California State University Emeritus and Retired Faculty Association

CSU-ERFA is on Facebook. Click here to see our Facebook page.
CSU-ERFA Headquarters has new telephone numbers: Office (818) 677-6522, FAX (818) 677-6511
Starting May 16, 2016 CSU-ERFA Office Hours will be 9 AM to 3 PM Pacific Time, Monday through Thursday
CSU-ERFA 2017-18 Grant Awards Program Cycle begins July 1, 2017
CalPERS announces proposed health plan rates for 2018
CalPERS reports preliminary 11.2% return on investments for 2016-17 fiscal year
September 2017 issue of the Reporter (with two web extras) now available online
CalPERS Board Election Ballots to be mailed Sept. 1, 2017. Voting deadline Oct. 2, 2017
CalPERS health plans open enrollment period - Sept 11, 2017 to Oct. 6, 2011
Be wary of exorbitant roll-over fees when transferring investments into the CSU TSA program
Updated 2017 edition of the CSU-ERFA Survivor's Guide now available for purchase
Note - Deadline for the CSU-ERFA Grant Awards Proposals is Oct. 31, 2017

Our Mission

The California State University Emeritus and Retired Faculty Association (CSU-ERFA) is a statewide not-for-profit corporation devoted exclusively to addressing the concerns and protecting the rights of 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 retired CSU staff members and current CSU employees.

CSU-ERFA 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-ERFA 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 are invited and encouraged to join the association. Retired staff members who belong to local campus retired faculty organizations affiliated with CSU-ERFA are eligible for membership and are encouraged to join. CSU-ERFA dues range from $5 to $10 per month depending on the retiree's gross monthly retirement benefit from CalPERS (or in a few cases STRS). A portion of these dues is returned to the member's local affiliated campus retiree organization. The membership information page includes more details and a membership application.

Organization

CSU-ERFA'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-ERFA 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-ERFA 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-ERFA 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.

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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. As the following graphic shows, currently it costs the California taxpayer 22 cents to provide a dollar of deferred compensation even though the pension fund is recovering from one of the worst economic crises in U.S. history. The taxpayer contribution varies, and at times has been as low as 12.5 cents per dollar of deferred compensation. The contribution from investment earnings recently dropped slightly from 66 cents per dollar to 65 cents per dollar in the face of historically low interest rates.

Picture of CalPERS Pension Buck

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