Compiled by Harold Marcuse, Sept. 10, 2021
Executive Board 2020-2021:
Claudio Fogu (French & Italian), President
Jennifer Holt (Film and Media Studies), Vice President
Constance Penley (Film and Media Studies), CUCFA liaison (and president)
Harold Marcuse (History), Treasurer
Ralph Armbruster-Sandoval (Dept. of Chicana/o Studies)
Peter Ford (Chemistry and Biochemistry)
Lisa Hajjar (Sociology)
Howard Winant (Sociology), 2019-20 only
The pandemic-induced lockdown overshadowed this period in mid-March 2020 and the transition to completely remote interactions from then until September 2021.
Activities:
1. May/June 2019. We protested and attempted to mitigate the reduction in subject librarians in the opaque “restructuring” of our library personnel.
2. November 2019. We lobbied to institutionalize more serious faculty participation in the search for a new UC president, and helped mobilize participants in the canvassing process.
3. November 13, 2019. We supported and participated in AFSCME’s statewide Day of Action against the outsourcing of various tasks done by campus workforces.
4. January 2020. Several members attended (in person) the bargaining session of UC-AFT lecturers with UCOP that was held at UCSB, and spoke in support of the Unit 18 Lecturers’ demands. Our support continued during the pandemic (e.g. 11/18/2020, 1/20/2021, 2/26/2021) until the present (Sept. 2021) with attendance at virtual bargaining sessions and statements at Regents’ meetings (in particular in June 2021).
5. February-March 2020. We supported the “COLA” (Cost of Living Adjustment) actions by graduate student employees with participation and advice, as well as public statements of support. This was a major area of effort, with many dozens of faculty attending protest rallies and marches, and mustering strong support for non-retaliation against TAs who withheld grades at the end of the quarter. Once the consequences of the pandemic became clear, we advised the end of the grade strike.
6. February 22, 2020. We hosted the California AAUP annual meeting. In addition to providing a venue and lunch, we sponsored travel stipends for non-UC attendees and registration fees for UCSB attendees.
7. March 13, 2020. We sent an open letter to UCSB Chancellor Henry Yang and Executive Vice Chancellor David Marshall advising against the use of ProctorU’s remote examination proctoring services. This was quickly picked up by local and national media, prompting ProctorU to threaten the UCSB FA with a major lawsuit. We received pro bono legal assistance and ProctorU quickly backtracked and changed its policies to protect student privacy and not allow the selling of personal information to third parties. We received national media coverage of this effort.
8. March 20-30, 2020. We surveyed UCSB faculty and urged the UCSB administration to increase flexibility with a “soft start” of Spring quarter instruction to prepare for emergency remote instruction.
9. May 18, 2020. Along with UC-AFT Local 2141 we wrote to the relevant UCSB leadership requesting a moratorium on our “ESCI” student evaluations of courses and instruction both because of the inherent biases research has repeatedly shown, and due to the pandemic-induced switch to remote instruction. Our efforts supporting the reform of these evaluations goes back to Fall 2018 (at least).
10. July 5, 2020. We sent an open letter to Chancellor Yang and the Police Advisory Board co-chairs endorsing the UC Academic Council’s statement regarding the relationship between UC campuses and police forces.
11. October 8, 2020. The Zoom Video Communications (Zoom Corporation is a Japanese Audio / Music company) cancelled a scheduled event at San Francisco State University sponsored by its Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies Program and the Women and Gender Studies Department, we wrote to UCSB Chancellor Henry Yang and Executive Vice Chancellor David Marshall, urging them to negotiate with Zoom to amend its contract, taking away its right to censor any university-sanctioned events.
12. October 12, 2020 we hosted a virtual event “Land Grab Universities” with Mia Lopez, Cultural Representative of the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nations, as the main presenter.
13. February 2021: We hired Deborah Rosenberg as a part-time, professional staff member, to help us with experience and institutional continuity that our previous turnover of graduate student assistants did not provide.
14. Spring/Summer 2021: We have been attending virtual meetings and supporting the graduate-student-led initiative to keep the flexibility in parking options as UCSB transitions to a new system in its Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP).
15. April 26, 2021: prompted by demands to disarm/abolish police and UCOP’s initiative to increase policing (“Gold Book” revisions), we held an online forum “Divesting from Campus Policing in the UC System and Investing in Community Alternatives,” with Professor Paul Amar (UCSB, Global Studies), who chairs the UC Academic Freedom Committee on the UCSB Council on Faculty Welfare, and presentations by Professor Charmaine Chua (UCSB, Global Studies) and Professor Terrance Wooten (UCSB, Black Studies) of the “Cops Off Campus” coalition. It was attended by about 50 people.
16. May 2021: As part of the election of new Board members, we undertook a substantial updating of our bylaws, streamlining procedures, and bringing sections of seven Articles into line with current practices.
Membership
Our membership stayed relatively constant throughout the period, ranging from roughly 137 to 150, with resignations and retirements roughly balancing out new memberships. Due to the pandemic, we put recruitment efforts on hold.
Executive Board 2021-2022:
Eileen Boris (Feminist Studies), Co-President
Ben Olguín (English), Co-President
Kalju Kahn (Chemistry and Biochemistry), Vice-President
Harold Marcuse (History), Treasurer
Laila Shereen Sakr (Film and Media Studies), Social Media Director
Constance Penley (Film and Media Studies), CUCFA liaison (and President)
Peter Ford (Chemistry and Biochemstry)
Activities from June to September 2021 (Compiled by Eileen Boris)
17. Sent Response to “Presidential Campus Safety Plan”: As part of our follow up to the April forum, we supported the recommendations of UC Cops Off Campus.
18. July: Gave Support to UC-AFT by commenting at Board of Regents meeting.
19. July: Discussed problems with Unit 18 hiring lecturers with Faculty Senate Chair when Departments faced with charges of “conflict of interest” by HR for wanting to hire someone who had taught for another unit on campus
20. July 9: Attended Higher Education Labor Summit and signed HELU pledge; regularly attend meetings HELU meetings
21. August-September: Consultations with Faculty Senate Chair over Reopening Plans. Wrote letter to UCSB Campus Covid-19 Response Team.
22. August-September: Met with UC Unions in coalition about campus reopening and related issues (i.e. housing crisis and contract negotiations of various unions).