UCSF Faculty Association

FAQ’s

1. WHAT IS THE UCSF FACULTY ASSOCIATION?

We are watchdogs, quiet most of the time, but ready to spring into action on the campus and statewide levels (See below).

 

2. WHOM DOES THE UCSF FACULTY ASSOCIATION REPRESENT?

  • all ranks of UCSF faculty
  • emeriti
  • lecturers with security of employment

 

3. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE ACTIVITIES OF THE FACULTY ASSOCIATIONS?

On campus, investigate local issues like:

  • Threats to faculty compensation, including reduced contributions from departments, reduced clinical revenues, etc.
  • Increased administrative load on faculty
  • Quality of life issues, including increased parking and gym fees, reduced maintenance of offices, and reduced security
  • Threats to academic freedom, including patent issues, policies about ownership of classroom materials, etc.

 In Sacramento, pursue lobbying issues like:

  • UC budgets
  • administrative salaries
  • senate and assembly bills that affect faculty interests
  • state government agencies that set UC policies

In Oakland, consult with the Office of the President on:

  • benefits
  • salaries
  • working conditions of UC faculty

 

4. GENERAL FACULTY ASSOCIATION INFORMATION & THE SYSTEM-WIDE COUNCIL OF UC FACULTY ASSOCIATIONS (CUCFA)

The Faculty Associations (FAs) are associations of UC Senate faculty on the separate campuses of the University of California.  Each FA is dues supported and therefore completely independent.

In the early 1970’s, a group of Academic Senate faculty at Berkeley concluded that the University by itself could not halt the alarming decline in faculty compensation caused by accelerating inflation and legislative inertia. They also foresaw the day when legislation would allow for public employee unions in higher education. Therefore UC faculty formed associations of Academic Senate faculty first at Berkeley, then at UCLA, and then on all the campuses of the University of California. The FAs helped draft legislation that would help to ensure that the academic quality of the University of California would never be compromised. When that legislation passed (AB 1091) in 1979, it became clear that the authority of the Academic Senate was restricted to academic matters and the Senate could not represent the economic or employment interests of its faculty before the University or the Legislature. A group of Senate faculty–not acting as the Senate but as an independent association of faculty members–would take on that important responsibility.

The Faculty Associations (FA’s) pay limited attention to the strictly academic issues that take up most of the time and attention of the Academic Senate, like curriculum and hiring and evaluating faculty, unless the Academic Senate asks for our help. The FA’s concentrate most of their attention on employer-employee issues like faculty salaries, medical, fringe, and retirement benefits, and other conditions of work like teaching load and outside employment policies. As a membership organization the FA’s thus have the best of two worlds: better representation in employment matters, no loss of autonomy in academic matters.  At most of the campuses, the Faculty Associations are governed by an Executive Board.  At the system wide level, the chairs of the campus faculty associations serve on the Council and elect a President and Vice President.

The local campus Faculty Associations join together to form the Council of UC Faculty Associations (CUCFA), our system wide organization. The chair of each campus FA serves on the Board of the Council. Campus FAs (except Santa Cruz) do not have specific labor rights, but the system-wide Council of UC Faculty Associations Council does by virtue of its agency status with the Santa Cruz FA, the legal bargaining agent for the faculty at UCSC. Because of these assigned labor rights, the Office of the President has the obligation to send notices about any proposed changes to the wages, benefits, hours, and working conditions of UC faculty to the Council of UC Faculty Associations. If the Council has questions or feels that those changes are not in the best interests of the faculty, the system-wide Council of UC Faculty Associations Council (CUCFA) has the labor rights to ask for a consulting session with the UC Administration in Oakland.

In Sacramento, the Faculty Associations hire the services of a professional lobbyist so that we can monitor the state’s contribution to UC and what portion of that contribution goes to UC faculty salaries. When there are cuts to be made, we protect faculty interests. We also follow bills that affect faculty concerns and follow the activities of state government organizations that set salary formulas. Because it is state-funded, the Senate may not use its resources to lobby on behalf of faculty interests. Without the system-wide Council of UC Faculty Associations, faculty would have to rely on the goodwill of the University and the legislature to address economic issues affecting faculty, and while no one doubts that goodwill, it is always better to have someone asking questions, providing information, and keeping a close lookout. That is where the UC Faculty Associations come in: we are watchdogs, quiet most of the time, but ready to spring into action on both the campus and statewide levels.

CUCFA has as one of its primary functions and purposes the responsibility to encourage and assist the development of Faculty Associations on the campuses, and, on request, provide organization assistance to existing Faculty Associations. Should an insufficient number of UCSF-FA members volunteer to serve on the UCSF-FA Board, the association has agreed that CUCFA will provide aid in UCSF-FA administrative matters until such a time when volunteers become available to continue with the purposes and functions, as stated in Article I of the UCSF Faculty Association bylaws.

 

5. HOW MUCH ARE THE UCSF FACULTY ASSOCIATION DUES?

$10.00/per month for Assistant Professors and Lecturers

$18.00/per month for Associate Professors

$22.00/per month for Full Professors

$35.00/per year for Emeriti

 

6. HOW ARE THE FA DUES SPENT?

In addition to our own activities, the UCSF Faculty Association helps support the Council of UC Faculty Associations (CUCFA). CUCFA’s extensive work since 1978 has been in support of all  UC faculty. You can view some of their accomplishment CUCFA website at http://cucfa.org/accomplished.php.  Your dues also helps to support the Faculty Association Executive Director and the work of our CUCFA staff.  We rely on staff to support the work CUCFA does, including maintenance of systemwide faculty lists, websites, press releases and communications with the media, the filing of taxes and other required documents, running board meetings and, most importantly, tracking the legislature to keep us informed of what is happening in Sacramento.