Davis Faculty Association

All Out to the 2nd Statewide Mobilization Conference Against Privatization of Public Education

When? April 24th. Where? Los Angeles, Santee Education Complex, 1921 South Maple Avenue.

The future of public education in this state – particularly for the working class and communities of color, who are being hit especially hard by the cuts – depends on our ability to unify and push forward the struggle in defense of public education.

The purpose of this Statewide Mobilizing Conference is therefore both simple and extremely urgent: to democratically discuss and decide on a unifying political platform and plan of action capable of bringing together schools, student organizations, labor unions, committees, coalitions, and parent and community organizations across the state to deepen and push forward this powerful and broad movement that shook the state and the country on March 4th.

We ask activists, organizations, and mobilized schools across the state to put their full organizational capacity into helping us collectively to build and promote this conference. We ask for maximum participation from all education sectors – Pre-K-12, Community College, CSU, UC, and Adult Education – and regions, and from all organizations of workers, teachers, and students, and we extend the invitation to all mobilized schools and organizations across the country. Get your union, student government or parent-teacher organization to endorse, attend, and participate in the conference.

The decision to call for this conference was made at the Statewide Mobilizing Conference of October 24th, 2009, where over 800 people from all of the sectors of public education decided together to call for the March 4th Strike and Day of Action in defense of public education.

Contact us, Sign up for updates, and send endorsements to the conference e-mail address: educationconference0424@gmail.com
Conference website is under construction.

One struggle! One fight! Education is a right!

The Systemwide Academic Senate committee on Planning and Budget has released a report that essentially continues the narrative begun in their earlier “Futures” (“released in 2006) and “Cuts” (released in 2008) reports. CUCFA officers participated in the creation of these earlier reports and they form the backbone of the arguments on CUCFA’s outreach website http://keepcaliforniaspromise.org

The new report is called the “Choices” report. It is available online at: http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/senate/ucpb.choices.pdf

Here is another quick read to help orient faculty to the current fiscal situation faced by UC faculty and faculty nationwide. This one is from the American Association of University Professors:

http://www.aaup.org/aaup/financial/mainpage.htm

The DFA received the following reply in response to the open letter the DFA board mailed last week (the open letter is available online at http://ucdfa.org/2010/04/06/open-letter-to-ucd-from-dfa/):

Dear Colleagues:

In response to your letter to the Chancellor, we want to thank you for letting us know of your concerns about consultation with the college executive committees.  The principles of shared governance are central to the University, and we must indeed take care that we hold to them, even when things are difficult.

I will bring your concerns to the attention of the deans at the next meeting of the school and college deans.  I will also discuss it with Academic Senate Chair Powell and other Senate leaders.

Best,
Enrique

Enrique J. Lavernia
Distinguished Professor
Provost & Executive Vice Chancellor
University of California, Davis

UCSB Faculty Association member Chris Newfield has an article on his blog today that clarifies recent information and debate about the state of UC’s pension fund, including a recent report produced by Stanford graduate students at the request of Governor Schwarzenegger. Newfield’s article is at:

http://utotherescue.blogspot.com/2010/04/predicting-meltdown-for-uc-pension.html