The Council of University of California Faculty Associations (CUCFA), in collaboration with University Council-American Federation of Teachers (UC-AFT), which represents over 6,000 UC Unit 18 faculty and librarians, is collecting faculty and lecturer signatures on a letter we intend to send to President Drake and UC Regents later this month. The letter is pasted below, and if you are interested in adding your name to it, click here.

————————————————————————————————-

Dear President Drake and UC Regents,

We, the undersigned members of the UC community, stand firmly against any move on the part of the UC Office of the President (UCOP) to impose the costs of UAW-ratified contracts on the already strained finances of departments, research centers, libraries and faculty. The result would be a diminished quality of research and education for undergraduates and graduates. We urge campus administrators, UCOP, the California legislature, Governor Newsom, and federal granting agencies to recommit to fully funding public higher education.

On December 23rd, 2022, UAW members across the UC system ratified contracts with much-needed and significantly increased pay and benefits, including childcare subsidies, increased access to healthcare, family leave, and transit benefits. These overdue contracts improve the lives of UAW members—our students and postdocs—who have long endured inadequate pay and benefits. Despite numerous warnings by public education advocates, the UC system has enjoyed these lowered labor costs for decades. It is only now facing the question of how to pay for these much-needed improvements.

The University is seeking to impose these costs on departments, research centers, and faculty PIs, leading to a reduction of graduate student appointments, an increase in the already high number of undergraduates per discussion section, and a correspondingly negative impact on course curriculum, undergraduate assignments, and grading. This reduction also weakens currently funded research and allows fewer future funded research opportunities for graduate students. TA and GSR appointments are central components of funding for graduate students, and both are major inputs into the research and educational work of the institution. Given these anticipated effects, the costs of the new contracts negotiated by UCOP cannot be borne by departments, research centers, and faculty PIs. Indeed, by pushing the costs downwards in this way, the university is both effectively canceling the gains of this historic strike and negatively impacting the research and education mission of the UC.

We refuse this divide-and-conquer tactic and stand alongside our undergraduate and graduate students, department chairs, and deans in insisting on a funding model that advances the UC system’s fundamental mission of education and research. We refuse the imposition of unilateral, punitive austerity as the university’s response to a strike by academic workers against poverty wages.

We know the UC system has funds at its disposal and can work to raise additional public funds at both the state and federal levels to cover the costs of the new UAW contracts. UC leadership must not only reallocate administrative budgets but also robustly appeal to state legislators and federal grant agencies for larger budget appropriations. We expect to see a budget and planning process that allocates funds to the central missions of teaching and research and underwrites the short-term and long-term costs of the improved contract. The strike, the largest academic labor action in US history and the largest across any industry in the US last year, has highlighted the urgent need to reprioritize educational goals above financial goals.

We intend to take our concerns to the Academic Senate, the UC Regents, the California Governor and legislature, and the media. We do so to advocate for public education and to stand with our undergraduate and graduate students and junior colleagues as we all work hard to carry out that mission.