Lecturers

Colleagues:

We had our second bargaining session today, at UC-Irvine. The tone was again very collegial, and the teams worked collaboratively on a number of important issues, including layoff, grievance, arbitration, and discipline and dismissal.  We approached these articles by setting aside any possibly contentious issues within each of them, and working towards an agreement on those changes that each side considers necessary. While we have not arrived at final contract language, we have identified areas where there is common ground, and identified how it is that the shared ideas can be translated into contract language. The UC team will bring many of these ideas back to their stakeholders on the campuses so that we can move forward in our discussion at the next session. The same could be said for some workload equity issues that we brought to the table.

28 February 2011

UC-AFT's team met earlier today with UC's team to discuss successor negotiations. After quickly agreeing to ground rules, each side presented its proposals, and answered questions that members of the other team had. It quickly became clear to everyone in the room that there were many shared areas of concern, which we hope can be addressed and solved relatively quickly. It also became clear to both sides that there were a few areas of more substantive disagreement (such as on layoff), which will take longer to resolve. Neither side presented its economic proposals and, given the current state of the state, we agreed to hold off on discussing these concerns until we made more progress on the non-economic issues. The mood was generally collaborative--and we have scheduled several additional bargaining sessions in March and April. Our goal will be to make progress in areas where we are in virtual agreement quickly, and then move on to thornier problems. The next bargaining session will be on 11 March 2011. We will send an additional bargaining update after that session. 

Alan Karras

Colleagues:

Bargaining is once again upon us; the current contract expires this summer.

UC-AFT and the University exchanged proposals last Friday, 28 January 2011. By mutual agreement, each side has agreed to participate in "interest based" bargaining. Put simply, this means that each side listed its desired contractual changes, by article, as well as the reasons for suggesting a change. We are hopeful that this will lead to an earlier consensus between UC-AFT and the University. Once consensus is reached on a particular article, the sides will jointly write contract language that captures their understandings.  We hope that by taking this approach neither side will become entrenched in particular language.

As you know, UC-AFT solicited feedback from the campuses before drafting its final proposals. If you are interested in seeing the proposals that have been exchanged, you can do so by following these links:

UC-AFT Proposals to UC (PDF)

Would you like to attend a conference in France, do research in Brazil, or fieldwork in China?  And have it paid for by the University of California?!  Apply for a Professional Development Fund Grant and make it happen.

Applications are now being requested for PDF 2012 grant funding. Grants of $500 to $8000 are available for teaching, research, and scholarship.

The goal of the Lecturers' Professional Development Fund is to support eligible Unit 18 non-Senate faculty by funding various forms of professional development activities that can enhance those faculty's scholarly and pedagogical endeavors. Broadly speaking, these endeavors include any intellectual and research activities that contribute to their scholarship, and to his or her effectiveness as teachers and mentors.

Professional Development Fund Grants are open to all Unit 18 non-Senate faculty (lecturers and other instructors covered by the Unit 18 contract) with teaching appointments on the UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco campuses.  You are eligible if you had or have a lecture appointment during any of the following semesters:

In Bertolt Brecht’s play Galileo, the scientist is asking a very young
student to explain some complex scientific point. The boy is
incorrect and Galileo shouts, “Wrong! Stupid!”

Except for the one faculty member (probably at an east coast school)
who revels in tripping up students, most of us wish we had really good
ways for responding when students provide incorrect or off-the-wall
answers in class. Developing an ease, a facility, with correcting
wrong answers, something we call the Berkeley Correctional Facility,
is not easy, but makes for a better classroom experience overall.

Since there’s not a magic bullet, we’ve compiled good ideas from a
number of university teaching centers. You will see that some might

In an ongoing effort to study undergraduate student writing, the College Writing Programs is undertaking a research project to collect written assignments from faculty teaching undergraduate courses throughout the campus. The purposes of this research are to gain an accurate sense of the range and types of writing demands that students face in their undergraduate careers at Berkeley and to develop a collection of assignments that can be used to guide faculty in their work with students.

Please click on the following link (or paste the URL into your browser) to find a list of equivalencies negotiated by the lecturers' bargaining team with the UC Office of the President.

Lecturers' workload equivalencies list

To find out what your raises will be in the next 3 years, lecturers should look up your annual FTE (full-time equivalent) salary, and count the number of semesters you have been teaching on campus. Then click on the link to the "2007 Lecturers' Contract Improvements" at the left under "Know Your Contract." (Links to the full texts of the new articles are at the bottom of the summary page). Then click on the link immediately below that to the New Lecturers' Salary Chart.