UC-AFT

A broad coalition of students, faculty, and staff from K-12, the community colleges, CSU's and UC are uniting in a statewide day of action on March 4th to protest chronic underfunding of education in California, and to demand restoration of access, affordability and quality for all.  UC-AFT and our state affiliate, CFT, have endorsed the actions on March 4th.  We encourage all of our members to take this opportunity to raise awareness about the impacts of the budget cuts on our ability to deliver the highest quality of instruction and service in the classroom and libraries.

The Unit 17 negotiating team reached a tentative agreement with the University with terms that would extend the current contract for an additional year.  Here is a link to the text of the tentative agreement.  Please read on for a full description  by Unit 17 Chief Negotiator, Mike Rotkin, of the agreement and the process for continuing bargaining in 2011.  

Dear UC Unit 17 Librarians,

U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley is pursuing an investigation into UCSF accounting practices and their representation of financial reports to the California State Senate and to the media.  This issue arose after former UCSF Dean, David Kessler,  pointed out discrepancies in financial documents.  It has been reported that Kessler lost his job as Dean after he began inquiring into the irregularities.

I want to congratulate all the unions, workers, and students pulling off a  great protest under difficult conditions.  We had over 2,000 protesters at UCLA, and there were some great actions.  Here are a few highlights:

Hundreds of people stopped traffic at one of the main intersections in L.A. and then marched up through the campus.

UC-AFT President, Bob Samuels, was interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now.  The interview covers the protests at UCLA on November 18 and 19.  Bob discusses UC finances and the impacts of regental and UCOP priorities on undergraduate education.

Here is the full Democracy Now coverage including great interviews from UCB, including UC-AFT member and Lecturer, Michael Cohen.

With most of the budget reductions planned or in place, the remaining budget balancing mechanism proposed by UC is an additional 30% fee increase that would be phased in over the coming year.  These fee increases would generate $117 million for 09/10 and $292 million for 10/11. UC President Yudof is already campaigning for the fee increase in the media and he's focusing his message directly at the students.  Here's a link to an essay based on his comments at the Regents meeting on September 16th.  

In a clear choice for furloughs over across the board reductions in time, and or temporary layoffs, librarians have approved the tentative agreement regarding the furlough program.

Here are the campus-by-campus totals (yes votes - no votes):

Berkeley/SF     49 - 6  Davis               22 - 1  Santa Cruz       13 - 1 Merced              2 - 0

On Thursday, September 24 a wave of protests washed over University of California campuses to draw attention to what protest organizers are calling a “priority crisis.” UC administrators’ and regents’ arbitrary decisions to impose layoffs, furloughs, and skyrocketing student fees have sparked resistance throughout the institution. 

This article contains the real interview that UC President Yudof did with Deborah Solomon of the N.Y. Times Magazine on September 24th, 2009.  It also contains a mock interview with Yudof's alter ego, Alter-Y, a fictional character who answers the interview questions with some deference for the position and title he holds, and some consideration for the importance of the decisions his office is making.  Finally, there is a fictional N.Y. Times reader commenting on Yudof's real answers.