CSUN University News Clippings

UCI professors urged to stage one day walkout

(September 8, 2009)

College Life Blog
BY Gary Robbins
Published: 9/7/09

Professors at UC Irvine and the nine other UC campuses are being urged to stage a one day walkout on September 24th to protest the deep financial cuts that are being made throughout the system as a result of the state budget crisis.

The UC was told to cut more than $800 million, leading its Board of Regents to require employees to take furlough days that will cost workers from 4 to 10 percent of their pay, depending on how much they earn.

The furloughs and related issues have angered many professors throughout the system, 17 who signed an Aug. 31 letter that urges all faculty not to work on Sept. 24th. The date falls on the week that UCI begins its fall quarter.

The letter’s signers include UCI’s Catherine Liu, an associate professor in the Departments of Film & Media Studies and Comparative Literature. (Read complete letter.)

And the walkout has been endorsed by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). But it’s unclear whether the job action will occur at Irvine, which is in the process of reducing its budget by $77 million, mostly through furloughs, lay-offs and campus closure days.

“I don’t think most teachers will walk out,” Liu said Sunday night. “I think they’ll turn (Sept. 24) into a teachable moment to let students know what’s going on.”

Asked whether that amounts to politicizing classroom instruction, Liu said, “No. This isn’t a political issue, it’s an educational issue.”

The walkout letter that Liu co-signed is sharply critical of the way UC leaders have handled budget cuts and dealing with the faculty.

In part, the letter says: “The Office of the President has failed to arrive at a plan that would protect the interests of both students and workers. It wishes to disguise the harm this failure has done to the University’s mission. Or better: it seeks to shift the blame for this failure to the faculty, should we be so bold as to hold the President accountable to the consequences of his own plan. Toward this evasion, UCOP (University of California Office of the President) has flagrantly erased the difference between a furlough and a paycut, presenting the latter in the guise of the former.”

Publication: Orange County Register