* What faculty can do to support the graduate student union strike on April 2-3, 2014

We encourage you to read the letter below from the graduate student union (UAW 2865) organizing committee, with details of the strike the union is planning for April 2 and 3. The letter includes suggestions about what faculty can do to support the strike. The Board of the Faculty Association supports our graduate students' demands. We understand that an action of this kind during the first week of class is an inconvenience for faculty and for students, but feel that by supporting the graduate students at this time we can help them in their struggle for the fair and just working conditions that are the necessary conditions for our collective educational mission.

* SCFA letter to Labor Relations in response to the new Coursera contract 3-10-14

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.

* SCFA Supports Our Student-Workers

Please join me in congratulating our AFSCME colleagues for the successful conclusion of their negotiations, which as you all have heard has averted next week's planned strike. This is an important victory for our workers. Our TA union (Student-Workers Union UAW 2865) is, however, proceeding with its plans for a strike on March 5, 2014. TA's cannot of course be penalized for participating in a legal strike, so please make the necessary adjustments due to TA's absence from work on that day. We at the Faculty Association encourage you to familiarize yourselves with the TA union's issues, and to do what you can to support their strike. The TA union is currently without a contract with the University of California, which limits the union's ability to pursue grievances by other means.

* UC Santa Cruz Budget Impact Survey

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.

* Who Holds the Rights?

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…