More full-time jobs, benefits, and improved employee-employer relationships were the goals of the successful UPS negotiations this summer. From our perspective as University employees, the most important aspect of this process was the clear and effective solidarity between full-time and part-time employees. The full-time UPS employees not only recognized that the part-time employees are their colleagues, but also that the long-term continuation of their own positions hinged on setting some limits to the exploitation of part-time labor.

Last year, and already this year, we have seen more and more members of the tenure-track faculty at UCD and across the University come to realize that the health of the University, and to a very real extent, the continuation of tenure itself, depends on our solidarity as faculty. We hope to see a growing level of cooperation between all levels of faculty.

Talk to your colleagues in your department or school. Let them get to know who you are, what you are doing as a teacher here, and what your goals as a professional are. Make an appointment to meet with your department chair or with a member of your department who shares your academic or other interests. We need to get to know and appreciate each other and each other's work.

Did You Get It?

The 6% raise for part-time faculty, shared with teaching assistants, was one of the most obvious, and certainly one of the gratifying results of the Association's efforts last year. With few exceptions, UCDHA concerns regarding part-time compensation and other issues were received positively during talks with administration officials and in other meetings, including budget meetings.

At the top of the list of other matters that UCDHA representatives raised in the course of the year's work was the importance of redefining the position of part-time faculty. This includes recognizing that most of us are not temporary workers, peripheral to the functioning of the University. Hence, the term "honorarium" faculty is wholly inappropriate, and changing our designation and the conditions associated with our employment are our top priorities this year.

Despite the best of intentions, there may have been bookkeeping errors. Double check your contract for this term, and be sure that your paychecks reflect the 6% raise. Nothing is guaranteed, so be sure to look! Contact your department chair, the dean's office of your school, or one of the co-chairs of the UCDHA, Lynn Holland or Pam Laird (see back of this newsletter).

Survey

One of the most important projects for this year is the survey of part-time faculty that the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs will conduct on a University-wide basis this academic year. If you've been looking for a way to participate to help improve working conditions and professional development for yourself and your colleagues, this will give you the chance. When the survey comes,
be sure to fill it out, including the open-ended questions that give you an opportunity to express your opinions and concerns. The University, both the administration and full-time faculty, need to know who we are, what we are contributing to our students' education, and what we need to do a better job of that. If you don't get the survey by the end of the term, be sure to contact Lynn Holland or Pam Laird.

What sort of meeting are you willing to attend this year in order to contribute to improving your working conditions and compensation at UCD? Although all of you have great demands on your time, if everyone attended just one meeting this year, the UCDHA could expand greatly on its successes.

Of course, meetings are not fun. Most of us don't trust people who enjoy going to them. Yet, the choice is not having a voice in the meetings that govern our work; meetings can be worth their aggravation. Even you can spare a couple of hours a year to have a say in your future.

How many times have you heard—in your high school civics class, in editorials during election week, in talking with young people about taking citizenship seriously—that participating knowledgeably in elections is a small price to pay for the right of self government? And we all know that many of the ills of the political systems that govern us occur because the only people watching do so for hire or because they have a particular interest at heart. Yet we tend to leave governance to them because participation is the price of having an impact (for those who can't buy it).

We need your help. We are calling on all part-time faculty to attend one meeting with administrators or faculty committees, or one in your department, or one with your fellow constituents, or a campus or University budget meeting or a policy meeting. The potential impact is great.

Of course people will say that this is all for

Have You Chosen Your Meeting Yet?

naught. Others say our superiors are looking out for us. Have you said to yourself that someone else will do it? We all have a moral responsibility to give serious, intensive negotiation a chance. Only by representating ourselves at these meetings, do we exist in campus decision making. And, in most cases, the UCDHA has been welcomed.

As yet, unlike full-time faculty, we receive neither compensation nor professional recognition for service and governance activities because of outdated attitudes and rules that still marginalize us. So we have to work to change that too.

Invisible people who do not raise their voices might as well be nonexistent in their own governance, whatever their numbers; they are certainly marginal.

What did we gain with last year's meetings? In a very difficult budget year, when the University had to make up a serious shortfall, we received a raise 4% greater than that of the other faculty, without diminishing their increase. It was a small gain, given years of neglect and a low base, but it rewarded our efforts and bodes well for the future. Most of all, we educated ourselves about the governance processes while educating administrators and full-time colleagues about the extent of our contributions to the workings of this campus. We have impressed upon them how seriously we take that responsibility and our commitment to teaching, even at suboptimal conditions. We may have gained their respect; we have certainly gained their attention.
UCDHA Meeting

November 21, Friday

12:30 - 1:30 NC Room 3115

Bring your lunch and your ideas.

If you can come for any part of this gathering, don't hesitate to drop in . If you cannot come, contact one of us with your ideas and suggestions.

Pam Laird, Campus Box 182; 722-7951

Lynn Holland, Campus Box 190; 744-9134

Come or call to pick your meeting for the year!