March 2, 2021

President Michael V. Drake
Office of the President
University of California
1111 Franklin St., 12th Floor
Oakland, CA 94607

Delivered via Email to: president@ucop.edu

Dear President Drake,

CUCFA is writing to support our UC Riverside colleagues’ fight against the disproportionate 11% cut their campus is receiving. This cut is the last straw in a long history of underfunding and systemic racism suffered by UCR. The data speak for themselves: UCR serves one of the highest numbers of Latinx, Asian, Black, and other students of color in the system, and 96% of its undergraduate students are California residents. UCR also has one of the highest student-to-faculty ratios in the UC system. UC Riverside has been touted for having one of the smallest racial achievement gaps in the nation. But UCR currently receives less funding than other campuses as UC’s re-benching process has stalled.

CUCFA has endorsed the petition drafted by many UCR Chairs and signed by over 1,000 faculty members (about 10% of ladder-rank UC faculty), with many more to come before the petition drive’s end. This high number demonstrates growing solidarity among faculty of all ranks and across all campuses. It also shows a mounting awareness of structural racism in our higher education system. CUCFA also opposes cuts to the other campuses, but we urge you to immediately bring the amount for UCR in line with the average percentage.

Rather than treat campus funding as a zero-sum game, pitting campuses against each other, we need UC to work with the legislature to secure appropriate funding levels. The legislature has been receptive to the concerns raised by the UCR petition. CUCFA continues to propose our $66 Fix as the best solution to both chronic underfunding and structural racism in our higher education system.

Sincerely,
The Council of UC Faculty Associations