Amend HEERA to permit contract faculty inclusion in the UC Academic Senate
March 24, 2019

Resolution

Whereas, the current text of Section 3579.e of the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act (HEERA) reads: “the only appropriate representation units including members of the academic senate of the University of California shall be either a single statewide unit consisting of all eligible members of the senate, or divisional units consisting of all eligible members of a division of the senate;” and

Whereas, the above language functions to exclude faculty who are currently represented by the University Council-AFT from membership and participation in the UC Academic Senate; and

Whereas, the UC has used this HEERA provision to attempt to remove job titles from UC-AFT’s faculty bargaining unit simply by placing them in the Academic Senate and, using this logic, could unilaterally dissolve the entire bargaining unit; and

Whereas, UC-AFT faculty teach approximately one-third of undergraduate student credit hours at the UC; yet have no voice in curricular or policy decisions that are voted on by the Academic Senate; and

Whereas, the inability to participate in the decision and policy-making of the UC Academic Senate disadvantages faculty represented by UC-AFT; and

Whereas, the disadvantages described above perpetuate discrimination, because UC-AFT faculty are more likely than Senate faculty to be women and scholars of color, whose exclusion from the Academic Senate is unjustifiable;

Therefore, be it resolved, that the CFT shall sponsor legislation to amend Section 3579.e of HEERA to add the following similar language: “The preceding provision does not apply to non-tenure-track faculty, who may simultaneously have exclusive representation and membership in the academic senate of the University of California.”