UC’s Problem: Academic freedom is under attack on campus and beyond

As contingent faculty, we are particularly vulnerable to attacks on academic freedom, at the UC and across the United States. Our current contract language concerning investigations and discipline for U18 teaching faculty currently suffers from a lack of clarity and precision – areas of ambiguity that the UC has used against many lecturers in the last several years.

• Each campus within the UC has its own provisions in the Academic Personnel Manual (APM), and applies them in inconsistent and arbitrary ways; 
• The sole authority to adjudicate violations of our academic freedom rests with the Academic Senate, who don’t always understand our particular circumstances as non-tenured faculty (Contract Article 2);
• Because we teach and mentor more undergraduate students, in fraught times, we become the front line for discussions about troubling current events and challenging, controversial topics;
• Many lecturers feel insecure and unclear about what activities and expressions are protected and what are not;
• Many lecturers have significant pedagogical concerns about what we can say in the classroom; 
• Under our current contract, we can’t grieve or arbitrate violations, depriving us of the fair representation we deserve (Article 2);
• Attacks on our university by the current federal administration make our fight for academic freedom, equity in the workplace, and social justice more urgent than ever before.

Our Solution: Equitable Academic Freedom

Your Unit 18 Bargaining Team is committed to fighting for clear processes to resolve disputes about our rights, and establishing clear protections against the unfair discipline or dismissal of our members. Our initial proposals for the new contract include: 

• Protect U18 faculty’s rights to support student activism and political protest both within and outside the classroom. (Articles 2 and 3)
• Ensure that U18 faculty can write, speak, teach, and post about controversial topics, including race, racism, and gender, without fear of disciplines from UC administration or our departments (Articles 2 and 3)
• Protect our ethnic studies and gender studies programs from outside political influences. (Articles 2 and 3)
• Establish a system of adjudication in which lecturers, not the academic senate, review disciplinary cases involving other lecturers (Articles 2 and 30)
• Strengthen the principle of progressive discipline by making procedures clear, binding, and fully grievable. (Articles 30 and 32)
• Give lecturers a seat at the table in any appeal or review process involving the academic senate (Article 30)
• Clarify that groups of lecturers may file grievances together on disciplinary or any other grounds (Articles 30 and 32)
• Update disciplinary process timelines to be clearer and more reasonable (Articles 30 and 32).