The Council of UC Faculty Associations (CUCFA) is meeting with UC President Michael Drake on February 8, 2021, from 2:15 to 2:45 p.m.

Attending for CUCFA: Constance Penley, President, CUCFA; Professor, Film and Media Studies, UCSB and Wendy Matsumura, Vice President, CUCFA; Associate Professor, History, UCSD.

The Council of University of California Faculty Associations serves as the collective bargaining agent for the unionized faculty at UCSC and is a coordinating and service agency for the individual Faculty Associations — associations of UC Senate faculty — on all of the University of California’s campuses. It represents them to state- and university-wide agencies on issues of common concern, like faculty salaries, benefits, pensions, and work conditions. It shares with the Academic Senate the overall goal of maintaining UC’s twin pillars of shared governance and academic freedom.

CUCFA believes that the future of UC, underpinned by shared governance and academic freedom, is best secured by renewing public investment in California higher education. True accountability can be guaranteed by regaining the people’s trust and ensuring that every California family has a stake in the system.

1. We endorse “The $66 Fix: Reclaiming California’s Master Plan for Higher Education” (66fix.org), a path for California to recover its pioneering role in tuition-free and debt-free higher education.
2. We urge faculty involvement in decision-making around the use of private technology platforms such as Zoom, ProctorU, and Canvas that risk privacy, data security, and the loss of faculty control over the creation and ownership of teaching content. We oppose the imposition of shortsighted demands to rapidly and significantly increase online education under the guise of accessibility.
3. We continue to advocate for meaningful faculty engagement with all aspects of university life, including but not limited to selecting a new UC President and Chancellors.

CUCFA believes that the University of California must be an ethical employer to all.

1. We are committed to working with our non-Academic Council partners like the UC Union Coalition to build better working conditions at the University of California for all.
2. We share with our UC-AFT colleagues the belief that UC must live up to its mission of providing the best learning conditions for its students. To this end, we call upon UCOP to provide job stability and career pathways for all teaching faculty.
3. We call for aggressive UC advocacy for state and federal funding of higher education rather than resorting to narrow, technocratic austerity measures of cuts and furloughs, such as the “curtailment” proposal.

CUCFA believes that the UCs must do a better job combating structural and historical anti-Black and anti-Indigenous structures and policies throughout the system.

1. Policing in all of its guises must be eliminated, and non-punitive solutions that truly protect and serve the most vulnerable UC constituents and the communities it impacts must be implemented through close consultation with those communities.
2. We must acknowledge and repay UC’s debt to the tribal lands and nations it inhabits.
3. UCOP must address the stark inequities in resources and funding among the UC campuses, which have recently been exacerbated by enrollment increases that are not accompanied by facilities upgrades or increases in per-student funding.
4. A safe re-opening of campuses must respect inequities among employees and between the university and surrounding communities.
5. Every aspect of UC, including hiring, curriculum, and institutional organization, must undo ongoing white supremacy structures and logics.
6. UC leadership in the Green New Deal will enable it to be an active force in combating environmental racism.