With the start of a new academic year, it seems like a good time to introduce ourselves to new faculty (and perhaps reintroduce ourselves to continuing faculty):
As many of you know, we are an association of faculty independent of the Academic Senate. We are not a union but we do work to support the economic interests of faculty and non-academic staff (salaries and benefits) as well as our place in the university (shared governance, faculty control of hiring and promotion, academic freedom, and so on). Born in the 1970s, at a time when UC Davis had recently experienced the wrath of Governor Reagan, the DFA has consistently upheld the idea of the public university, as presented in the California Master Plan.
In recent years, we have played an important role in maintaining health benefits for faculty, advocating for pensions with defined benefits, calling attention to administrative bloat, voicing concern about sexual harassment and its cover-up, and supporting tuition-free education. We collaborate with Faculty Associations on other UC campuses to address system-wide issues affecting the welfare of faculty, and to keep apprised of state legislative measures relevant to higher education.
Now, more than ever, we encourage you to join on-line (at a nominal fee of $8 a month for the first year) and participate in the DFA. We have an elected board. You can follow our activities and the happenings on campus with our newsletter, work with us to defend our collective values, serve the people of California, and maintain UC Davis’s status as a world-renowned public university.
If you would like more information or have particular concerns don’t hesitate to write to us.
Richard Scalettar, Physics (scalettar@physics.ucdavis.edu) and Jesse Drew, Cinema and Digital Media (jdrew@ucdavis.edu), Co-Chairs of the DFA.