About 70 professors picketed, chanted and danced on campus Nov. 9 to protest long-stalled contract negotiations with CSU trustees.

The teachers did a flash mob to the Aretha Franklin song “Think” (“you better think about what you’re trying to do to me”), marched around campus and chanted about their desire for a new contract.

The protestors hoped to raise awareness about contract issues between the California State University system and the California Faculty Association, which represents 23,000 teachers and support staff at 23 CSU campuses statewide. The teachers have been working without a contract since June of last year, when the previous three-year agreement expired. The teachers and support staff are upset about university funding cuts, growing class sizes and a wage freeze caused by statewide budget cuts.

Don Barrett, CFA chapter president at Cal State San Marcos, said the protest drew a small crowd of students, including a few who joined in.

Last week, faculty at the CSU East Bay and Dominguez Hills campuses held a one-day strike, the first in CFA history, Barrett said.

“We’ve never struck before,” he said. “In the past, we had to threaten to strike to get the chancellor’s office moving and this time we felt we needed to go on strike. I want to be clear, the strike was not over the lack of a contract but over salary issues that happened over the previous contract. The strike reflected the chancellor’s decision to not treat the faculty fairly.”