Ninety-six percent of UC workers officially have no confidence in their president, Mark Yudof.
Approximately 10,000 employees cast a vote of no confidence last Wednesday, declaring their frustration with Yudof’s leadership and mobilizing efforts for better appropriation of funds in the UC system.
In the call for the vote, union leaders point to budget cuts and the recent furlough plan as reasons for criticizing the president, who began his term last March.
The office of the president’s furlough plan includes 10 days of unpaid work on non-teaching days, despite the preference of polled UC employees to have furloughs on days of instruction. Many employees feel the decision shut them out of the shared governance process and is adequate grounds for Yudof’s layoff.
“The furloughs, layoffs and student fee increases proposed by Yudof are unnecessary and extremely harmful to the University and its public service mission,” the call read. “[His] planned solution to decreased State General Fund Appropriations bars high-wage University employees from contributing a balanced share to the budget solution, while deliberately placing thousands of low-wage Californians at risk.“
In response to the vote, Dwaine B. Duckett, a UC vice president said that the demonstrations are merely publicity stunts.
“Basically these are antics,” he said in a San Francisco Chronicle article. “You can throw a tantrum, or you can help solve the problem.“
However those involved in the vote are concerned by the response of UC, viewing it as another reason to have less confidence in the leadership.
“In this kind of situation [the office of the president] has more responsibility to make sure their message is received,” said Axel Borg, UC Davis librarian and president of the UC American Federation of Teachers Local 2023. “The only message employees are receiving is that they might be laid off.“
Though the vote does not mandate Yudof’s layoff, it is intended to bring awareness to employees‘ dissatisfaction and function as call for action in the budget situation.
LAUREN STEUSSY can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.
