Talk about rolling out the welcome mat for new students.
Some University of California professors are so peeved that UC's Office of the President has forbidden them from taking furloughs on teaching days that they're planning to walk out on their classes later this month. The date they've chosen - Sept. 24 - is the first day of class at several UC campuses, including UC Davis.
Professors advocating for the walkout say they can make political inroads by forcing students to feel the impact of budget cuts prompting the furloughs.
"Instructional furloughs pressure the state to cease defunding the UC system," says a letter calling for the walkout.
"We cannot allow either the California legislature or the Office of the President to proceed as though cuts to public education do not have debilitating consequences."
The letter is signed by 16 professors, including four from UC Davis: English professors Nathan Brown, Joshua Clover and Parama Roy, and physics professor Richard T. Scalettar. Hundreds more UC professors have asked to add their names to the letter since it began circulating Monday, said Clover, who helped draft it.
The letter urges faculty at all UC campuses to suspend teaching on Sept. 24 unless the university administration meets three conditions, one of which is to allow professors to take furloughs on days they teach.
Most UC professors teach only a couple days a week and spend the other days doing research, writing books or serving on university committees.
UC interim Provost Lawrence H. Pitts has said students already are feeling the pain of state budget cuts in the form of higher fees, larger classes and canceled courses.
"We thought an extra price in terms of losing teaching days was not appropriate," Pitts told The Bee. English professor Clover said he thinks the walkout would help students in the long run by shining a light on the way UC administration has handled budget cuts.
One result: His poetry class two years ago had 80 students and four discussion sections. This fall, it will have 120 students and no discussion sections.
"We're not walking out on students," Clover said. "We are refusing to implement the university's destruction of the education system."
John Oakley, a UC Davis law school professor and vice chairman of the Academic Senate at Davis, said walkout organizers do not officially represent the UC faculty; the Academic Senate does.
"It's too soon to say whether this is a marginal movement or a popular movement," he said.
"(A walkout) would be a grave step in defying the administrative leadership of the university."
A spokesman for the Office of the President said the letter is "simply a threat."
To see a copy of the letter, go to http://ucfacultywalkout.wordpress.com.
- Laurel Rosenhall Send tips to publiceye@sacbee.com
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