I find that the three major administrative problems on a campus are sex for the students, athletics for the alumni and parking for the faculty.

—Clark Kerr Chancellor University of California 1952-1967

I am not entirely sure but I think that CSU Chancellor Charlie Reed has given up on one of the three purported major administrative problems of a university leader: Faculty parking.  According to the CFA bargaining team, which met with the Chancellor’s negotiating team today (November 18):

…we asked if management had any new proposals that were responsive to ours or that modified their take-backs, they provided a proposal that added yet another take-back—removal of any limits on increased costs for faculty parking.

So there you have it. In my estimation the Chancellor has no interest in bargaining. If he did he would hardly propose to hit the faculty where it really hurts: In the parking place.

It seems the CFA bargaining team made the same calculation:

After a caucus, our team informed management that we were convinced the Chancellor was not interested in reaching an agreement at the bargaining table.  The bargaining team announced that CFA was declaring impasse immediately and thereby moving us to the next stage in the statutory process, mediation.

Hold your breath folks. In all seriousness here folks a proposal as patently offensive and malicious as this one signals that the Chancellor has no intention of compromise. He and his very highly paid ($4,209 a day!) union-busting consultants figure the faculty will blink. We shall see.