Author: higbie

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Faculty statements on campus protest crackdown

Byhigbie

We will update this page as more statements come in… Departmental Statements Chicana/o and Central American Studies Faculty Statement Asian American Studies Department Solidarity Statement Statement of Members of the Department of History in Response to Clearing the Encampment, 2 May 2024 Statement of Members of the Department of Classics on the University’s Failure to Protect Student Protestors Statement by Members of the Department of English, Comparative Literature, and Writing Programs in response to the forcible removal of the Student Encampment  Statement of Members of the UCLA Department of History Faculty in Response to the Attack on the Encampment on…

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Faculty associations address UCOP

Byhigbie

The UCLA Faculty Association is part of a UC-wide coalition of faculty associations known as CUCFA–the Coalition of UC Faculty Associations. Through CUCFA, UC faculty are able to address the UC Office of the President on issues of importance to faculty, their students, and staff. Below is a round-up of recent communication between CUCFA and UCOP. UC Union Coalition on Health Insurance Costs CUCFA signed on to a joint letter from unions representing employees across the UC system expressing concern with large increases in the cost of health insurance. The unions requested a meeting to “address what appears to be…

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Post-strike grading

Byhigbie

The UAW strike is over, but considerable fall quarter grading remains unfinished. Senate and Unit-18 faculty are not obliged and cannot be compelled to complete grading that was assigned to readers and graduate student instructors during the fall quarter. The university can hire readers and teaching assistants (including those employed during the fall) to complete the grading with appropriate compensation. Leaders of UC Faculty Associations, UC-AFT, and UAW issued a letter to UCOP Labor Relations calling for central funding of the extra costs associated with completing fall grading. You can read the letter here and below: January 4, 2023 Letitia…

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Open Letter: Senate faculty support UC-AFT strike, November 17-18

Byhigbie

UC-AFT and the UC reached a tentative agreement and the strike is cancelled. Read the details here: https://ucaft.org/content/uc-aft-teaching-faculty-reach-historic-agreement. Thanks to all who signed our letter of solidarity. To the UCLA Community: We the undersigned Senate faculty stand in solidarity with our fellow faculty represented by the University Council-American Federation of Teachers (UC-AFT). Lecturers across the UC system have been working without a contract for more than two years. They charge the university with bad faith bargaining, which is a violation of state law, and they plan to strike on November 17 and 18. This situation is intolerable and we call…

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UC-AFT Strike: Nov 17-18

Byhigbie

Non-tenure faculty across the University of California voted for a two-day strike this week, November 17 and 18. UC-AFT lecturers have been working without a contract for more than two years, and they charge the university with several unfair labor practices including refusal to bargain on key issues. Lecturers teach as much as a third of courses across the University of California. They have little or no job security, and are paid much less than faculty on a per class basis. These conditions undermine faculty welfare and threaten the future of public higher education. The UCLA Faculty Association/AAUP stands in…

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Update on UC-AFT negotiations: 10/21, 7-8 PM

Byhigbie

With a possible strike by our lecturer colleagues on the horizon this quarter, the UCLA Faculty Association invites you to a virtual town hall hosted by the Council of UC Faculty Associations (CUCFA) with representatives from the lecturers’ union, UC-AFT. University administrators likely have sent you their spin about UCOP’s latest proposal to UC-AFT, but what they undoubtedly have not told you is that President Drake’s representatives have thus far refused, despite three requests from UC-AFT, to schedule a bargaining session to discuss the proposal. Take-it-or-leave-it bargaining that deprives a party of the opportunity to ask questions, achieve understanding, and present a counterproposal…

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Solidarity with UC Lecturers

Byhigbie

After two years working without a contract, Unit 18 lecturers have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike. Non-tenure lecturers affiliated with the UC-AFT (University Council-American Federation of Teachers) teach 30% of classes on UC campuses. Often they have the same training and credentials as tenure system faculty, but they have little job security, often hiring on by the course for low salaries, and forced to re-apply each year for their jobs. Lecturers are demanding greater job security, improved salaries and benefits, and a more transparent appointment process. So far, university negotiators have not met their demands. According to UCLA lecturer…

Higher Ed Labor United Vision Platform

Byhigbie

Over the summer, Faculty Associations on University of California campuses joined over 75 organizations representing over 300,000 academic workers in a statement on the future of higher education. The Higher Education Labor Summit’s statements, Building a Movement to Transform U.S. Higher Education, calls for greater federal investment to reverse declining conditions in universities. The statement emphasizes a commitment to shared governance across various employee groups, and strongly backs academic freedom. The summit also called on organizations representing higher education employees to work together to achieve these goals. University of California Faculty Associations endorsed the summit’s statement, which you can read…

Faculty call for pause on budget & network security changes at UCLA

Byhigbie

Over 250 UCLA faculty, including a large number of department chairs and center directors, have written Chancellor Block with a detailed critique of plans for administrative centralization. The letter follows earlier exchanges between department chairs and Executive Vice Chancellor/Provost Emily Carter and other top administrators. “Although we appreciated the fora that EVC/P Carter recently organized in response to an earlier letter requesting more time to evaluate the re-organization plans she is proposing, we continue to feel that there has been insufficient time or detail to evaluate their consequences and that we have not been adequately involved in the consultation process,”…

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Academic Council knocks UCOP data policy

Byhigbie

The Academic Council of the UC Academic Senate called for significant revisions to a proposed new university policy on “Research Data and Tangible Research Materials.” The Council characterized the proposed policy as, “overly broad, difficult to enforce, and a potential danger to faculty intellectual property.” Previously, the Berkeley Faculty Association criticized the policy as a solution in search of a problem, and a danger to faculty academic freedom. As the BFA noted, the policy opens with a sweeping assertion of new university rights, “The Regents of the University of California owns all Research Data and Tangible Research Materials,” and goes…