This newsletter was sent to all Senate Faculty
What is SCFA?
The Santa Cruz Faculty Association is an independent union that represents all UCSC Senate faculty members. We are the official bargaining agent for Senate faculty, meaning the campus has an obligation to negotiate with us regarding all campus-level changes to the terms and conditions of our employment. SCFA is separate from, but partners with, the Academic Senate and strengthens the promise of shared governance by backing it with the power of collective bargaining. We advocate for faculty rights and welfare, and we stand in solidarity with other campus unions to fight for better working conditions for all UC workers. SCFA believes that higher education is a vital social good and that it deserves robust public funding. We strive to make UCSC into a more affordable, accessible, just, and democratic public university where students, faculty, and staff can all thrive. We provide a space for imagining the public university we want and need. We encourage you to get involved in our collective efforts to realize this vision for our university.
What did SCFA do last year?
We started the year by bargaining with the administration about the contours of a faculty salary equity intervention that significantly raised the salaries of some of our lowest paid colleagues and reduced the disparities in off-scale salaries among faculty appointed at the same rank and step.
During the UAW strike in the Fall, SCFA (in concert with CUCFA) played a key role in providing information to faculty across the entire UC system, helping to draft and disseminate clear guidance on faculty rights in the face of often confusing and obfuscatory information from UCOP and the system-wide Senate leadership. We then partnered with the other instructional unions to ensure that already overworked faculty would not be burdened with additional uncompensated grading labor at the conclusion of the strike. In our regular meetings with Labor Relations, we articulated the urgent need for more communication from the administration regarding the implementation of the new UAW contracts and supported departmental staff who were also seeking this vital information.
In relation to the ongoing effects of the COVID pandemic, we continued to address issues of health and safety. We requested and received an extension of the accommodations for faculty with immuno-compromised members of their households through Fall 2022. We have also been actively engaging with the administration about the need for better and more public data on air quality and air exchange rates in our work spaces. This has involved multiple formal requests for information (here and here).
We are broadly concerned with issues of workload and have formally requested information from the administration regarding changes in our undergraduate teaching obligations (number of undergraduate FTE taught per Senate faculty) as well as changes in the quantity of departmental and other faculty-facing staff positions.
In addition to our frequent collective presence on the picket line during the UAW strike, SCFA created other opportunities for faculty to gather socially and connect via two on-campus socials and semi-regular happy hours. If you are not getting the happy-hour invitations, that means you are not yet a member of the union (join here!). We also participated in the exciting Higher Education’s Labor Upsurge Conference organized by the UCSC Center for Labor and Community. We were inspired by our conversations with other unionists from across the higher ed sector and look forward to continuing to think and act alongside these union comrades.
What is SCFA working on this year?
Based on our conversations with members, SCFA has identified several key areas of faculty concern that we intend to focus on in the coming academic year.
First, we have identified a widespread experience of exhaustion and overwork, with many faculty articulating that they have an ever diminishing amount of time available for research, writing, and thinking. Of course, the causes of this are multiple, complex, and unevenly distributed, including an increase in the size of the student body, the additional support faculty provide to our students who are living in conditions of extreme stress and precarity and whose various needs are not being met by the institution, the expansion of administrative and bureaucratic tasks, and an ongoing staffing shortage and staff retention crisis due to the inadequate pay and support for professional staff. Addressing the issue of faculty workload will not be straightforward, but we invite you to join our conversations about how we might collectively respond to this speed-up.
The staffing crisis is a second area SCFA will take up this year. Faculty cannot carry out UC’s research, teaching, and service mission when the staff who perform the vital administrative work in our departments and programs are overworked and underpaid. Operating with the premise that our work lives and wellbeing are inseparably intertwined, SCFA is coordinating with staff in order to address this crisis.
Third, we remain alert to significant concerns about actual and potential cuts to graduate programs and the impact of such cuts on our working lives as faculty at a research institution. This can include not only changes to our teaching labor as we have more undergraduate students with less TA support, but also our research and scholarly activity, as mentoring graduate students enriches our thinking and expands our intellectual engagements.
Finally, like nearly everyone else on campus, we are deeply concerned about issues of housing, childcare, and the cost of living in Santa Cruz, especially for new faculty. We’ll continue to advocate for the well-being of our members and look for opportunities to intervene on these topics.
Join: if you are not yet a member, please join. While SCFA represents all Senate faculty, only members can vote on union leadership and formal bargaining proposals. Dues are low ($10.00/23.50/$30.00 per month depending on rank) and support our legal consultations, events, projects, and administrative staffing from CUCFA (the Council of UC Faculty Associations).
Attend a meeting and/or join a committee: Our first meeting of the year will be on Friday, October 13th, 4:30-5:30pm at the Charles E. Merrill Lounge (with drinks and snacks). Please consider attending and becoming part of one of our standing committees (Organizing and Membership; Communications; Labor Relations, Bargaining and Grievances; Solidarity and Alliances) or joining a temporary committee to focus on one of our action areas for the coming year. If you can’t attend the meeting but would like to participate in a committee, please email scfa.assist@gmail.com
Come to the Fall Social: Meet colleagues and have informal conversations about work, life, pop culture, politics, your summer travels, or anything else you feel like. No agenda, just a chance to connect. Thursday, October 19th, 5:15-7:15pm at the Cowell Provost House (beer, wine and food provided).
Become a department contact: We’re developing a network of department contact people for communication between departments and SCFA—if you are available for this role, please let us know: scfa.assist@gmail.com
Tell us what is on your mind: We are always interested in hearing from faculty about the issues that matter to you. You can let us know what you are thinking about or what you are hearing from friends and colleagues by filling out this one question google form. You can also write directly to Susan Gillman, chair of the SCFA Communications committee, with individual questions on anything involving our working conditions as faculty.