Year 2009

State budget update

For three days running now, the state legislature has been trying to pass the latest version of the state budget, without success. The legislature has adjourned for the night. DFA chair Ian Kennedy asked me to investigate UC’s plans to…

History of UC in the 1930s

by Ian Kennedy Our current difficulties find their parallel, almost eerily so, in an earlier time: the Depression years of the 1930’s. A history of UC from 1868 to 1968 by Verne Stadtman reveals some very interesting facts that may…

CUCFA’s Latest Letter to Legislators

California legislators continue to wrangle over the state’s budget. The Legislative Analyst’s Office continues to try to label the current per student funding, reduced as it is over previous years, as full per student funding. CUCFA’s Vice President for External…

UC Senate Statement on UCRP

All members, especially those nearing retirement age, will be interested in the UC Senate statement in regards to the safety of our retirement system and the wisdom, or lack of it, in cashing out. Go to this link for the…

Arizona’s Problems

Davis Faculty Association member Ron Hess pointed us to an article in yesterday’s East Valley Tribune (Phoenix, AZ) that discusses the dire state of public higher education in Arizona: Budget Cuts May Force ASU To Shutter Polytechnic Campus. “ASU President…

The New York Times on The Last Professors

FA Chair Ian Kennedy thought that the membership might be interested in an article, by Stanley Fish, published in the New York Times. It is essentially a book review of “The Last Professors: The Corporate University and the Fate of…