An Independent Senate Faculty Union
An Independent Senate Faculty Union
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…
The SCFA Board sent this statement to the UC Office of the President as well as to local administrators to show their support for the UAW contract negotiations.
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.
On August 28, CUCFA sent the following letter to San Francisco’s City Attorney Dennis Herrera: August 28, 2013 City Attorney Dennis Herrera City Hall, Room 234 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place San Francisco, CA 94102-4682 cityattorney@sfgov.org fax: (415) 554-4745…
On August 21, CUCFA sent a letter to H.E. Ambassador Mohamed M. Tawfik at the Embassy of Egypt in Washington, D.C., and to Consul General El Husseuni Abdel Wahab at the Egyptian Consulate in Los Angeles expressing their concern about…
U. of Texas president wants faculty input on future of online education | Inside Higher Ed University of Texas at Austin is President Bill Powers’s has prepared a white paper on the future of “technology enhanced” education in order to…
CUCFA statement on the selection of Janet Napolitano as incoming UC President: The Council of the University of California Faculty Associations (CUCFA) urges brisk and open discussion within and without the university community of the Board of Regents’ choice of…
The Council of UC Faculty Associations (CUCFA) opposes the recent decision of the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) to revoke accreditation for City College of San Francisco (CCSF). CUCFA joins the California Conference of the American Association…
Since the SCFA became aware that the University signed a contract with Coursera without including them in the discussion, we have had several meetings and exchanges with Labor Relations and EVC Allison Galloway. The Online Education Committee of the SCFA will meet…
Members of the SCFA have been tracking campus conversations about Coursera and other commercial online course providers. The most recent articles appear at the bottom of the list. Thank you to Sean Keilen (Literature) for providing us with these updates which have appeared…
“It’s the wrong solution to the wrong problem,” said Robert Meister, chair of the Council of UC Faculty Associations and professor at UC Santa Cruz, in a phone interview. He argued that the problem is inadequate funding and the solution…
SB-520 passed out of the Senate Education Committee on May 1, 2013. It now moves on to the Senate Appropriations committee. It has not yet been scheduled to be heard by the Appropriations committee, but that committee must hear it…
A panel discussion Friday at UC Santa Cruz explored some key issues surrounding online classes at the college level with speakers Daphne Koller, a Stanford computer science professor who co-founded Cousera — an online platform that offers free college classes;…
Friday, April 26, 2013 – 3:15-5:00 p.m., Stevenson College, Event Center Panelists (see below) will tackle the big questions surrounding online education: How will the role of the professor change? What are the risks to faculty member’s intellectual property? How will…
We are deeply concerned by Senator Darrell Steinberg’s attempt to force the UCs, CSUs, and Community Colleges to accept credit for online courses from any source. Please help us convince him to pull or amend his bill by signing the petition.
March 15, 2013 - Academic senate leaders sent out this statement from the statewide senate officials. Senate Bill 520 raises grave concerns. We were not consulted in the writing of this legislation, which purports to address course access problems experienced by students in public higher education. Next week, we plan to meet with Senator Steinberg’s staff in order to discuss this bill.
Yesterday’s New York Times (and a number of other news sources) had an article about proposed legislation from Senator Steinberg that would require California’s public higher education systems to accept transfer credits from select online course providers for 50 of…
On March 8th, the Council of UC Faculty Associations sent the following letter to the Regents' Special Committee to Consider the Selection of a President and the Academic Senate Committee that advises said committee.
March 5, 2013 - The SCFA learned last week that the University signed a contract with Coursera without including them in the discussion. The SCFA, as the bargaining agent for UCSC faculty, should be consulted whenever there is the potential for a change in the relationship between the University and faculty, that could therefore be subject to collective bargaining. The SCFA is not taking a position at this point on the desirability or undesirability of working with Coursera. Their concern, at this stage, is the maximal protection of faculty rights and authority, whether faculty participate or not in Coursera-hosted on-line courses. A Request for Information has been made to the university.
March 5, 2013 The SCFA learned last week that the University signed a contract with Coursera without including them in the discussion. The SCFA, as the bargaining agent for UCSC faculty, should be consulted whenever there is the potential for…
A UC Irvine professor has stopped teaching midway through a massive online course in microeconomics offered through the Coursera organization, saying that he had disagreements on how to conduct the free class for thousands of students around the world.
The national Campaign for the Future of Higher Education is about to release their series of papers titled “Funding Higher Education: The Search for Possibilities.” The Council of UC Faculty Associations contributed one of the papers in the series. CUCFA…
Interesting article that ties in with our concern that the Regents are top heavy in investment bankers which makes the possibility of deals such a problem. "An Alameda County Superior Court judge has ruled that the University of California must disclose how its investments in two of Silicon Valley's top venture capital firms have performed."
Creative Responses to Crisis in Education: An SCFA Small Grants Program This fall the Santa Cruz Faculty Association chose recipients from among a strong pool of applications for its second annual program of small grants—ranging from $1500 to $10,000—for projects…
Charles Schwartz shows the continuing outsized growth of the management cadre (defined as the employees classified in Senior Management Group and Management & Senior Professionals): their numbers grew by 252% over the 21 year period while total employee numbers grew by a mere 51%. His last presentation of data on the bloated growth of management at the University of California, covered the span of 1991-2010. (Note: click on graph to view a larger version in a new)
Raising revenue has become such a taboo subject in California politics, but restoring quality public higher education in California can be done. For the median California tax return (individual or joint), restoring the entire system while rolling back student fees…
In 2000 CUCFA and the CFA (the labor union representing the CSU faculty) successfully co-sponsored legislation that specifies that individual professors, not UC, own their lectures, which is very important now as UC tries to move lectures to the web. (CHAPTER 6.5. UNAUTHORIZED RECORDING,…
January 2013 – There has been an explosion in the mainstream press already this year concerning online education. Here is a s synopsis of relevant links that represent just a few of the articles that have been published.
Chris M. Kelty Chair, University Committee on Library and Scholarly Communications January 10, 2013 Dear Professor Kelty, We write to you on behalf of the Berkeley Faculty Association to express our concern that the proposed policy to expand open access…
UC’s Management Continues its Super-Sized Growth by Charles Schwartz, UC Berkeley It has been two years since my last presentation of data on the bloated growth of management at the University of California, covering the span 1991-2010. (See the post…
This fall the Santa Cruz Faculty Association chose recipients from among a strong pool of applications for its second annual program of small grants—ranging from $1500 to $10,000—for projects led by Academic Senate faculty at UC Santa Cruz. The mission…
SCFA Annual Meeting and Brunch Upcoming Events SCFA Brunch Greetings! We are writing to invite you to join other members and the Board for Brunch on Oct 7, 2012, at the home of Shelly Errington, 323 Rigg Street Santa Cruz.…
A Small Grant Program for UCSC Senate Faculty from the Santa Cruz Faculty Association The Santa Cruz Faculty Association announces a program of small grants—ranging from $1500 to $10,000—for projects led by Academic Senate faculty at UC Santa Cruz. …
By: Bob Meister, President of CUCFA (Professor of Political and Social Thought, UCSC) On June 27, Governor Jerry Brown vetoed language inserted by both houses of the legislature that would have tied UC funding to admitting a minimum number of…
UC President Mark Yudof and Governor Jerry Brown are working out a deal behind closed doors that will loosen the most important ties between the university and the state. Although they will both praise the deal by saying that it…
The SCFA awarded grants to three projects and has invited several more applicants to resubmit their applications. In the first round of grants, we encouraged applicants to incorporate the actions of the March 1 UCSC protests and the March 5…
“In support of the Berkeley Faculty Association, the Irvine Faculty Association calls upon UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau to request specifically that the Alameda County District Attorney’s office drop charges it has filed against at least 8 people (students, faculty,…
On March 1, Alameda County District Attorney Nancy E. O’Malley sent criminal complaint and summons to eight (update: nine) participants in the protests on UC Berkeley’s campus on November 9th. For at least one of the eight, English Professor Celeste…