In recent months, it has become clear universities are facing unprecedented challenges. The Trump Administration is using every lever to disrupt, dismantle, and destroy entire sectors of higher education. The sudden assault on our research funding, the integrity of our teaching, and disruption of our public service mission all pose existential threats to the University of California. We have also seen attacks on the privacy and due process rights of our faculty, students, and staff in recent weeks. This is a direct and sustained attack, impacting federal funding; ideological intrusion into academic affairs; and policing expression. Additionally, the UC system is facing brutal budget cuts and drastic changes to faculty workloads in a climate of eroding shared governance. To address these challenges, we must forcefully reassert our values as the leading public research institution in America and reassert the UC’s commitment to shared governance.

Make no mistake: it will take all of us. 

Through the Council on University of California Faculty Associations (CUCFA), the Riverside Faculty Association (RFA) is working hard with Faculty Associations across the University of California system to defend our research integrity; guard academic freedom; demand UC support for our students and researchers; and reclaim our identity as a university for the public good.

We’ve heard from many of you that you want to do something. The RFA is here to make that happen, together. Here is a list of things we’ve been up to, upcoming actions, and some invitations to action. It will take all of us.

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UPCOMING ACTIONS

May 6^th 12:30pm – 2pm. Attend the Senate Town Hall on Responding Collectively to Unprecedented Challenges in Winston Chung Hall (WCH) 205/206 to raise your concerns. RSVP here.

May 6^th 3pm – 4pm. Attend the virtual RFA Post-Town Hall Debrief to recap and debrief what we heard at the town hall, share our reactions and consider what comes next. All faculty are welcome including those who are not RFA members and those who are not able to attend the Senate Town Hall. Please register for the RFA open meeting here.

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PAST ACTIONS

May 1^st, the RFA supported the May Day community/labor march and strike on campus. Our co-workers in AFSCME 3299 and UPTE are once again on strike in response to unfair labor practices by the UC, including the imposition of a system-wide hiring freeze. We encourage you to learn more about the specifics of their concerns here and here. We remind you that Senate faculty have a right to honor a picket line established by other university employees and to withhold their labor. UC may withhold pay for withheld labor, but it would be unlawful for the administration to dock additional pay or take other disciplinary action against faculty for exercising their protected rights.

April 30^th, the RFA led a CUCFA letter and petition raising concerns about the UCOP Cyber Security Mandate and demanding an extension on implementation. We circulated the letter and petition to UCR faculty.

April 17th National Day of Action for Higher Education. The RFA held a Town Hall, an open forum for faculty to discuss our urgent concerns and build solidarity. We supported virtual events highlighting attacks on public education and the ways we can fight back held by The American Association of University Professors (AAUP), with which the RFA is affiliated, and the Coalition for Action in Higher Education (CAHE).

April 8th, Kill the Cuts Rally. The RFA joined UC faculty and higher education workers across the country to stand up and demand NO cuts to education and life-saving research. This National Day of Action is in line with the nationwide effort to stop the cuts to higher education funding, organized in conjunction with the UAW, AAUP and other unions and organizations. https://www.killthecuts.org/

April 8th, the Riverside Faculty Association joined CUCFA and 30 faculty associations nationwide in an amici curae brief supporting a preliminary injunction sought by AAUP against the Trump administration. AAUP v. Rubio seeks to halt the ideologically-targeted deportations of students nationally. Our amici curae brief draws on the experiences of our faculty arguing that the Trump Administration’s ideological deportation policies profoundly harm our universities by endangering scholarly research, impeding our core educational mission, and policing campus activities related to speech and expression. We are proud to support AAUP’s work on this front and will give updates as the motion proceeds through the court.

April 6^th, the RFA signed on to a letter in support of academic freedom and UC support for students/researchers:

• A CUCFA letter demanding that UCOP immediately address the revocations of student/researcher visas and make strong support of students. The letter is open to everyone in the UC community: faculty, staff, students, and alumni: CUCFA letter

April 3^rd, The RFA signed on to a letter submitted by CUCFA to the University of California, the Office of the President (UCOP) condemning their disclosure of the personal and demographic information of over 850 UC faculty members after being subpoenaed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) as part of its investigation of antisemitism at UC campuses.

March 4th, representatives from the statewide Council of University of California Faculty Associations (CUCFA) lobbied the state government on behalf of faculty, alongside academic worker’s unions that represent most of the UC’s 300,000 workers. Representatives from Faculty Associations and the UC unions met with legislators and joined the March in March rally hosted by eleven unions throughout the country. Together we have made it clear that the University–the state’s largest employer, and an unparalleled engine of economic growth–must be supported, in full.

January 29^th, RFA spearheaded a CUCFA communication to faculty UC-wide regarding a UCOP committee to consider a common system-wide semester calendar. We disseminated a survey and collected responses which were forwarded to UCOP. Summary and long-form comments of this survey can be found here.

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These are perilous times, and we all must act to protect the public university if we are to keep it. If you have ideas, events, or concerns you would like addressed, the Riverside Faculty Association is your partner and ally. We will provide updates as we receive them.

Thank you, and we hope to see you May 6th!

The RFA Board