UCLA FA Board Elections

The current Executive Board is an interim one formed in May 2024. Having ratified our bylaws in Fall 2024, the FA is following the elections provisions, including appointing an Elections Committee to nominate a slate of nominees in preparation for elections to be held in January. The FA Executive Board elections will be conducted electronically. Ballots will be issued on January 10, 2025, and members will be given two weeks to cast their ballot. Ballots will close on January 24, and the results will be announced by February.

After the Elections Committee announces its nominations and before voting begins, members shall have an opportunity to nominate additional candidates by petition. Any eligible candidate may be placed on the ballot by petition to the Secretary of at least ten members in good standing. The Elections Committee has decided to give a nearly one-month period for petition from December 10, given that this is the holiday season. FA members have until January 9 to email uclafa.assist@gmail.com their proposed candidate, with at least nine other FA members cc’ed.

We have asked the candidates to submit very brief statements of introduction, which we are posting below as we receive them:

Current Candidates:

Anna Markowitz, Associate Professor, Department of Education: Anna Markowitz is the acting president of the UCLA FA Executive Committee. She is a developmental psychologist and quantitative policy analyst. She is committed to supporting faculty rights in an era of administrative creep, and eager to help in the return of the decision-making power of the institution to the individuals who do the most for its academic mission.

Liz Koslov, Assistant Professor, Urban Planning, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, and Sociology: I started working at UCLA in 2018, became a parent in 2020, and joined the FA in Jan 2023 in the aftermath of the strike (during my PhD at NYU I was a member of GSOC-UAW Local 2110, a formative experience). I’m currently an LgA rep for the IoES. I’m excited to support the FA’s organizing, advocacy for faculty rights and welfare, and actions in solidarity with students and colleagues.

Mia McIver, Continuing Lecturer, Writing Programs: Mia McIver is a Continuing Lecturer in Writing Programs. She serves as the elected chair of Higher Ed Labor United, a nationwide coalition that seeks to reclaim higher education as a public good.

Michael Chwe, Professor, Department of Political Science: I helped coordinate a group of faculty and staff to support the 2022 grad student academic worker strike, including showing up at picket lines with a banner and getting the word out about grade withholding. We also helped support the protest and free expression rights of our students, staff, and faculty during and after the encampment in Spring 2024, by holding press conferences, readings, and other events.

Miloš Jovanović, Assistant Professor, History: I want to work towards an FA that is an all-faculty organization, based on democratic principles. Expanding membership, creating spaces for debate in meetings and forums, educating and learning from other faculty in 1-1 conversations. I hope to continue my work in organizing faculty and helping other faculty become organizers. You and your colleagues have the power to change UCLA. Let’s build that power together.

Noah Zatz, Professor of Law & Labor Studies: This past year, I have been active as a rank-and-file member in FA efforts conceiving and crafting our Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charge over campus repression of faculty involvement in Palestine and labor solidarity work and in developing our new FA Bylaws. Since November, I have served as an appointed member of the FA’s Interim Executive Board. I regularly write for public audiences about labor & employment law topics, including ones specific to the UC system.

Raphael Rouquier, Distinguished Professor, Department of Mathematics: I have been at UCLA for 14 years and I am currently serving in various capacities for my department, division, and the Academic Senate.

Robin D. G. Kelley, Distinguished Professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair, History: A UCLA alum (PhD ’87), I am a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Scholars for Social Justice, recipient of a Freedom Scholar Award, and author of several books, including Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression, and Our History Has Always Been Contraband: In Defense of Black Studies, co-edited with Colin Kaepernick and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor.

Susan Slyomovics, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Near Eastern Languages & Cultures: I am a scholar of the Middle East/North Africa region. I’m committed to making the UCLA FA into a member-based union that strengthens shared governance, defends due process, and participates in social justice struggles.