Response to message from Provost and EVP of Academic Affairs Michael Brown

Dear Colleagues,

On Thursday, December 1, Senate faculty received a potentially misleading email from the President’s Office of the University of California, titled “Regarding Faculty Rights and Responsibilities,” and signed by Provost and Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs Michael Brown.

This communication fails to distinguish between being on strike and declining to pick up struck labor. It is the case that the university may dock pay for any faculty on strike, although it is unclear precisely how they would enforce that policy. Faculty pay can only be docked for the period during which they choose to strike, not for the duration of the multi-unit strike itself. While a partial strike by faculty can be unprotected, it is unclear what mechanism of reporting or tracking the University is using to determine whether faculty are continuing to engage in non-instructional labor, such as their own research. Similarly, it is also not apparent what mechanism of reporting would be used to discipline those they believed have violated the Faculty Code of Conduct by engaging in the unprotected activity of a partial strike if they had continued non-instructional labor whether for university service or their own research.

The vast majority of faculty have not been on strike; they have continued to teach their classes and to support the strike in other ways. However, UC is now asking Senate faculty to take up the struck labor of their ASEs on strike. Struck labor would include returning grades for classes with ASEs where ASEs are responsible for grading and/or grade submission. Refusing to do this additional labor, for no further compensation, does not represent being on strike. Refusing to pick up the struck labor of ASE grading is not the same as a sympathy strike, and so the issue of “all or nothing,” or “whole” or “partial” striking is irrelevant. Faculty have the HEERA-protected right not to take up this struck labor if they choose not to do so. And their pay cannot be docked for not picking up struck labor. If you choose not to pick up the struck labor of ASE grading, please register that here in this anonymous tally.

Senate faculty are being told that if they do not pick up the struck work of ASE grading some undergraduate students will be harmed. We share the concern for students that depend on their grades to access financial aid, to earn scholarships, and who need their grades for other reasons. However, it is the university’s responsibility to make contingency plans that ensure these students are not impacted by the strike, and some campuses have already communicated to undergraduates that such plans are in place. They have the capacity, as they did during the pandemic, to be flexible about grades and deadlines.

We urge all Senate faculty to support the multi-unit strike by graduate students, postdocs and student researchers. Low paid work and uncompetitive wages damage the capacity of the university to deliver world class teaching and research. You have HEERA protected legal rights to go on strike, and yet it is critical not to confuse that with your right to refuse to take up the additional struck labor of grading.