News

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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…

  • New Book “Understanding Academic Freedom”

    Byadmin

    Hank Reichman — professor emeritus of history at California State University, East Bay; former AAUP vice-president and president of the AAUP Foundation; and from 2012-2021 Chair of AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure — has just published a new book: Understanding Academic Freedom. Hank describes the book: My purpose in writing Understanding was to provide a concise (the book is just 205 pages minus notes and index) and accessible introduction to the concept of academic freedom as practiced and preached in the U.S. (mostly by the AAUP) and an overview of both historic and contemporary challenges to it….

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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…

  • Faculty at U of Georgia will Defy Anti Mask Rules

    Byadmin

    More than 50 faculty members in the life sciences at the University of Georgia have declared their intent to require masks in their classrooms, even though doing so is a violation of the University System of Georgia’s rules. More details at the Academe Blog. Ironically, it is those who most loudly and thoughtlessly lay claim to some twisted notion of individual “freedom” who would use the power of the state and university administration to constrict the academic freedom of the faculty to teach in safety. That scientists are taking the lead in standing up to this ill-advised policy is potentially…

  • AAUP has published volume 12 of the Journal of Academic Freedom

    Byadmin

    Volume 12 of the Journal of Academic Freedom is available online. The theme of the volume this year is “Practices of Academic Freedom in Times of Austerity.” Here is a portion of an introduction to the volume from its co-editors, Rachel Ida Buff and S. Ani Mukherji: Our call for papers asked potential contributors to consider the relation of academic freedom struggles to broader movements and to envision the university in the larger context of the world and its historical processes. We focused on concrete practices, gathering examples as material for reflection and encouragements for further experiments in transformative change—change…

  • AAUP’s Report Shows Growth of Contingent Faculty and Management

    Bycucfastaff

    The AAUP has conducted surveys for its Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession and is now publishing some results on their Academe Blog. Earlier we had linked to their first post from that data, which examines the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on faculty salaries and benefits for both tenure-line and non-tenure-track faculty. Their second post based on that report is now up and it explores contingency and administrative growth. “The steady rise of contingent faculty appointments and the growth of administration in higher education present a significant threat to academic freedom and shared governance.”

  • 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…

  • AAUP’s Report Shows Worsening Economic Crisis in Higher Education

    Bycucfastaff

    The AAUP has conducted surveys for its Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession and is now publishing some results on their Academe Blog. Their first post based on the report examines the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on faculty salaries and benefits for both tenure-line and non-tenure-track faculty. “Key findings include: 55 percent of institutions implemented salary freezes or reductions. 28 percent of institutions eliminated or reduced some form of fringe benefits. Almost 5 percent of institutions terminated the appointments of at least some full-time tenure-line faculty members. Almost 20 percent terminated the appointments of or…

  • 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…