California State University Emeritus & Retired Faculty & Staff Association

 
Our Story

Our Story

CSU-ERFSA was founded in 1985 in response to threats and attempts to reduce or eliminate CSU retirees rights, privileges and benefits and to support the activity of retired faculty and staff as continuing members of the California State University community. Anyone who has retired from the CSU system and is receiving a pension from CalPERS based on that service is eligible to join CSU-ERFSA.

Since its founding in 1985, CSU-ERFSA (formerly CSU-ERFA) has centered its activities on the protection and enhancement of retiree benefits. A few of its accomplishments include:

  1. Leading the development of the PERS Long Term Care Partnership option.
  2. Being instrumental in stopping the use of $2 billion from PERS pension supplemental funds to offset the state budget. These funds might be used to lessen retiree losses due to inflation .
  3. Supporting adoption of Proposition 162, the Pension Protection Initiative, which was a result of the combined efforts of CSU-ERFSA and a coalition of senior groups. It was approved by the California voters and is now part of the California Constitution (Art. XVI, Sect. 17).
  4. Keeping a close watch on the investment and use of PERS funds because legislative action and court decisions could diminish the intended effect of Proposition 162.
  5. Successfully supported adoption by the CSU Board of Trustees of a resolution recognizing Emeritus faculty as continuing members of the academic community.

Visit our accomplishments page to view a more detailed list of CSU-ERFSA accomplishments on behalf of its members and all CSU retirees.

The Association publishes a newsletter, the Reporter, four times a year. This journal keeps members informed about pending legislation in the state legislature and Congress, as well as actions of public executive officers, the office of the CSU Chancellor, and the Board of Trustees that could affect member benefits, rights, or privileges. CSU-ERFSA also sends those members who request it a yearly pocket calendar that includes important addresses of CSU-ERFSA officers, campus retiree organizations, and members of the PERS Administrative Board.

Organization

The State Council is the governing body of CSU-ERFSA.  It includes CSU-ERFSA officers, executive committee members-at-large, delegates from campus affiliated organization, nine at-large delegates, chairs of CSU-ERFSA's standing committees, and ex officio members.  The State Council meets twice a year.

The Executive Committee is comprised of the CSU-ERFSA president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, past president, executive director, the editor of the Reporter, the CSU-ERFSA website administrator, and the Chairs of the legislative, health benefits, membership, and grant awards committees.

In addition, CSU-ERFSA currently has five standing committees, an archivist, and liaisons to the California Faculty Association and the CSU Academic Senate.

The CSU-ERFSA Constitution and By-laws are available to download:

CSU-ERFSA Constitution CSU-ERFSA By-Laws

Administrative Staff

The day-to-day operations of CSU-ERFSA are carried out by a small paid staff consisting of our Executive Director, and Office Manager who work out of the Retiree Center at Cal State Northridge.

Our Mission

The California State University Emeritus and Retired Faculty and Staff Association (CSU-ERFSA) is a statewide not-for-profit corporation devoted exclusively to addressing the concerns and protecting the rights of all retired California State University faculty and staff. We work on behalf of the more than 9,000 retired faculty members from the 23 campuses of the California State University system, as well as on behalf of all retired CSU staff members and current CSU employees.

CSU-ERFSA represents the interests of its membership before the state legislature and federal government, various state and federal agencies, CalPERS, and the California State University Chancellor's Office.

CSU-ERFSA also maintains liaison with individual campus emeriti and retiree organizations, the CSU Academic Senate, the California Faculty Association (CFA), the California State Employees Association (CSEA), the California State Coalition of Retired Employees (SCORE), and the Retired Public Employees Association of California (RPEA).

Membership

All retired and emeritus California State University faculty members - including those currently in the Faculty Early Retirement Program (FERP) - and all retired CSU staff members are invited and encouraged to join. CSU-ERFSA dues range from $5 to $10 per month depending on the retiree's gross monthly retirement benefit from CalPERS. A portion of these dues is returned to the member's local affiliated campus retiree organization if any. The membership information page includes more details and a membership application.

Organization

CSU-ERFSA's organizational structure includes the State Council, the Executive Committee, several standing committees, liaisons to CFA and the CSU Academic Senate, an executive director and a small administrative staff. The CSU-ERFSA Reporter is the quarterly newsletter of the association.

Key Issues

Two key issues confront our membership today. In recent years the pension benefits for CSU faculty and staff members have been under attack, as they were when CSU-ERFSA was founded in 1985. Initiatives that would replace our current defined benefit retirement plans with defined contribution plans for new CSU employees would provide less security for future retirees and would weaken the existing pensions system for current retirees. Rapid increases in health care costs during the past decade have reduced the health benefit choices available to retired and current CSU employees, and have increased the out-of-pocket expenses that retired and current employees must bear. CSU-ERFSA has had a number of successes in protecting both pension and health benefits for retired CSU employees over the years. We continue to make pension and health care benefits our highest priority.

Pensions

Pensions are a form of deferred compensation. CSU faculty, staff, and administrators receive salaries that generally are lower than are paid for comparable positions at other universities in the United States. Some of that difference is made up by better pension and health care benefits. Because of the structure of the CalPERS defined benefit pension program with its history of strong investment returns, the public is able to provide deferred compensation (pensions) at a much lower cost than providing direct salary enhancements. Averaging over the past two decades, 56 cents of every CalPERS pension dollar paid out has come from earnings on investments and another 11 cents from the contributions of CalPERS members. The remaining 33 cents came from employer (agency) contributions, which were funded by taxpayers.