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The SCFA wrote this response to the office of Labor Relations letter in which the University provides us with a revised Coursera contract. We were surprised by the language in this contract. We had hoped that the University’s new contract would address the issues that we have all raised. We were under the impression that there was some consensus between us about fundamental issues. The contract between UCSC and Coursera is not inappropriate. The issue is the contract that faculty are asked to sign with the University.

We would like to bring to your attention an Op-Ed written by Colleen Lye and James Vernon, Co-Chairs of the Berkeley Faculty Association, on behalf of its Board. The article appeared in the Daily Cal on March 4, 2014, and…

The SCFA would like to congratulate you and Labor Relations for settling the grievances made by the Graduate Students' Union, the UAW. We support fair contracts for all UC unions, because the academic mission of the university depends on all of our labor.

The Santa Cruz Faculty Association is sending out this Budget Cut Impact Survey to UCSC faculty so that we may assess the particular impacts of recent University of California budget cuts for faculty on our campus. The SCFA notes that since acute UC budget cuts began in Fall 2008, there has been no study of their impact on faculty, i.e. on our teaching, service, research, and morale. Nor have studies been done on how these impacts affect us similarly or differently across divisions, fields, and ranks. Our goal through the survey is to generate this data, and to use it to better represent faculty in our advocacy around the cuts. This project was sponsored by the Creative Responses to Crisis in Education: An SCFA Small Grants Program.

The Berkeley Faculty Association has developed a petition that will be delivered to Peter Chester, Director, UCOP Labor Relations and Janet Napolitano, President, University of California. The petition states “Faculty support UAW contract negotiations with the University of California for…

Faculty must defend their rights to their intellectual property, which are increasingly under threat, according to a draft report released Thursday by the American Association of University Professors…

Letter from the SCFA Board to alert you to changes in health insurance coverage by the University that will affect all members of the UCSC faculty and staff in 2014. We are deeply concerned that faculty and staff have been so poorly and so tardily informed about these changes in health insurance coverage that could have major implications for their healthcare. Furthermore, because we begin classes so late in September, many faculty members and staff may not yet be aware of what UCOP is doing. The task now is to ensure that all Santa Cruz faculty and staff members are alerted to these impending changes, and that Senate leaders are informed of the difficulties they may generate for those in the UCSC community.