To faculty colleagues at UCSF:
As Chair of The University of California, San Francisco Faculty Association, I am writing to urge you to join YOUR association as a member.
It’s no secret that UCSF faculty are under stress: Operational Excellence has removed many support staff. Space and the quality of the work environment are being threatened. We face declining state support for UCSF at the same time as Federal research agencies are under stress. Meanwhile declining access to clinical revenue is another factor making faculty life much more difficult. Among UCSF faculty with state-funded FTEs, the level of support for the FTEs has been dramatically reduced. Concurrently, salaries have not kept up with our competitors, while charges for health care and the retirement system have increased, as have personal costs of other items that affect many faculty such as parking. Basic services once provided by UCSF, from telephones to office cleaning to building maintenance, tech support and office staff support, have been sharply reduced.
While the recent passage of Proposition 30 restored cuts planned for this year, it does not restore the funds lost from serious cuts of past years, nor does it offer protection from future cuts.
The UC San Francisco Faculty Association (UCSF FA) is a dues-supported membership organization of faculty, legally empowered to provide a voice on important issues to the Legislature, Governor, media, and UC systemwide and UCSF administrations. While we cooperate actively with the Academic Senate, our status as an independent organization allows us to engage in advocacy activities that are beyond what the Senate is permitted to do.
Through our affiliation with the Council of UC Faculty Associations (CUCFA) and with our evolving partnership with the California Faculty Association (of the CSUs) and particularly the National Campaign for the Future of Higher Education, we participate in broader movements to educate the public about the value of public higher education and the threats it faces today. Among CUCFA’s many accomplishments on our behalf was the successful co-sponsorship of legislation that specifies that individual professors, not UC, own their lectures, which is very important now as UC tries to move lectures to the web. You can access our UCSF Faculty association website http://ucsffa.org, as well as CUCFA’s sites at http://keepcaliforniaspromise.org and www.cucfa.org, for a full archive of our accomplishments on your behalf. But, we need YOUR support to strengthen our capacity to face our current situation.
With best wishes,