UC Faculty Walkout - September 24

[LWolf]

Written by UC Faculty Walkout
Thursday, 10 September 2009 07:54

In solidarity with students and staff - In defense of public education in California

<snip>

Under the cover of the summer months, UC administration has pushed through a program of tuition hikes, enrollment cuts, layoffs, furloughs, and increased class sizes that harms students and jeopardizes the livelihoods of the most vulnerable university employees.

These decisions fundamentally compromise the mission of the University of California. They are complicit with the privatization of public education, and they have been made in a manner that flouts the principle of shared governance at the core of the UC faculty's capacity to guide the future of the University in accordance with its mission.

On September 24, in solidarity with UC staff and students, faculty throughout the University of California system will walk out in defense of public education.

More:

http://www.edu-factory.org/edu15/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=208:uc-faculty-walkout-september-24&catid=34:struggles&Itemid=53

Good news.

In this educator's opinion, of course.

I'm leaving for school now; I'll be home tonight to check on the thread.

[slipslidingaway]

1. knr n/t

[joeycola]

2. Good for them.

[lunatica]

3. I'm a UC Berkeley employee being laid off

Because they're centralizing a good deal of the administrative work. It feels like they're doing what corporations do. Downsize as much as they can and put the burden of the work on fewer shoulders. It's sad to see it happen, but it's going to happen.

I'm being laid off in one department but I still have a part time job in another department and at least for the next year my job there is safe.

[villager]

4. and, of course, make the "customers" pay for it!

This UC grad is wondering where the "lux" in "fiat lux" went.

Hopefully the faculty will continue to take a strong stand until some of it is restored...

[lunatica]

7. They've already announced that they're

enrolling more students from outside the State and foreigners because they pay large tuitions. They're not even hiding it anymore. The non tenured faculty are leaving because they feel they don't have a future here. And I'm afraid they're right.

[smoogatz]

10. Used to be

states competed to have the best public universities--or at least better than the neighboring states. Not anymore. If the public universities collapse or go private, the U.S. is looking at second-world status in another generation, IMO. We're already there in terms of public infrastructure and transportation--education will be next.

[villager]

11. I guess serfs don't need to be that well educated, eh?

n/t

[smoogatz]

12. Obedient workers.

That's George Carlin's phrase. Just smart enough to run the machines and keep the books, but not smart enough to figure out thoroughly they're getting fucked over.

[LWolf]

17. I hope that, as well.

How can Californians show those taking that strong stand some support?

:hi:

[LWolf]

16. I'm sorry.

I'll hope for the best, for you and for California's public universities.

[GoCubsGo]

22. At least you got a warning...

I am sorry you had to join the rest of us who are in a similar position, lunatica. When the fucking University of Georgia laid off me and many of my co-workers a couple of years ago, they FAXed the lay-off list to my laboratory's director at 6:30 PM on a Friday. Then they called the local fishwrap to notify them that they were letting X number of employees go. We found we lost our jobs from the goddamn newspaper on a Saturday morning because the fuckstick administrators didn't have the balls to tell us in person. Some of us busted our asses for this sorry excuse for a school for 20 years or more. To add further insult to injury, they only paid us our unused leave time after we threatened a big, fat lawsuit. Nice. Sounds like Ahnold has been consulting with those ratbastards.

Why, yes, I AM still bitter. I STILL haven't been able to find a permanent job since then, and my current temp job ends at the end of the month. I have nothing to replace it, and my savings are gone. I hope I can sell my house...

[barbtries]

5. never mind

wrong system :blush:

[smoogatz]

6. We're taking furloughs here in the UW (Wisconsin) system

12 days over two years, amounting to a just-over 3% pay cut. They also took back our non-retroactive 2% raises, first ones we'd gotten in three years--so really a 5% cut. The state's contribution to our budget hovers currently at just over 20%, yet the state exercises 100% control over the system. UW-Madison is once again floating the possibility of secession--of essentially going private in order to get out from under the burden of state control. The good news is that the Governor has lifted the long-standing legal restriction that made it illegal for UW faculty to unionize (we were unique among state employees in that regard). So, Union Yes, hell yes, damn straight.

The failure of states to maintain reasonable levels of funding for their own damn public university systems is one of the more unfortunate vestiges of Reaganism: tax cuts are always good, education is suspect, colleges breed liberals and therefore are wonderful targets for budget cuts at every opportunity. As long as states like California and Wisconsin keep electing people to high office who run on the "tax-cuts forever" mantra, they'll continue to see the quality of higher ed in those states decline as tuition soars. You get what you pay for.

[lunatica]

8. UC has already implemented furlough. They started this month.

The lowest paid employees get 11 days in the next year. At least they're doing it on a sliding scale.

[smoogatz]

9. Yep.

I took my first furlough day on 8/31.

[Nikki Stone1]

14. UC faculty not being furloughed. But Cal State faculty ARE being furloughed

It will eventually occur all the way up the food chain.

THANK YOU ARNOLD. :sarcasm:

:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

[dana_b]

23. not true

http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/21511

"More than 108,000 full-time-equivalent positions out of a total of 135,000 are affected. Under the plan, UC faculty and staff will be required to take from 11 to 26 furlough days -- amounting to a salary reduction of 4 to 10 percent -- with higher earners being forced to take more furlough days and steeper pay cuts. The specific number of furlough days each employee will take is based on a sliding scale across seven pay bands, ranging from those who make under $40,000 to those who earn more than $240,000."

people are pretty upset and the unions are having a vote of "No Confidence" for resident Yudof.

[Nikki Stone1]

13. Thank you for this.

Wonder how it will play at UCLA.

[LWolf]

15. I wonder, as well.

I don't live or teach in CA any more, but So Cal was my home for 28 years.

[Nikki Stone1]

18. I am still here and very worried.

If I didn't know better, I'd say that California was being destroyed from within and made an example for the rest of the US.

Maybe I don't know better.

[LWolf]

19. I wouldn't disagree with that assessment.

:(

[Nikki Stone1]

20. Have you ever heard of Clear Channel's "John and Ken Show"?

They are overtly trying to destroy the state.

[LWolf]

21. When I lived in CA, I knew a couple of people who

listened to them. I don't listen to any talk radio (or tv,) so no, I never listened.

I'm sorry to see the right wing agenda moving ahead.

It has seemed to me that they are not only unchecked, but rolling forward even faster since last November.