UC-AFT Insider March 2009
UC‐AFT Insider
March 5, 2009
In this issue:
• A Bad Budget Worse?
• Retirement Contribution Compounding Budget Issues for 2009/2010
• UC Runs and Hides From Long‐Scheduled Arbitration at UCSD
• UC‐AFT Member Spotlight‐ Carole Paul
• Know Your Rights‐ Unemployment Insurance for Non‐Senate Faculty
A Bad Budget Worse?
UC’s budget took another hit when state legislators finally agreed to budgets for 2008/2009 and
2009/10. An additional 50 million dollar cut to UC for 2009/2010 raises the UC deficit to $115
million for these two years. The federal stimulus question lingers while departments
throughout the UC system plan major reductions in services. While some campuses are looking
to temporary sub‐zero funds to balance the budget, forward thinking campuses are looking to
faculty retirements and a temporary freeze on faculty recruitment and hiring to address the
shortfall.
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/19562
http://www.uwire.com/Article.aspx?id=3772714
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/02/20/california
Retirement Contribution Compounding Budget Issues for 2009/2010
Governor Schwarzenegger cut $20 million from the budget that was allocated to cover UC’s
portion of UCRP contributions slated to begin next spring. Campuses will now be setting aside
additional money to cover the employer share. This money will come out of campus operating
budgets, rather than from the state legislature as UC had planned. Follow the link below for
more information from UC Davis.
http://www.dateline.ucdavis.edu/printable_dl_detail.lasso?id=11178&preview=no
For historic UCRP contribution rates: http://www.cft.org/uploads/uc/docs/retirerates.pdf
For the most recent UC investment scandal:
http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~schwrtz/MercerAffair.html
UC Runs and Hides From Long‐Scheduled Arbitration at UCSD
UC engaged in particularly shameful behavior in late February. A former lecturer unanimously
supported by his department, Chair, and Provost, was denied a Continuing Appointment by the
UCSD CAP in July 2007 solely on the basis of the numerical summaries of student evaluations.
His employment was then terminated, despite an on‐going grievance. A hearing on this clear
contract violation was scheduled for March 3 ‐‐ and had been on calendar for 8 months.
At the very last moment, three working days before the hearing, UC ran and hid ‐‐ giving the
case to outside counsel who asked for a continuance, which was reluctantly granted by the
arbitrator due only to a lawyer's custom of "professional courtesy" toward the new attorney. In
20 years of practice, our own attorney has never seen such a brazen and cynical manipulation of
the arbitration process ‐‐ and UC surely will spend many thousands of dollars to pay its outside
counsel to clean up this mess. UC‐AFT will continue to vigorously defend the contract rights of
its members and has registered vehement protests with the University as to its conduct in this
matter. To review the contract language at issue in Article 7b.E.1.a., see:
http://atyourservice.ucop.edu/employees/policies_employee_labor_relations/collective_bargai
ning_units/nonsenateinstructional_nsi/mou/article7b.html
UC‐AFT Member Spotlight
Carole Paul
The Borghese Collections and the Display of Art in the Age of
the Grand Tour, Ashgate 2008
Carole Paul has been a lecturer in Art History at UCSB since 1994.
She recently published a beautiful and meticulously researched
book detailing the late‐eighteenth‐century redecoration of the
exhibition spaces at the Borghese palace and villa in Rome and
the reinstallation of the family's vast art collection. This book
makes an important contribution to our understanding of Italian
art at a complex moment of transition from baroque to
neoclassical style, as well as to the emerging field of museum
history, demonstrating that these spaces were among the most
influential models of the modern art museum. Carole’s book is
available through Ashgate's website (www.ashgate.com). She continues her examination of the
origins of modern public museums in her current project, an anthology that she is editing on The
First Modern Museums of Art: Eighteenth‐Century Culture and the Formation of an Institution.
If you’d like to have your publication, exhibit, or other professional work profiled in the UC‐AFT
Member Spotlight, please contact Bill Quirk: aftquirk@rain.org
Know Your Rights‐ Unemployment Insurance for Non‐Senate Faculty
Non‐Senate Faculty are eligible to collect unemployment during breaks between quarters or
semesters, and summer break, unless they have “reasonable assurance” of a job when classes
resume. Any written promise of employment that is subject to cancellation due to low
enrollment or for any other reasons is not “reasonable assurance.” A long court battle resulted
in the precedent setting Cervisi decision in 1989, which held that an assignment that is
contingent on enrollment, funding, or other program changes is not a reasonable assurance of
employment, and therefore benefits cannot be denied for that reason. For detailed information
on your rights to U.I., and the application process, including a sample appeal letter, check out
the links below from two of our sister organizations for faculty in the CSU and community
colleges.
http://www.cpfa.org/unemployment.html
http://www.calfac.org/unemployment.html
http://www.cpfa.org/bezemek.html
Membership
If you have not already joined the union, please fill out the attached membership form, or
download one from our website. You are represented by UC‐AFT, but representation and
deductions from your pay do not mean that you are automatically a member. You can mail the
completed application to the address on the bottom of the form, or contact your local staff for
assistance.
http://www.cft.org/uploads/uc/docs/memberform.pdf
The University Council – American Federation of Teachers is an affiliate of the California
Federation of Teachers, the American Federation of Teachers and the AFLCIO.