrew currently serves as a college representative for the College of Humanities and the Arts. As the deputy contract bargaining team leader, he did whatever was needed to help organize the labor action. Andrew is the ultimate team player. Please vote for Andrew Delunas for Delegate-at-Large.

Kevin Moore for Delegate-at-Large. Kevin has served as your delegate since June 2022 and has been activist serving in a number of roles in his 24 years at SJSU, including as a member of the faculty rights committee for more than ten years. Please vote to reelect Kevin Moore as Delegate-at-Large.

Thank you,

Ray Buyco
CFA-SJSU Chapter President