CUCFA

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Faculty File Historic Academic Freedom Unfair Labor Practice Charges Against UC

Byadmin

Faculty from across the UC system — long synonymous with the Free Speech Movement — have organized to fight a systematic, illegal campaign to repress academic freedom  via cucfa.org Los Angeles, CA – Today, the Council of University of California Faculty Associations (CUCFA) and faculty associations from seven University of California (UC) campuses filed an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charge against the UC administration with the California Public Employee Relations Board (PERB). This systemwide ULP filing builds on a filing by the UCLA Faculty Association this spring. It asserts that UC violated the law, its own policies, and both the…

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What to do when grades come due? CUCFA Virtual Town Hall, Fri 7/7 @ noon

Byadmin

Many UCLA faculty are teaching courses with TAs who are on strike, and therefore striking TAs may not be grading final assignments and exams. What does this mean for us as faculty? What does it mean for our undergraduates, their courses, and their final grades?  The UCLA Faculty Association invites all UCLA faculty to participate in a Virtual Town Hall Meeting this Friday, June 7 from 12-1PM hosted by CUCFA (Council of UC Faculty Associations). This meeting is intended to be an opportunity for faculty to think through and share the policies that have been devised by other faculty at…

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Report from the National AAUP Convention

Byadmin

Council of UC Faculty Associations (CUCFA, of which UCLA-FA is the UCLA chapter) President Constance Penley attended the historic National AAUP convention on June 16-18 in Arlington, VA, as the CUCFA delegate, which meant that she had an opportunity to vote on the proposed alliance between the AAUP and the AFT (AFL-CIO) and to fill six open AAUP Council seats. Read her report from the Convention at the CUCFA website.

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AAUP / AFT Affiliation Agreement

Byadmin

The AAUP and AFT have drafted a new affiliation agreement that will be voted on at the June AAUP meeting. Some details: “Under the terms of this affiliation agreement, all AAUP members, by virtue of their membership in the AAUP, will also be members of the AFT/AFL-CIO… AAUP members and AAUP chapters will have access to AFT support and services, including specific AFT member benefits… This affiliation will not result in an increase in national AAUP dues and, for current AAUP members, AFT per capita will be covered as part of the AAUP dues… The national AAUP and its chapters…

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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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UCOP Response to CUCFA on Health Options

Byhigbie

In April, the Council of UC Faculty Associations drafted a letter of concern over proposed changes to UC employee health insurance options. Over 2,500 faculty system-wide added their names in support of these concerns. Now we have a response from the UC Office of the President (UCOP): Subject: Health care options letter Date: Wed, 6 May 2015 23:40:06 +0000 From: President at UCOP dot edu To: info at cucfa dot org Dear Professor Hays: Thank you for sharing the Council of UC Faculty Associations’ letter of April 7 to President Napolitano regarding the possible restructuring of healthcare plans available to…

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UCOP Study Shows Decline in Faculty Compensation

Byhigbie

A year ago Colleen Lye and James Vernon, co-chairs of the Berkeley Faculty Association, drew the attention of faculty across the ten campuses of the University of California to the continuing degradation of their pensions, benefits and salaries. Increasing employee contributions to health insurance and pensions were compounding the negative impact of slow salary group, they argued, and retirees faced fewer choices for healthcare. Now UCOP’s own study of total remuneration has confirmed much of their argument. The executive summary of this document contains the following depressing bullet points: Between 2009 and 2014, UC’s total remuneration fell from 2% below…

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CUCFA Statement on “Civility” and Academic Freedom

Byhigbie

This week the Council of University of California Faculty Associations (CUCFA), with representatives from 9 UC campuses including UCLA, issued the a statement reflecting concern over academic freedom cases around the country: Statement on “Civility” and Academic Freedom On Friday Sept. 5, Chancellor Dirks of UC Berkeley circulated an open statement to his campus community that sought to define the limits of appropriate debate at Berkeley. Issued as the campus approaches the 50th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement, Chancellor Dirks’ statement, with its evocation of civility, echoes language recently used by the Chancellor of the University of Illinois, Urbana…

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UCLA FA to Rejoin CUCFA

Byhigbie

Some years ago the UCLA Faculty Association was a member of Council of University of California Faculty Associations (CUCFA), but dropped out.  With new leadership at CUCFA and the UCLA FA, it seemed like a good time to revisit our membership in the Council, and recently the Executive Board voted unanimously to pursue a renewed membership with CUCFA. What is CUCFA you ask? CUCFA (or “the Council”) is a coalition of the faculty associations at University of California campuses.  Each campus chapter is an independent organization with the Council serving as a coordinating and information sharing body.  Each campus chapter…

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The Degradation of Faculty Welfare and Compensation

Byuclafaculty

Colleen Lye and James Vernon (UC Berkeley Faculty Association) UC faculty need to wake up to the systematic degradation of their pay and benefits.  In 2009, when the salary furlough temporarily cut faculty salaries between 6 and 10%, faculty were outraged.  Yet since then our compensation has been hit by a more serious, and seemingly permanent, double blow. First, despite modest salary rises of 3% and 2% in October 2011 and July 2013, faculty take-home pay has been effectively cut as employee contributions to pension and healthcare have escalated.  Faculty now pay more for retirement and healthcare programs that offer less.  Secondly, faculty are…