We want to work at a university….
where every worker makes enough money to afford to live in Santa Cruz;
where students can study and graduate free from debt, having explored new ideas and new areas of inquiry and creativity that they did not know existed before they arrived;
where classes are small enough that faculty have time to get to know our students and truly support their learning and growth;
where faculty play a meaningful role in all decisions about the university and where they are respected and trusted by campus administration;
where diversity, equity, and inclusion are not just buzzwords but where the university actively works to recognize and repair legacies of dispossession, exclusion, inequality, and injustice;
where staff are supported to do the vital work of departments and programs without being overworked and underpaid;
where all programs, departments, and research agendas are supported by state funding, and where the administration continually fights for public investment in our public university, including, for example, by advocating for the $66 Fix;
where academic freedom, dialogue, and debate flourish, teaching is safeguarded from interference from political figures, boards of trustees, donors, or other entities and scholarship is protected against external pressures and values;
where our commitment to graduate education is actualized through fellowships, research support, and funding that allows graduate students to live without rent burden in Santa Cruz;
where all faculty have time to read, think, write and explore new directions for their research, regardless of the number of grants they receive;
where decisions about programs, departments and curriculum are made on educational and intellectual – rather than financial – grounds;
where, in sum, faculty, staff, and students can all truly thrive as we fulfill the promise of a public university.