CUCFA President Constance Penley has written to Academic Senate Chair Robert May and Academic Senate Vice Chair Kum-Kum Bhavnani about our ongoing concern for the lack of shared governance, this time in UC’s implementation of suggestions made in the Huron Report. Here is a copy of her letter:
Dear Professors May and Bhavnani,
I am writing to you as the new President of CUCFA. We appreciated that Academic Council unanimously endorsed the letter from the University Committee on Planning and Budget (UCPB) to express a request that shared governance be more effectively engaged in the process of evaluating potential changes to systemwide programs housed at UCOP, particularly in advising on foundational questions as to their location and governance. Both the attached June and July 2018 letters from past Chair Kevin White and UCPB Chair Josh Schimel were written in response to the Principles of Interpretation for the Huron Report.
CUCFA recently expressed similar concerns about the lack of transparency and faculty involvement with the establishment and staffing of the National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement.
We said we would be happy to suggest ways UC faculties could be better integrated into the activities of the Center. We are gratified that all of the campus COCs were recently invited to nominate Senate members to the Center’s Advisory Board, perhaps partly as a result of our letter.
How can CUCFA support Academic Council’s and UCPB’s ongoing pursuit of greater shared governance in the large structural systemwide changes that may result from adoption of the principles of the Huron report? I would be happy to meet with you in the near future to discuss the response to the Huron Report but also the other obstacles that UC faculty face in sustaining the principles of shared governance and academic freedom.
Best regards,
Constance Penley
Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Film and Media Studies
Founding Director and Past Co-Director, Carsey-Wolf Center
President, Council of UC Faculty Associations