Teaching the Budget a Good Idea for Every UC Instructor

It is difficult, if not impossible, to separate instruction in particular disciplines or fields from the need to educate students broadly about the context for their learning experience. Students are often so preoccupied with the increasing difficulty of getting into required courses and other issues that result from State, UC, and campus decisions, that their ability to focus on actual course material may suffer. Although the subject matter of many courses at UC does not seem particularly related to these broader educational concerns, there is every reason for all instructors to spend some, limited time explaining to their students what is happening with instructional funding at UC. As Watson and Crick, discoverers of DNA, often observed it is not the narrow focus on a particular disciplines that leads to the most important scientific breakthroughs, but an ability to relate specific data to larger frameworks of knowledge and culture.

The pressure to maximize focus on required course topics is no doubt quite real, but every college instructor should feel an obligation to help his or her students understand broad concepts of pedagogy and the economic and social context that both promotes and limits the possibilities of learning and understanding in the world of sciences and humanities. Consequently, it is not only acceptable, but appropriate and even necessary that all UC instructors take at least some small amount of time in their courses to help their students understand the current budget crisis at UC, its causes, and the logic and practical impacts decisions by top UC administrators will have on students, faculty, and staff within the institution.

Working cooperatively, UC-AFT and UAW have developed an easily accessible set of curricular materials to help all UC instructors offer their students a fundamental understanding of the current UC budget situation and its impact on their education at UC. How much time any particular instructor may be able to spend in the classroom sharing these curricular materials will, of course, depend upon the subject matter of the course and other demands on course time. At a very minimum, all faculty should find a way to introduce their students to the issue of the budget, offer at least a few basic facts about the current crisis and its impact on UC, and point students toward sources of additional information should they choose to follow up on the issue as it is presented in class.

A range of possibilities exists for how these materials might be presented in any particular class and for who might actually do the presentation. Materials have been developed that would allow any UC instructor to do their own brief class presentation on the UC budget, but it is also possible to arrange for a fellow instructor or a student to visit your class to make a presentation in as few as fifteen minutes of class time. We sincerely hope that as many instructors as possible will avail themselves of the opportunity to participate in this educational endeavor and offer their students at least a basic introduction to the fundamental budget issues confronting their university. Nothing less will allow students to exercise their full right and responsibility to participate in directing their own education.

Addendum on the right of instructors to spend class time teaching the budget:

Fortunately, all UC instructors, unlike their colleagues at some community and private colleges, have the academic freedom to determine how best to deliver instruction to their students. Departments often provide instructors with course goals and expectations that should be met through the course, but it is extremely rare for departments to dictate which textbooks should be used, what work should be assigned, or how lectures, discussions, or exams should be structured. Almost without exception, once required topics are covered, instructors are free to determine which topics might get expanded coverage and which outside issues might be brought into the classroom to help their students maximize their learning experience in the course.

There are, of course, limits on this freedom. No instructor is free to use the classroom for partisan political indoctrination, or to force his or her students to adopt a particular political or social view uncritically. Faculty instructors need to be careful not to spend so much time on issues tangential to the course focus that they undermine the ability of their students to gain the essential knowledge on which the course is ostensibly focused. However, University administrators are not free to limit the freedom of instructors of record to structure their courses in a way that includes at least some information on the broader context within which the educational enterprise operates. Any faculty member who is told that he or she may not use reasonable, limited classroom time to help his or her students better understand the budget crisis at UC and its impact on the students’ education, should contact the UC-AFT for help in defending your academic freedom.

Mike Rotkin, UC-AFT V.P. for Organizing