Davis Faculty Association

Ian Kennedy has produced a recruiting poster for our organization. You may have already seen it around campus, as a few of the DFA board members have already started putting some up.

We’d love your help spreading the word about our organization. I’ve printed a bunch of these up on 11 x 17 paper (the largest size UCD bulletin board posting rules allow). We are targeting bulletin boards and other locations (perhaps your office door) where we have authorization to post. We hope these posters can stay up for a while before they get taken down. Contact me (info@cucfa.org) or Ian if you would be willing to help us put some of these up around campus.

You can also download PDF files of this poster in both 11 x 17 and 8.5 x 11 if you would like to print your own.

Over the weekend the Sacramento Bee wrote an editorial outrageously insulting to faculty. The original editorial is available online at:

http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/story/2161639.html

It has since been republished in slightly modified form at:

http://www.modbee.com/opinion/story/845602.html

The Bee had earlier written a news article (that actually was quite editorial in tone) on the same subject. The article is available at:

http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/2157486.html

Individual FA members have posted responses in the comments sections of the online versions of these articles. Richard Scalettar, a DFA board member who was mentioned by name in one version of the editorial, is preparing a response that the Bee has indicated it will print so long as it meets a strict 400 word length requirement.

Meanwhile, the Davis Faculty Association also sent an official response which we hope the Bee will publish in their letters section (again, strict length restrictions apply, this time 200 words). The response reads:

This weekend we saw the Bee disparage and mock the actions of faculty members at UC Davis who are attempting to draw attention to dire conditions at the University. Although the Davis Faculty Association has not participated in the planned walk out by faculty, we understand the concern for the University that has motivated our colleagues to take this measure. It is not motivated, as the Bee suggested on Saturday, by a selfish desire to maintain a fictional ivory tower. The faculty of the University are dedicated teachers and researchers. It is ironical that the Professor singled out by name in Saturday’s editorial is the recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Mentoring. The Bee should understand that the faculty are acting out of a sense of frustration and concern about the demise of a great public University.

Sincerely,
Ian Kennedy
Chair, Davis Faculty Association (ucdfa.org)

by Ian Kennedy

The imposition of furloughs on non-teaching days, on top of budget cuts and other draconian reductions in the operation of our university, demand a reasoned, effective, and broadly supported response from the faculty in consultation with the other interested groups in the campus community. Some faculty members have called for a walkout on the first day of classes of this quarter. In my opinion, there has not been sufficient time to organize the broadly supported movement necessary to back this up. We run the risk of garnering minimal support and creating a possible public relations disaster. Furthermore, many faculty members do not feel that this is the correct response to our present crisis; they are loath to walk out on the students on the first day of class.

I propose that we take more time to organize thoroughly and institute a so-called “teach-in” during which we will take time from our class to educate our students about the problems facing the University, the history behind this crisis, the potential directions the university may take, and their impact on students, families and the State. The Council of UC Faculty Associations has prepared a two-page hand out that we can use in this educational activity. It can be found on the Web at the following address

http://keepcaliforniaspromise.org/?p=230

Staff unions are planning industrial action. It would probably be most effective if we were to coordinate with them and call for our teach-in at the same time. To make this effective, we need to have serious input from the faculty, we need to coordinate with the unions and the students through ASUCD, and we need to ensure full coverage by the media. We should also try to coordinate similar actions on other campuses. This takes time and it takes effort. I cannot, and will not, do this by myself. I need help from faculty volunteers. I need help coordinating with the unions, with student organizations, and organizing media coverage. If no one steps forward to help, I will let the idea lapse, at least from the DFA perspective – when DFA should be leading this effort.

If you have any thoughts about this plan, or more importantly, if you want to volunteer your help, please let me know. The teach-in date is yet to be determined and that may require consultation with the unions.

CUCFA has assembled an analysis of the history of the UC financial problems on a web site. We hope that you will help us disseminate the information. It is also intended to form the basis of a “teach-in” action this quarter in which we will take a class session to discuss the University and its problems with our students.

http://keepcaliforniaspromise.org/?p=230

The following message was written by CUCFA’s managing director Craig Flanery:

The AAUP Newsletter below about the UCs went out to all UC faculty today — or at least those for whom we have emails, which is about 90-95% I believe.  It was drafted by Cary Nelson and Gary Rhoades yesterday with some revision I made to make it conform closely to CUCFA positions we discussed Tuesday.  It’s a strong expression of support for faculty mobilization and collective action.  This is one way AAUP as a national organization can support our efforts in California and demonstrate to our members and UC faculty generally that they are receiving national attention. Please forward to other faculty and listserves, with a message such as “you may have already received this, but I wanted to be sure you do.  And if you are not already a member, please join AAUP and your campus Faculty Association.”

Craig Flanery, Ph.D.

________________________________

An Open Letter to UC Faculty From the AAUP

We support the faculty’s collective assertion of their central role in shaping the future of the University of California, and we support the calls for collective action (most recently of a walkout) by UC faculty members to publicly voice their concerns. The UC system’s historic strength was embedded in substantial public financial support and a strong faculty voice in governance. Both have deteriorated to unacceptable levels. The rejection of the faculty’s unanimous voice about implementing furloughs, through a vote of the Academic Council on July 29, 2009, is at best unwise and at worst dismissive of a cornerstone of the UC system’s strength, its faculty.

The principles of the American Association of University Professors hold that the managerial assertion of financial emergency powers does not justify failing to incorporate the full and meaningful participation of faculty in shared governance. Moreover, despite the current challenges higher education faces and as a recent resolution of the AAUP’s Collective Bargaining Congress Executive Committee asserts, it is time to turn around decades-long patterns of decreased funding to and within the academy:

http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/newsroom/2009PRS/prnogivebacks.htm <http://lyris.eresources.com:81/t/5272492/5960838/1671/0/>

The real challenge is to reverse long standing trends of:

* defunding public universities;
* shifting shares of institutional expenditures from education to administration;
* raising tuition and fees; and
* decreasing the proportion of tenure-track faculty.

For too many years university presidents have accepted and preached the pattern of public disinvestment as inevitable, advanced the privatization of public universities, and suggested that we can do more and more with less and less. By their actions, university presidents have advanced a model of academic capitalism that has compromised educational quality, and now that model is collapsing financially.

It is well worth faculty considering taking some furlough time on instructional days. That sends a clear message that disinvestment in colleges and universities reduces the quality of education and does harm to students, faculty, and the public interest.

It is time to acknowledge the obvious: this emperor has no clothes.

Less public support does not translate into more educational opportunity. Escalating tuition does not increase educational access and success for qualified students. Increasing class size does not increase faculty-student engagement. Increasing virtual education does not increase actual educational quality.

We support the lead taken by University of California faculty, the faculty associations, and faculty groups mobilizing independently in their fight to change the long term course of the UC system. Their collective votes and actions serve the best long-term interests of students, faculty, the universities and society. The faculty’s voice is central to the quality and future of our educational institutions.

Gary Rhoades, General Secretary, AAUP
Cary Nelson, President, AAUP
Executive Committee, AAUP
Collective Bargaining Congress Executive Committee, AAUP