The Editorial Board calls on UC administrators to support our instructors

Last week, members of the University Council-American Federation of Teachers (UC-AFT), the union representing over 6,000 lecturers within the UC system, congregated on A and First streets to advocate for job stability, increased pay and fair workload compensation for teaching faculty across the UC campuses. For lecturers, valuable leaders of our education and integral members of our community, these protections are long overdue. 

Lecturers teach roughly 30% of credit courses in the UC system, including those at undergraduate and graduate levels, and provide valuable instruction, though they make significantly less than professors. According to a CalMatters analysis, lecturers earn roughly a third or less of what tenured faculty or those who are on track to tenure make, though those disparities may also be attributed to the fact that most lecturers work part-time. The minimum annual pay for full-time lecturers, however, is $57,000, which is considered a low-income wage at six of the nine UC campuses, according to the same analysis.

UC-AFT and the UC Office of the President (UCOP) have been in negotiations for nearly two years, and this summer, the union filed for an impasse, meaning that both sides are deadlocked in their negotiations. While the UC is proposing pay bumps for lecturers, members of UC-AFT claim that these bumps will not rise with inflation and are therefore insufficient to ensure lecturers the financial means they need to survive. 

Beyond pay, a central issue lecturers and faculty are advocating for is job security. Every year, roughly one quarter of lecturers do not return to teach at the UC — this turnover has been dubbed “the churn.” The exact reasons for this aren’t listed in the UC employment rolls; a common complaint from lecturers is that they do not receive an explanation when their contract is not renewed, and it’s often done on short notice. For example, the 14 lecturers of the Physical Education Department at UC Davis received notification of their layoffs right before fall quarter 2020 — only two days before the start of classes.

It would diminish the work of lecturers to say that this turnover does not have an impact on students’ quality of education. Having different teachers for the same classes can affect the relative intensity of a course from quarter to quarter. Furthermore, classes taught by new teachers can prove challenging for students as a new lecturer must adjust to the content and the pace of the course during the early weeks of the quarter. For students that have built academic relationships with their teachers, it can be jarring to have them removed so suddenly from their educational realm and hinders students from asking for letters of recommendation and building professional connections.   

This seems especially ironic considering one of the primary goals of the UC, as established in its mission statement, is to teach students at all education levels, thus building California’s economy. The UCOP website states: “Through our academic programs, UC helps create an educated workforce that keeps the California economy competitive.” While the UC clearly takes pride in educating the future workforce for the state, it fails to acknowledge its crucial role in being the third largest employer in California by refusing to provide the necessary job security required for the lecturers directly responsible for creating this workforce.

UC-AFT members are also frustrated by the lack of communication from the UC Davis campus administration and the system-wide administration. Never has the gap between our teachers and the administration been so glaring: As members of our community who are so valuable in shaping student’s education, lecturers deserve to feel heard and not ignored by Chancellor Gary May and President Michael Drake.

If they don’t, students will be paying the price. In June, 96% of union members voted to authorize a strike, which would force more than a third of classes to be canceled. Though extremely disruptive, this may be a necessary step for lecturers to receive the rights they deserve as employees. The Editorial Board encourages students to educate themselves on the negotiations and show their support however possible. 

The UC has a duty to provide the appropriate job security and compensation to lecturers to not only support their employees but also to ensure students are receiving a consistent and excellent education. It is unfair both for employees and students to continue to teach and learn in these conditions without action taken by the UC system to meet the needs of lecturers.

Written by: The Editorial Board

Administrators must set standards for COVID-19 accommodations

With the return to in-person learning this fall, we are all in classrooms once again, surrounded by strangers, acquaintances and even close friends that we have not seen in a year and a half. While it’s definitely an adjustment, it’s exciting to be back on campus, and we can thank UC Davis for their work to ensure our safety. We are thrilled that 98% of UC Davis students are vaccinated; it’s because of you all that we have safely returned to campus. 

Mandating vaccines, necessitating symptom surveys and requiring frequent testing are important precautions that UC Davis has taken to protect our community. But beyond that, more work needs to be done to communicate the COVID-19 guidelines to both students and faculty. Although the administration has put public health policies and self-quarantine measures in place, this information is not actively disseminated and ambiguity remains as to what students should do when they are feeling sick.

To the Editorial Board, it seems like COVID-19 policies vary by the professor. Most of our instructors haven’t given us detailed explanations for what to do if we get COVID-19 beyond staying home. We’re told not to come to campus if we don’t pass the symptom survey, but protocols surrounding exams and mandatory attendance when we aren’t feeling well haven’t been made clear. Many of our syllabi say to follow campus guidelines, but those instructions usually end there. With some professors refusing to record lectures and others saying it’s okay to come to school with a cough, we are confused about what is the “right” thing to do. 

There have been professors who have been accommodating throughout this uncertainty by offering midterm drops or conducting quizzes via Canvas rather than in person. However, what confuses students is the discrepancy between different professors, sometimes even within the same department. The lack of consistency in implementing these public health policies forces students to navigate these ambiguities on their own, causing unnecessary stress during an already stressful pandemic. The Campus Ready guidelines instruct students to reach out to their professors or an academic advisor if they have to quarantine and miss class, but the burden should not be on already-sick students to secure accommodations on an uncertain, case-by-case basis. 

While professors should absolutely have flexibility in instructional decisions, COVID-19 policy should be set by administration. Allowing professors to determine for themselves what constitutes a fair make-up policy can be unfair to students who have to choose between keeping themselves healthy and keeping up their grades. Though COVID-19 has brought this issue to light, with the current flu season and potential future pandemics, there needs to be a standard for all professors to follow when it comes to navigating student illnesses.

Students shouldn’t need to scour the internet to find information about what to do if they get sick. It should be widely accessible, easy to find online and more broadly disseminated by campus administrators. 

Online resources exist detailing mask, vaccine and testing requirements and mandatory reporting of COVID-19. These resources tell students to stay home if they feel ill or fail a symptom survey, but they lack explanations of what to do if you actually get COVID-19. If you do, you’ll be out of class for at least 10 days. Since not all lectures and discussions are recorded, it might be challenging to make up in-person classes and assignments. Catching up on classwork is already stressful enough, and if you’re really sick, it might be even more challenging to do so while recovering. 

Getting reacquainted with in-person learning is not easy, but better communication about COVID-19 policies would help our transition. We hope the lack of accessible information does not cause people to lie on symptom surveys or come to class if they feel unwell. By informing students, faculty and staff of what to do if they get sick, people will likely feel more comfortable skipping class or work — they will know exactly what to expect. 

While UC Davis continues to be a championed leader in many ways during the pandemic, the Editorial Board believes the administration has a responsibility to create and promote clear policies during this transition to in-person learning. And it’s okay for students to be stressed or anxious about the lack of clarity surrounding certain campus COVID-19 policies — the Editorial Board definitely feels it. We are still in a pandemic, and we would appreciate feeling that the university is prioritizing our mental and physical health.

UC Davis administrators can help ease this stress by more clearly communicating about how we will be academically supported if we test positive for COVID-19 or need to miss class because we are sick. It’s vital for campus administration to provide easily accessible information and spread it to as many people as possible. 

Written by: The Editorial Board