Category Archives (2009-2017)

Statement on the nomination of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education

The Campaign for the Future of Higher Education is trying to prevent the confirmation of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education.  The SCFA supports this campaign and encourages colleagues to call our senators (phone numbers below). As well, please forward…

* CUCFA’s Letter to the President of Long Island University

September 7, 2016 As you may already know, three days ago, President of Long Island University Kimberly R. Cline and the Board of Trustees locked out the faculty of the LIU Brooklyn Campus. After contract negotiations on a new contract…

* Alarming Changes to UC Regent’s Governance Structure

This issue was voted on by the Regents on July 20, 2016, and  passed unanimously.  We fear that this change will make it more difficult for us all to monitor policies that affect students, faculty, staff and the public. Regents…

* Act now to stop UC pension benefit reductions

We urge you to participate in the UCSC Academic Senate Meeting where the pension proposals will be discussed. Friday, February 12, at 2:30 in the Stevenson Events Center. The University of California is currently considering introducing a new pension plan…

* UC task force considering pension cuts

If you are concerned about a further erosion of compensation at UC, the November 5, 2015 communication from CUCFA explains what you can do to make your views known. We urge you to follow the link for an explanation of…

* Statement by CUCFA and AAUP on Regent Blum’s Remarks

The Council of University of California Faculty Associations and the American Association of University Professors write to protest the following remarks made by University of California Regent Richard Blum and then supported by Regent Hadi Makarechian during the discussion of…

* Statement to UC Regents about new UCRS tier

Professor Celeste Langan spoke on behalf of the UC Faculty Associations at the July 22, 2015 UC Regents meeting during the public comment period. Below is a copy of her full comments: *********************** As co-Chair of the Berkeley Faculty Association…

* Faculty Association Analysis of the UC Budget

The Council of University of California Faculty Associations (CUCFA) has released the following statement to help inform faculty about the terms and consequences of the revised budget. The May Revise As the Legislature and Governor enter the end game for…

* Update on the UC Healthcare Options Discussion

This past February, the Council of UC Faculty Associations (CUCFA) became aware that the UC administration was considering plans to restructure the health benefits for all University of California employees. At a meeting of the UC Senate Faculty Welfare Committee, John Stobo, Vice…

* Report on the SCFA Budget Cut Impact Survey

Deeply concerned about the effects of UC-systemwide and campus budget cuts since 2008, in winter 2014, the Santa Cruz Faculty Association sponsored a program of Small Grants for Creative Response to the Crisis in Education. One of the awards was granted to conduct a Budget Cut Impact Survey to assess and evaluate the particular impacts of those cuts on faculty teaching and morale at UCSC. This report contains the results of that survey. These results seem particularly timely given current discussions about budget cuts we may be facing again in the near future, and the impacts those would likely have.

* Petition to protect UC healthcare options

March 19, 2015 Dear UCSC Faculty member, As you are aware, recent changes in UC’s health care policies and benefits, and glitches in its contract with Blue Cross, have affected many of our faculty, instructors and staff.  SCFA has been…

* At the heart, students are right

Santa Cruz Sentinel on March 7, 2015 by Christopher Connery, professor of world literature and cultural studies at UC Santa Cruz I was arrested for blocking traffic at the intersection of Highway 1 and 17. I was later tried and…

* Faculty Letter to Senate Executive Committee concerning the planned Silicon Valley campus

What follows is a letter from UCSC Senate faculty to the Senate Executive Committee on the topic of the administration's plan to allocate 14 FTE to a Silicon Valley campus. If you would like to add your signature, please do so in the form that follows. We would like to send the letter to the Senate Executive Committee by March 13, 2015. As your colleagues in the Academic Senate, we write to you of our concern regarding the administration’s stated intention to divert 14 FTE to a planned Silicon Valley campus which, we fear, will erode UCSC’s ability to fulfill its core mission and will have negative implications for both undergraduate and graduate education at UCSC.

* Continuing deterioration of compensation and benefits

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. This analysis has recently been confirmed by UCOP’s own study of total remuneration. The executive summary of this document contains the following depressing bullet points:

* Letter to UC regarding health care plan changes – 1/12/15

On January 12, 2015, The SCFA sent the following letter to UC President Janet Napolitano and also sent copies of the letter to half a dozen UC officers. Dwaine B. Duckett, UCOP Vice President of Human Resources responded with a…

*Council of UC Faculty Associations and AAUP partnership

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the Council of University of California Faculty Associations (CUCFA) today announced that they have agreed to work together as partner organizations in “defense and promotion of academic freedom, shared university governance, and…

* CUCFA statement on UC’s planned tuition increases

Below please find a letter that The Council of UC Faculty Associations (CUCFA), the systemwide organization of which the UCSC Faculty Association is a member, sent today to President Napolitano and the UC Regents regarding their recent proposal to raise…

* SCFA 2013-14 Annual Report

The SCFA’s work in the past year has, as in recent years, been largely conditioned by the ongoing funding crisis in public education in California, and its ongoing consequences for faculty research, teaching, and welfare. Online education, which was once…

* Faculty letter urging that charges against students be dropped 4-2-14

The following letter was sent to EVC Galloway and Chancellor Blumenthal today, April 2, 2014, on the first of the two day strike by UAW 2865. UAW members, including union leader Josh Brahinsky, were arrested on the picket line in Santa Cruz this morning. As many as twenty undergraduate supporters were arrested as well. The union called for a peaceful, legal strike in protest of management’s unlawful intimidation of student-workers.

* What faculty can do to support the graduate student union strike on April 2-3, 2014

We encourage you to read the letter below from the graduate student union (UAW 2865) organizing committee, with details of the strike the union is planning for April 2 and 3. The letter includes suggestions about what faculty can do to support the strike. The Board of the Faculty Association supports our graduate students' demands. We understand that an action of this kind during the first week of class is an inconvenience for faculty and for students, but feel that by supporting the graduate students at this time we can help them in their struggle for the fair and just working conditions that are the necessary conditions for our collective educational mission.

* SCFA letter to Labor Relations in response to the new Coursera contract 3-10-14

The SCFA wrote this response to the office of Labor Relations letter in which the University provides us with a revised Coursera contract. We were surprised by the language in this contract. We had hoped that the University’s new contract would address the issues that we have all raised. We were under the impression that there was some consensus between us about fundamental issues. The contract between UCSC and Coursera is not inappropriate. The issue is the contract that faculty are asked to sign with the University.

* The Degradation of Faculty Welfare and Compensation

We would like to bring to your attention an Op-Ed written by Colleen Lye and James Vernon, Co-Chairs of the Berkeley Faculty Association, on behalf of its Board. The article appeared in the Daily Cal on March 4, 2014, and…

* SCFA Supports Our Student-Workers

Please join me in congratulating our AFSCME colleagues for the successful conclusion of their negotiations, which as you all have heard has averted next week's planned strike. This is an important victory for our workers. Our TA union (Student-Workers Union UAW 2865) is, however, proceeding with its plans for a strike on March 5, 2014. TA's cannot of course be penalized for participating in a legal strike, so please make the necessary adjustments due to TA's absence from work on that day. We at the Faculty Association encourage you to familiarize yourselves with the TA union's issues, and to do what you can to support their strike. The TA union is currently without a contract with the University of California, which limits the union's ability to pursue grievances by other means.

* UC Santa Cruz Budget Impact Survey

The Santa Cruz Faculty Association is sending out this Budget Cut Impact Survey to UCSC faculty so that we may assess the particular impacts of recent University of California budget cuts for faculty on our campus. The SCFA notes that since acute UC budget cuts began in Fall 2008, there has been no study of their impact on faculty, i.e. on our teaching, service, research, and morale. Nor have studies been done on how these impacts affect us similarly or differently across divisions, fields, and ranks. Our goal through the survey is to generate this data, and to use it to better represent faculty in our advocacy around the cuts. This project was sponsored by the Creative Responses to Crisis in Education: An SCFA Small Grants Program.

* BFA Launches Petition in Support of Graduate Students

The Berkeley Faculty Association has developed a petition that will be delivered to Peter Chester, Director, UCOP Labor Relations and Janet Napolitano, President, University of California. The petition states “Faculty support UAW contract negotiations with the University of California for…

* Who Holds the Rights?

Faculty must defend their rights to their intellectual property, which are increasingly under threat, according to a draft report released Thursday by the American Association of University Professors…