In a surprise move, SB 895, the California Science and Health Research Bond Act, has passed out of the Appropriations Committee on a 12-to-1 vote. The bill had been stuck in Appropriations since July, and it missed the deadline for the 2026 ballot. It is now first in line, should it be passed, for the 2028 ballot….
Earlier this week, the Trump administration admitted that they scanned for keywords related to race, diversity, gender, vaccines, and other topics anathema to the administration when deciding which UC faculty research grants to cancel. This revelation has significant legal consequences for UC faculty fighting to restore their grants because it suggests the administration violated the…
On Thursday, June 18, guest speaker Dr. Elizabeth Ginexi led the OMB Comment-a-thon hosted by the UC San Francisco Faculty Association and the Council of UC Faculty Associations. Interest in this event was enormous, with over 200 people RSVPing. Here is a recording of Dr. Ginexi’s presentation and slides from the Comment-a-thon session. The OMB…
Late on Friday, February 7th, the National Institutes of Health announced that, rather than pay the rate carefully negotiated between the NIH and each individually research institution, “for new grant awards and existing grant awards, effective as of the date of this Guidance’s issuance. Pursuant to this Supplemental Guidance, there will be a standard…
California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office released a report on December 4th, 2024, titled “Trends in Higher Education Faculty and Staff.” Here are a few of the more interesting data points: The number of faculty has gone up over all, but the number of tenured or tenure track faculty has actually gone down. And…
March 20, 2022 The Honorable Kevin McCarty Assemblymember, 7th District State Capitol, Room 2136 Sacramento, CA 95814 RE: Reclaim Coalition Support for Assembly Bill 1602 Dear Assemblymember Kevin McCarty, The Reclaim California’s Public Higher Education Coalition represents employee and student organizations across all three segments of California’s public higher education systems. We would like to…
January 10, 2022 The Honorable Jose Medina Chair of the Higher Education Committee 1020 N Street, Room 173 Sacramento, CA 95814 RE: AB-295 – Support Dear Assemblymember Medina, Our coalition was very happy to see that you have proposed legislation, AB-295, which would create a working group and pilot program for tuition and fee-free higher…
Our coalition has proposed some updates to the Post-Secondary Education section of the California Democratic Party Platform. The current platform language is online. Our suggested edits included putting tuition- and debt-free higher ed at the top, foregrounding labor rights for all, and advocating state funding for housing. Here is how that section of the platform…
May 1, 2021 The Honorable Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer, Sr. California State Assembly State Capitol P.O. Box 942849 Sacramento, CA 94249-0059 RE: AB-295 – Support, amendments suggested Dear Assemblymember Jones-Sawyer, Our coalition was very happy to see that you have proposed legislation, AB-295, which would create a working group and pilot program for tuition and fee-free…
A public town hall entitled The Case for Tuition Free Higher Education – with a focus on the $66 Fix – was held in late February by the Progressive Democrats of America – California. The white paper on which much of the presentation was based is available online at: https://66fix.org/policy-paper/ And the recording is now…