SF Chronicle Article: Hundreds of Berkeley lecturers fear losing jobs

San Francisco Chronicle

Hundreds of Berkeley lecturers fear losing jobs

Ron Kroichick May 17, 2020 Updated: May 17, 2020 5:49 p.m.

More than 750 lecturers at UC Berkeley fear for their jobs after the university expanded its hiring freeze.

Lecturers with six years or less of experience on campus originally were exempt from the hiring freeze announced April 1. But UC Berkeley officials subsequently revised the terms of the freeze to include those lecturers.

The lecturers, already frustrated by a lack of job stability, view the move as essentially a precursor to layoffs.“They call it a hiring freeze, but the fact people can’t get reappointed means they will in fact be laid off,” said Marianne Kaletzky, a lecturer in English and comparative literature.

UC Berkeley reappoints most lecturers with less than six years of experience — known as “pre-continuing” — on a yearly basis, and sometimes semester by semester.

This move comes amid o ngoing negotiations between UC officials and UC-AFT, the union representing lecturers and librarians throughout the system. The union’s previous contract expired Jan. 31.

On the Berkeley campus, there are 771 “pre-six” lecturers and 338 “continuing” lecturers (those with more than six years of experience), according to Tiffany Page, a global studies lecturer and member of the union’s bargaining team. The continuing lecturers have more job protections.

In all, lecturers teach 42% of undergraduate credit hours at UC Berkeley, “so the university is very dependent on us,” Page said. “I think they’re wondering what enrollment levels will look like in the fall.”

University officials said the amended hiring freeze traces to the pandemic’s devastating financial toll. UC Berkeley abruptly moved classes online in March, and C hancellor Carol Christ has said she expects the school to adopt a “hybrid plan” for the fall semester, with some in-person classes and others online.

“Our Chancellor has stated that Berkeley is facing a COVID 19-related deficit of between $170 (million) and $400 million,” spokeswoman Janet Gilmore wrote in an email to The Chronicle. “The hiring freeze was implemented in light of that financial situation, and to ensure the university’s more limited resources are being allocated in a consistent manner.”

Lecturers learned of the change to the hiring freeze following an April 21 letter from Paul Alivisatos, executive vice chancellor and provost, to deans and department chairs. The letter extended the freeze to include pre-six lecturers, including those who already had an offer or reappointment for fall and spring of the next academic year. Department chairs can request exemptions.

Given the number of classes lecturers teach, the move could have a significant impact on fall semester courses. UC Berkeley officials might ask tenured faculty members to teach more classes, lecturers suspect, or possibly increase class sizes. Or cut classes.

“Lecturers have become a core part of the university’s teaching mission,” Kaletzky said. “Without a majority of lecturers, the university almost certainly would have to cancel a huge number of classes they planned to offer.”

Or, as lecturer Crystal Chang Cohen said, “They’re keeping us in a waiting game. We’re like gig workers, wanting to keep us flexible, and that leaves many people in a lurch.”

Gilmore, the university spokeswoman, suggested that fall semester class schedules remain in flux. Much depends on enrollment, with colleges and universities across the country bracing for a drop as they scramble to reshape instruction because of the pandemic.

“As of today, we plan to largely adhere to the fall schedule of classes,” Gilmore wrote in her email Thursday. “However, we may have to rethink small-enrollment courses, which are obviously more expensive on a per-student basis than large lecture courses — consequently, there may be fewer small-enrollment courses offered in the next academic year.”

Ron Kroichick is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: r kroichick@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ronkroichick