The Brief

California State University faculty walked off the job Monday, effectively ending classes for more than 450,000 students. By the end of the day, their union had agreed to terms with the university’s management after months of fruitless bargaining.

By Tuesday morning, faculty had started doing a lot of math.

The California Faculty Association represents 29,000 professors, lecturers, coaches, librarians, and counselors. They've been negotiating with the university system for months, looking for better pay, working conditions, family leave, and safety provisions.

Monday night's agreement meant classes started to resume immediately.

"With the agreement in place, I look forward to advancing our student-centered work — together — as the nation's greatest driver of social mobility and the pipeline fueling California's diverse and educated workforce," said CSU Chancellor Mildred García in a statement.

What's in the deal?

The fine print is still being worked out, but CFA issued a news release late Monday night noting the following terms:

Salary: CFA had sought a 12% raise for its members. The university's leaders had maintained that meeting CFA's demands would be financially unsustainable, and countered with a series of 5% raises, only one of them guaranteed, and the others contingent on future state funding.

The final deal offers a 5% general salary increase for all faculty retroactive to July 1, 2023. Faculty would get an additional 5% general salary increase on July 1, 2024, contingent on the state not reducing base funding to the CSU.

Lower-paid faculty will see a "service salary increase" of 2.65% for 2024-25. CFA expects that about 30-35% of members will benefit. They'll also receive an additional $3,000 raises retroactive to last July. The lowest-paid faculty will receive another such raise this July.

Working conditions: Faculty have said that they're often not compensated for "extra" work, like mentoring and counseling.

"We attend events with [students], organize events for them, write grants for those events, and teach them networking at those events," Griselda Suarez, a lecturer at Cal State Long Beach, told LAist.

The deal would provide "support for lecturer engagement in service work," but the announcement didn't offer further details.

Family leave: A four-week increase in paid parental leave, for a total of 10 weeks.

Safety: The deal will allow for a union rep in police interactions with faculty. It will also "(improve) access" to gender-inclusive restrooms and lactation spaces, and create a pathway to monitor issues around access.

“The collective action of so many lecturers, professors, counselors, librarians, and coaches over these last eight months forced CSU management to take our demands seriously," CFA President Charles Toombs said. "This Tentative Agreement makes major gains for all faculty at the CSU."

Julia Barajas contributed reporting to this story.

A slow leak from a chemical tank smeared an orange cloud across the sky of a Southern California neighborhood on Tuesday, but authorities said they quickly got it under control.

Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Aaron Katon said authorities responded to a business that makes cleaning products after receiving a call shortly before noon about the cloud. Police evacuated a nearby middle school as a precaution, Katon said.

They do not yet know what the chemical was, but all shelter-in-place orders have been lifted, he said. The regional air quality management district has deployed staff to the area to investigate, said Connie Villanueva, a spokesperson for the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

The company, Shepard Bros., could not immediately be reached for comment.

Three company employees reported minor respiratory irritation and declined further treatment, Katon said.

The leak occurred in the city of La Habra near a mix of residential neighborhoods and industrial warehouses about 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of Anaheim.

Keary Godinez, who works in a nearby restaurant, said she saw what appeared to be a dark yellow cloud spread across the sky. The 20-year-old said she watched students across the street board buses to evacuate, but police told her the eatery could remain open.

“It looked like pollen dust,” Godinez said, adding she didn’t detect a smell from the cloud. “It just kind of smeared in the sky and started going away.”

La Habra Mayor Jose Medrano had urged residents to shelter in place and said some streets were being evacuated.

Luis Gomez, who manages a nearby pickleball program, said earlier Tuesday he saw the cloud, called police and was told anyone within a mile radius of the location was under an evacuation order.

The Los Angeles Lakers will unveil a statue of former coach Phil Jackson outside their downtown arena next year.

The Lakers announced the plan Tuesday to honor Jackson, who led the Lakers to five championships and seven NBA Finals appearances during two stints totaling 11 seasons as their head coach.

The statue will be unveiled April 9 before the Lakers’ home game against Minnesota.

After his famed tenure leading Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls to six championships, Jackson joined the Lakers in 1999 and immediately began another era of major success for the 17-time NBA champion franchise.

His first three teams in Los Angeles won championships behind the dynamic duo of Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal, and the Lakers added two more titles in 2009 and 2010 led by Bryant and Pau Gasol. His Lakers also made the NBA Finals in 2004 and 2008.

Jackson set the Lakers franchise record for coaches with 610 victories while leading his teams to the playoffs in every year of his tenure, which ended in 2011.

“Phil Jackson defines championship basketball for a reason,” Lakers governor Jeanie Buss said in a statement. “His masterful approach to coaching brought out the best in some of the greatest athletes to ever play the game. After he accepted my dad’s invitation to join the Lakers, Phil’s unmatched creativity and commitment to excellence restored our championship legacy, bringing five titles and setting a standard of excellence for generations to come. It is a great joy to be able to mark that achievement with the statue he so richly deserves.”

Jackson will be the ninth person associated with the Lakers to be honored with a statue in Star Plaza outside their arena. He joins Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Bryant, O’Neal, broadcaster Chick Hearn and former coach Pat Riley, whose statue was unveiled earlier this year.

Jackson’s 11 championships as a head coach are the most in NBA history. The North Dakota native and former New York Knicks forward is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.