AFT Local 1966

The passing of Dr. Helen Deese

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 12:50:30 -0700

Dr. Helen Deese, a lecturer in the English department, passed away on June 4th. She served both the university and the union faithfully, and she is a colleague who will be missed among our ranks even though she retired several years ago.
Dear Colleagues,

Please see the message below regarding the passing of one of our own, Dr. Helen Deese. Dr. Deese was a dynamic and engaging lecturer in the writing program when it was housed in the English department. She was one whom wit smiled kindly upon, and I recall a great many students being both intrigued and spellbound after the classes she conducted on Shakespeare and film. Dr. Deese had a gift in that even her larger classes had a closeness and intimacy about them, and her students always seemed at home when they crossed into her sphere. As a reader for one of her Shakespeare and film classes, I personally learned a great deal from the wealth of knowledge she commanded, and she served as an inspiration for me, personally, in her tenacity as a scholar. Dr. Deese was passionate in all things, and I personally will remember with fondness a picture of her by Yellowstone Falls -- for me, it represented an unparalleled verve for life.

Dr. Deese leaves an impressive legacy as a teacher, scholar, and mother. We are fortunate to have claimed her as one of our own.

In mourning,

Paul A.J. Beehler, Ph.D.
President, local 1966

Dear friends,

I'm sorry to tell you that Helen Deese passed away on June 4. Her daughter Mary Ann tells me that Helen "had been suffering from ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) for several years. She was in rapid decline for the last 3-4 weeks, so this was not a surprise in any way except with respect to when the precise hour of her death would be. She was at peace and ready to go, and two of my brothers were actually holding her hands when she died, and my father was in attendance, as well. It was as good as it could be."

The family has not yet published an obituary or made plans for a memorial gathering, but they are aiming at a late summer memorial. I will let you know details as soon as I know. If you wish to send a condolence note, her husband Rummy's address is 601 E. Baseline, Claremont, CA 91711. Her daughter Mary Ann's email address ismabrow@casimirjones.com.

As many of you know, Helen was for many decades a brilliant Lecturer in the English Department, teaching the full array of composition courses as well as Shakespeare and other literature and film courses. She was beloved by those who knew her--always funny, smart, proud of her family, devoted to her students and her fellow instructors, and caring about social justice. She wrote about Shakespeare in specialty publications; co-wrote with me Robert Lowell: A Reference Guide (1982); co-edited with me Robert Lowell: New Essays on the Poetry (1986), Critical Essays on Wallace Stevens (1988) and Critical Essays on William Carlos Williams (1995); and published book chapters on Stevens, Williams, and Lowell. Her chapter on Lowell and the visual arts is still the best study on that topic and is often cited in the field. Helen was also a great world traveler and conference-goer. She presented a paper in India just before the onset of her final illness. She also taught in Macao and Hungary, both of which she found fascinating. And she presented more papers and saw more plays, particularly Shakespearean productions, than anyone I knew.

If there is someone who knew Helen whom I have inadvertently left off this email list, would you be so kind as to pass this message along? Helen was a very dear person in my life, and in the lives of many of us, and she will be greatly missed.

Sincerely,

Steve

Elections

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 12:44:34 -0700

Elections for the positions of Vice President of Organizing, Vice President of Communications, and Treasurer were held at the last meeting.
Congratulations to Don Jobe (Treasurer), Brian Linard (Vice President of Communications), and Jennifer Ramos (Vice President of Organizing). All three were re-elected in an uncontested ballot. They have generously agreed to serve another term, a move that will help promote stability in our union.

March 4th

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 08:33:44 -0800

A successful, peaceful, and disobedient protest took place on March 4th.
Students, faculty, and staff began gathering at the Bell Tower on the UCR campus at around 11 a.m. on March fourth for what turned out to be a successful, peaceful, and disobedient protest. While staff and faculty were present throughout the protests and rallies, students fully dominated the events. Conservatively, two hundred and fifty students gathered, but that number swelled throughout the day and may have been as high as three hundred and fifty participants. A number of speakers addressed the crowd and among them were Mr. Michael Yonezawa, Dr. Stephanie Kay, and Dr. Paul Beehler. Performances with "the spoken word" also took place. At the conclusion of the rally, UCR student Cindy Bui presented the demands of the students before Chancellor White.

After the rally at the Bell Tower, the student dominated protest assumed the role of a march that paraded through campus. At two in the afternoon, the protestors gathered at Unity Corner and proceeded down University Avenue to Cesar Chavez community center where more protestors joined the march. The larger group of protestors then merged with K-12 students and Riverside Community College students at the Sweeney Art Gallery where speeches and dances took place throughout the afternoon in the shadow of police girded in full riot gear. The protestors were loud and boisterous but peaceful, even to the point that half of the police force, some dozen officers, left the rally at about 4:30 p.m.

Press coverage was light, but the Press Enterprise did run a story on the event, and other stories may be forthcoming.

Dressed in graduation garb, seven students carrying an eighth on their shoulders entered the intersection of Market and University at five p.m. to hold a mock funeral for public education. The protest included a large tombstone and blocked traffic (to the great dismay of some impatient motorists) for six to seven minutes.

No arrests took place.

The protest and act of civil disobedience were the most significant expression of activism in recent UCR history.

UC-AFT supports the March 4th Day of Action

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 23:11:07 -0800

UC-AFT supports the Day of Action on March 4th, 2010.
This day will be one that involves a rally at noon by the Bell Tower and then a march around campus. The event will be an exciting opportunity to demonstrate support and solidarity with the students whom we serve. Red is the color students, faculty, and staff will wear to demonstrate their concern about those issues that affect public education. UC-AFT desires fiscal transparency (most especially with "unrestricted funds"), restoring funds to libraries, rehiring lecturers, and restoring shared governance.

Professional Development Funds

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 23:05:26 -0800

The deadline for professional funds is coming up on February 26th, 2010.
Here is some information regarding the funds:

Application Due Date: Applications for professional development will be reviewed once a year. The deadline for AY 2009-2010 is Friday, February 26, 2010. All applications must be in the Academic Personnel Office by 3 PM on that date to be eligible for consideration.
Required Content: Applications for professional development funds must include the following required items: A completed application form (a blank form is available at the UCR Academic Personnel web site: academicpersonnel.ucr.edu.

A description (up to 500 words) of the project or activity and its expected results, as well as its significance for the applicant�s professional development and teaching.

A copy of all relevant receipts, if the application is for retroactive support or costs have already been incurred in anticipation of an award. (For your safety, please ensure that all credit card numbers and/or personal account numbers are illegible. Do not submit original receipts. Retain original receipts; they will be required later to receive disbursement of funds. See �Funding Awards� on p. 4.)

Evidence that the applicant was employed at UCR during the time frame of the activity. Acceptable evidence includes a copy of the applicant�s University appointment letter for that time frame or a copy of the employment verification statement available on the At Your Service Website, located at: atyourservice.ucop.edu (If expected appointment letter is not yet available for the time period of proposed activity, application is nonetheless encouraged with the understanding that the UCR appointment letter for the relevant time period will need to be supplied prior to actual disbursement of funds.)

A letter of support from the Department Chair if an applicant is requesting a course release or other paid leave; otherwise, it is optional.

Scholarships Available

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 07:57:19 -0800

Scholarships for high school students and continuing college students are available through CFT.
Scholarships through CFT in the amounts of $3,000 or $1,000 are available for members who are in good standing. High school seniors must submit applications by January 10, 2010, and continuing college students must submit applications by July 1, 2010. The web site that offers information and applications is www.cft.org.

Nov. 16 UCR teach-in statement of Sandra Baringer

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:02:08 -0800

The following is a transcript of the remarks delivered by UC-AFT Local 1966 field rep Sandra Baringer at the UCR teach-in.
UCR Teach-in Nov. 16, 2009
Statement of Sandra Baringer, Ph.D.
Lecturer, University Writing Program

What I�m going to try to do today is explain why the budget cuts are unfairly impacting the undergraduate curriculum and particularly the lower division courses.

About half of the undergraduate courses are taught by lecturers or graduate students. Most of that is in the lower division. Virtually all of the general education requirements in math, writing, and foreign languages are taught by lecturers and grad students.

Many of you are not familiar with the difference between a professor and a lecturer. Professors, also called tenure-track faculty, ladder faculty, or Senate faculty, have both teaching duties and research duties, and the right to participate in shared governance through the Senate. They are usually hired for a 6-year probationary period and if they pass their reviews, then they get tenure. Lecturers, on the other hand, are hired by the quarter or by the year, with some form of job security after 6 years. Roughly half of them are part-time.

A full-time teaching load for a professor is usually 5 courses. A full-time teaching load for a lecturer is 8 or 9 courses. Average salary for lecturers in the UC system is $56,000, and the average for professors is $106,000. Thus it doesn�t take much math to see that lecturers are an extremely cost-effective way for the university to deliver high quality teaching of lower division courses, and that the cost per course is much less when taught by a lecturer than when taught by a professor.

But lecturers are what is known in higher education as contingent faculty: they have little to no job security their first 6 years, and even after that, they are subject to layoff. I don�t have time to talk about the astronomical rise in the use of contingent faculty over the past 30 years, but nationwide studies indicate that from 50 to70% of undergraduate instruction is now provided by contingent faculty, in other words, those who do not have tenure and are not on the tenure track.

This makes it very easy to get rid of lecturers to deal with short-term cash flow problems. The use of contingent labor is a common business model that is supposed to be used for fluctuating needs, but in the case of higher education, that is not how it�s used. Is the need for teaching required general education courses fluctuating? No. Freshman math, writing, and foreign language courses will always need to be taught. But lecturers are easy to fire, and so the courses they are teaching are the first courses to get cut.

And the students in those courses are the students with the least power: most of them are freshman and sophomores who are just learning their way around the campus. They do not even realize that the budget cuts are being taken out on them through reduced class access, because they don�t have past years to compare to.

While professors at UCR have been subjected to 7% salary reductions through furloughs on non-teaching days, lecturers have simply not been rehired. In fall of 2008, there were approximately 162 FTE lecturers at UCR. In fall of 2009, that fell to 131.5. That�s an astronomical drop: a 20% drop in FTEs and a minimum of 300 cancelled courses for this academic year (headcount: 232 dropped to 190). And there are more layoffs and course load reductions coming in winter and spring 2010, and still more the following year. As of winter 2011 the University Writing Program, which last fall employed 56.5 FTE lecturers, will be expected to deliver writing instruction with 23 FTE lecturers. That isn�t a 10% cut, or a 20% cut � it�s cutting the teaching force by more than half.

And the expectation that students can go to summer school or community colleges to get the writing instruction they won�t be getting next quarter with English 4 and 5 disappeared off the class schedule is enormously irresponsible: thousands of courses have been cancelled in the community colleges this year and they cannot meet the needs of their own students. As for summer school, that costs money; it is not generally part of students� financial aid packages.

The basic concept of the Chancellor�s response to the budget cuts is to impose a 10% across the board cut on all campus units, with an additional 10% next academic year, and an additional 10% for the following year, for a total of 30%.

But as I�ve shown, the actual impact you get when you cut the most cost-efficient form of instructional staffing is a disproportionate loss of the teaching of lower division courses. This is a flawed model of budgetary planning, and somebody needs to think it through a little more carefully.

Source for salary averages: ucpay.globl.org, using data obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle with public record requests
Source for FTEs: weekly payroll data provided by UCOP to UC-AFT

Recently Published Book by NSF

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 23:03:49 -0700

Congratulations are in order for Dr. Kathleen Moore. Her book, Techniques, is scheduled to be released this month. What follows is a brief blurb on the text. Again, congratulations Dr. Moore on your recent professional accomplishment.
Kathleen Moore and Susie Lan Cassel are the authors of a new composition book, titled Techniques for College Writing: the Thesis Statement and Beyond, published by Wadsworth/ Cengage Publishers in October, 2009. In this book�s approach to writing, the thesis statement serves as a point of entry for clear, concrete guidance on how to write critically, thoughtfully, and coherently. The book is divided into three parts: Part I (Thinking Through the Thesis Statement) introduces all the basics for writing a paper�from thinking about audience and format to developing and supporting a thesis statement. Part II (Thinking Through Your Writing Assignment) looks closely at a variety of writing prompts and offers strategies to effectively meet their requirements. Part III (Writing Beyond the Composition Classroom) looks beyond the composition classroom to more specialized writing, such as writing a scientific paper, an informative paper, a research paper, and an interpretation of literature.

updated speaker schedule

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:00:29 -0700

with more complete titles of speakers...
A DAY OF ACTION FOR UC
Schedule for UCR

7:30am-3pm: Picket Line at Solidarity Corner (University Ave. & Canyon Crest Dr.)

Teach-In Schedule (10am-3pm)
10am-11am: Why Are We Taking Action Today for UC?
Ellen Reese (Associate Professor of Sociology, UCR)
Margy Crowley (UPTE)
John Valdez (CUE)
Representative from AFT (librarian)
Karthick Ramakrishnan (Associate Professor of Political Science, UCR)
Students and other members of the picket line

11am-12: How the Cutbacks Affect All of Us! Supporting Public Education (from K-12 to the UC)
MC & 1st speaker: Pat Morton (Associate Professor of Art History, UCR)
Ruby Miller (UPTE)
Gary Coyne, graduate student
Jessica Maldonado (ASUCR President)
Susan Meisenhelder (CSU-SB faculty, UCR alumni, past president of CFA)
Neal Kelsey, Coast Community College Federation (CFT)
Alessandra Moctezuma, Associate Professor of Art, San Diego Mesa College
Bill Hedrick, former teacher and Congressional candidate

12-1pm: UC Cutbacks, Workers� Rights, & the Meaning of Labor Solidarity
MC: Ellen Reese (Faculty, Sociology, UCR) & student member of Inland Valley Labor Action Network
Mike Davis (Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing, UCR)
Representatives from campus unions: AFT (Paul Beehler), AFSCME (Purchase Washington), CUE (Chris Benoit), UPTE (Margy Crowley), etc.
Representatives from local unions: LIUNA (Aaron Chappell) and UFCW (Daniel Guzman)
David Willhoite, graduate student
1-1:30: Rickerby Hinds (UCR Faculty): Hip Hop Theater performance

1:30-2:30pm: Defending Public Education Against Cutbacks: Faculty & Students Speak Out!
MCs: Alejandra Monroy (MECHA) & Hector Rivera (Social Justice Alliance)
Jennifer Hughes (Assistant Professor, Religious Studies, UCR)
Christopher Chase-Dunn (Distinguished Professor of Sociology, UCR)
Representatives from UCR student organizations: Mujeres Unidas, MECHA, United Students Against Sweatshops, Social Justice Alliance, PODER, Dream Act Coalition, etc.

2:30-3pm: Closing: �A UC Day of Action�: What It Means & What�s Next
MC & 1st speaker: Dylan Rodriguez (Professor and Chair of Ethnic Studies, UCR)
Ruby Miller (UPTE)
Representatives from other campus unions
John Faheen, California College Student Association and University of California Student Association

UCR students (grad and undergrad)
Performance by Mark Gonzales (UCR alumni; spoken word artist)

UCR Day of Action: 9/24

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:34:38 -0700

Fact sheet on issues and goals.
SUBJECT: UCR DAY OF ACTION: 09/24

� students are facing 3 fee hikes in 2 years totaling over 40%, including a mid-year fee increase
� departments have been forced to cut TA slots by as much at 10 percent
� staff who support low-income and middle-income families are facing furloughs and pay cuts from 4 to 8%
� a UC education is becoming less and less affordable and accessible to California�s residents

On Thursday, September 24th, thousands of faculty, staff, and students from all UC campuses will join together in observing a Day of Action. This Day of Action has the support of:
� over 100 faculty at UCR and nearly 1,000 systemwide
� the system-wide University of California Students Association of over 200,000 members
� over 1,000 graduate students in the UC system
� UPTE, representing 12,000 University Professional and Technical Employees
� UC-AFT, the union representing all lecturers and librarians in the UC system
� concerned parents, alumni, and many more community members.

The UCR Day of Action holds as its goals:
1) the preservation of access to affordable public education,
2) the protection of employees who earn the least, and
3) the restoration of transparency and shared governance in the UC system.

If you support any of these goals, PLEASE COME OUT ON THURSDAY!!

HERE IS WHAT IS HAPPENING THAT DAY:

TEACH-IN: Speakers, hip-hop theater, and rallies from 10am to 3pm. The teach-in will occur at the corner of Canyon Crest and University Drive.

STRIKE: UPTE, representing 12,000 University Professional and Technical Employees, will strike and picket on 9/24. At UCR, the picket line is at the campus entrance at Canyon Crest and University.

STUDENT AND FACULTY WALKOUT: Nearly 1000 UC faculty, including more than 100 so far from UCR, have chosen to participate in the day's activities. The UC Student Association will participate in the walkout and is calling on all its members to get involved.

For more information on the issues at stake for public higher education, see

Understanding the Crisis at UC:
keepcaliforniaspromise.org

UCSA resolution:
www.ucsa.org

Open Letter to UC Graduate Students:
www.gradstudentstoppage.com

UPTE Strike:
www.upte.org/2009-08-31.html

UC Faculty Walkout:
ucfacultywalkout.com

UC's Hidden Wealth: Presentation of report by economist Peter Donohue
Wednesday, Sept. 23 at noon, Watkins 1000

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