As our campus prepares for a possible partial reopening in the fall, faculty and other campus workers need to advocate for the right to a safe workplace – recognizing that what is “safe” for some may not be for others. BFA’s purpose is to provide a voice for Berkeley faculty outside the normalizing channels of the Academic Senate and consultation through surveys. Historically we have worked as a voice for faculty rights and equity, understanding both as fundamental to supporting the public and democratic character of the University of California. Those commitments are more important than ever today.
Campus administration has made a public pledge to prioritize community health, including “accommodating preferences” to work off campus “wherever possible.” This is laudable, but it will also no doubt come under pressure. Faculty are privileged in comparison to most other workers on campus. This does not mean that we do not advocate in our own interest. To the contrary, we want to equalize up, not down, to fight for our own labor rights along with those of others. In the context of the pandemic, that suggests a kind of campus worker pandemic bill of rights that we can work to achieve and sustain.
- All workers – Senate faculty, lecturers, student workers, and administrative and custodial staff – should have the right to request a way of carrying out their jobs that takes into account their particular vulnerability to the virus, without fear of financial or status consequences.
- No one should be fired or not re-hired because they are in a vulnerable group. This is especially vital for lecturers, who might otherwise be pressured to volunteer to teach in-person classes in order to secure positions.
- Our students’ learning conditions are our teaching conditions. Remote education is stressful for all, and online teachers need increased support to aid and keep track of students whose living and learning conditions will vary even more drastically during the pandemic than they did in “normal” times. This means more and more flexibly available advising systems, perhaps smaller classes, or GSIs where readers were once the norm.
- Senate faculty have access to research accounts that can fund necessary technology for remote teaching. Lecturers must also have access to the technology necessary to do their work remotely.
- Any company that contracts to do work on campus must guarantee that they provide healthcare to their workers or lose their right to work on campus.
If the public health allows some in-person classes, faculty, lecturers and GSIs will make a variety of individual decisions – weighing the precious intellectual community of the physical classroom against the immediate health dangers it could pose. In that situation, some will choose to return to the classroom, but no one should be shamed or required to be a hero. For those who can’t make that choice, campus needs to provide an infrastructure that will support teaching without creating a new and untenable set of work obligations. As educators, we are most powerful and persuasive when we work in coalition across the campus, advocating for ourselves what we advocate for everyone, and demonstrating our commitment to a public university whose future is built by us all.
The state of California has made many of us proud by putting the protection of lives over the protection of the economy, and by trying to support the most vulnerable in that difficult context. We best educate our students as citizens of the state by modeling those priorities here on campus as well.
Leslie Salzinger and Michael Burawoy for the Berkeley Faculty Association