On May 14, John A. Pérez, Chair of the Board of Regents, and Michael V. Drake, UC President, made a joint statement, congratulating Governor Newsom for “proposing the largest state investment in UC’s history.” The statement waxed enthusiastic about the transformative...

Just in time for Mother’s Day, parents with children in campus childcare faced plans for increased tuition, shorter hours, and reduced staff next fall.  Meanwhile, UCOP is putting the final touches on an improved paid family leave program that is still worse than that...

In early April, the UC unveiled their “Proposed Revisions for UCPD” plans. One proposal is the creation of “Systemwide Response Teams”—in effect, a UC paramilitary force that can be mobilized in response to protest actions, and to provide crowd management and “riot...

The lecturers’ union (UC-AFT) and UCOP have been bargaining over a new contract for more than two years, with little to show for it. Despite the legal obligation to bargain in good faith, the UCOP negotiators have refused to bargain on basic issues, while regularly...

California has one of the best Paid Family Leave (PFL) programs in the country, but unfortunately for University employees, the UC has never participated in that system. Under this program, both state and private employers in California are required to provide paid...

On February 17th, UC circulated a research data policy proposal for comment. The proposal opened with the statement, “The Regents of the University of California owns all Research Data and Tangible Research Materials.” The claim is a surprising and alarming move in a...

On March 17, President Hillman of Mills College announced the closure of one of the most distinguished women’s colleges in the country. Founded in 1852, Mills will stop conferring degrees in 2023. The finality of this decision came as a shock to Mills faculty,...

To her credit, Chancellor Christ has made it one of her priorities to increase housing for Berkeley students, staff and faculty.  It's not easy. Apart from financial constraints, a major problem is the availability of land. Space for campus housing can't be created ex...

The Vice Chancellor for Research, Randy Katz, recently sent all faculty and staff a proposed Presidential Policy on UC Research Data and Tangible Research Materials. It declared that “the Regents of the University of California own all research data and tangible...

It is now exactly one year ago that the campus was closed and students were told to pack their bags. Those who could returned home; those who couldn’t eked out an existence around campus. Overnight we converted to remote instruction. There was talk of the possibility...

Our colleagues at the University of California Riverside are seeking our support as they face a strangulating 11% cut to their campus budget, substantially greater than other campuses. The distribution of state funding among the campuses is shaped by a number of...

Yesterday there was an important event – Progressive Democrats of America and The Council of UC faculty associations (CUCFA of which the BFA is a member) hosted a public meeting to reclaim the California Master Plan for Higher Education in California. The meeting...

Last Friday, the BFA Board met for its Winter Meeting. It was a full agenda, but here are some of the highlights. We began by welcoming two new board members:  Cori Hayden (Anthropology), and Poulomi Saha (English). Eric Hays, the Executive Director of the Council of...

We’d like to congratulate DIVCO on starting a conversation about what sort of university we want after COVID-19, about “the values we share about the importance of in-person participation in the academic life of the campus, and how those should guide our thinking...

The Council of UC Faculty Associations (CUCFA), of which the BFA is a member, held a meeting on January 25 to strategize for a meeting with President Michael Drake on February 8. CUCFA came up with six proposals: The national conversation on tuition-free and debt-free...

As the University of California plots a course forward, seeking to recover from the social and economic costs associated with the pandemic, it faces an additional challenge: recovering from the several scandals that have tarnished its reputation in Sacramento and,...

A lot has happened since our last newsletter of a month ago: an invasion of the Capitol, where the Democrats now have a thin majority in the House and a tie-breaking vote in the Senate; a surging pandemic, with hospitals overflowing; continuing economic depression....

Last week, Chancellor Christ announced salary cuts for non-union employees and time reductions for unionized employees that would save the university some $27 million – a fraction of the presumed $340 million deficit that will have to be covered through borrowing,...

As we wait for Chancellor Christ's plan to deal with our campus deficit of $340 million, we would like to congratulate one and all for making the best of very challenging conditions. Collectively - students, staff, instructors and administrators - we have somehow...

Following the failure of his obscure proposal for "curtailment" - a euphemism for salary reduction - President Drake has announced every campus will have to go it alone in dealing with its own budget deficits. He urged campuses to follow three principles: Protecting...

This morning President Michael Drake outlined his priorities for tackling the $2 billion budget deficit UC faces due to the pandemic. Chancellor Christ has now also promised to outline her plans for our campus next week. Here is the Berkeley Faculty Association's...

Last Wednesday, tenure-track faculty swelled the crowd of observers to over 500 as they heard the university make a few concessions on the question of job security for lecturers. Their union, UC-AFT, is making headway, but they need to maintain the pressure. You can...

A sense of relief has settled on much of California now that the election of Biden to the presidency seems unassailable. But farther down the ballot, results were not all good news.  Faced with the usual plethora of propositions, California’s voters have once again...

Yes, tomorrow is election day. Yes, this could be a fateful election. Yes, things are not going to be decided tomorrow.  Yes, there could be a battle royal that could go on in the courts and in the streets for months, as the contest in “swing” states is bound to be...

Last week the administration announced that the campus Distinguished Teaching Award is being replaced this year by up to 25 awards for “Extraordinary Teaching in Extraordinary Times”: The award is intended to honor UC Berkeley faculty, staff, and graduate student...

The University We Are For State support for public higher education in California has declined for decades: it constituted approximately one-third of the UC budget in 1990 and is about 10 percent today. As the UC has been systematically defunded, campus leaders have...

In his latest blog, Chris Newfield  laments the absence of an adequate plan to save higher education generally and the University of California in particular. Reflecting on the latest Regents' meeting, Newfield observes that UCOP and the Regents are feeding each...

The intermittently dormant “Faculty Budget Forum,” a listserv established during the (last) financial crisis of 2008-9 as a place for faculty to exchange concerns and ideas, lit up this weekend with an exchange about Intercollegiate Athletics.  If ever there was a...

As we learn about President Trump’s tax returns, we are reminded once again – as if we need to be reminded– of the arrogance of power. Regent Richard Blum demonstrates the point – claiming he did nothing wrong in directing his letters of recommendation to the...

As the country mourns the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, we in the BFA reaffirm our commitment to racial justice and the delivery of high-quality education for all – values inscribed in our public mission. This was the resounding conclusion of the BFA Board Meeting...

The Berkeley Faculty Association will be holding its Fall Board meeting tomorrow evening. On the agenda are two big issues: one concerns the broadening of membership and leadership, and the other concerns BFA's response to the challenges of the present conjuncture -...

One of the most striking and perhaps unexpected phenomena of the first week of classes has been the excitement of our students--like the beginning of the year in the old days. In the middle of spring semester, the university suddenly closed down and students were...

Last week The Chronicle of Higher Education  published an article, “Will Covid-19 Revive Faculty Power?” with the subheading “The pandemic has spurred professors to organize across the country. Are they too late?”. The article provoked a spirited discussion among...

These are bleak times. As numerous crises – a pandemic, mass unemployment, racial injustice, multiple wildfires – converge, so each intensifies the others. The fires engulfing the region can’t be put out because the incarcerated fire-fighters are missing, released to...

Last week, we reported on the Regents' proposal that head-hunting search firms play an even greater role in the selection of Chancellors--at the expense of faculty input, already limited to a screening function. The Report of the Regents' Working Group elicited strong...

Last week we saw an attempt to diminish the already limited role of faculty in the selection of Chancellors (see below). We are witnessing the increasing role of expensive "head hunter" search firms not just in the selection of Chancellors, but also in filling the...

What is John Yoo, Berkeley's notorious professor of law, doing to our fragile democracy now?   Best known for his 2002 "torture memos," which legitimated the Bush administration's torture of suspects, illegally held, in the aftermath of 9/11, the memos were widely...

Last week the campus announced that Berkeley has just admitted the most ethnically diverse cohort of first-year students in more than three decades. “Freshman admission offers to African-American students increased by more than 40% and offers to Chicanx-Latinx...

It's been quite a week of news: the threat of revoking the visas of international students if they are not enrolled in "in-person" instruction; the announcement of a new President of UC, Michael Drake; and, at Berkeley, a spike in coronavirus cases attributed to...

Last week, the Academic Council, representing the system-wide Academic Senate, sent a report to President Napolitano and to the Divisional Academic Senates, justifying 5 recommendations for the structural reform of campus security: Substantially defund general campus...

It’s time to take stock of the academic year that was, with a few highlights from our Annual Report. Events have been taken over by Covid-19, whose repercussions are still unraveling, sending the university into a tailspin. All the gains made by the university over...

During the last few weeks, the campus administration has offered a number of declarations of anti-racism. We have no doubt that they are expressions of genuine concern. Yet the financial decisions of the administration appear to be seriously at odds with their words....

The Berkeley Faculty Association joins widespread condemnation of the brutal attacks on Black people in the United States, including this letter supporting the Law Students of African Descent (LSAD) in their stand against police violence. The BFA's mandate is to...

UCOP is famed for its tough bargaining tactics in its dealings with its unions. From its ongoing conflict with AFSCME for failing to comply with its own rules around subcontracting, to a belligerent tendency to cancel AFT bargaining sessions at the last minute, to a...

The BFA had its end-of-year Board Meeting on May 13th.  We had a lively discussion (by Zoom, of course) about how the BFA should advocate for faculty with regard to looming fiscal challenges and their repercussions. We agreed that this is not a time for the...

The Covid19 pandemic presents unprecedented challenges to higher education.   Lost revenues from tuition and fees, housing and services, performances and athletic events, as well as plummeting state funding, endowments, and investment yields, will make recovery...

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...

Covid-19 has magnified inequalities. The poorer you are, the greater likelihood of contracting the Covid-19 virus.  The disproportion in mortality rates among different racial groups is shocking, and points to unhealthy “underlying conditions” of labor and lack of...

There is a big question hanging over UC Berkeley as well as many other campuses: how will education resume in the fall? Will we be able to return to campus? Might it be necessary to continue remote instruction for all classes? Or will some hybrid scheme be developed?...