News & Announcements

Dear Faculty and Friends of the University of California Academic Senate:

The August 2014 issue of The Senate Source Newsletter is now available online. Link to the full issue (pdf) at: http://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/source/senatesource.August.2014.pdf or directly to the individual stories below. This month’s features include:

Notes from the Academic Senate Chair Bill Jacob
http://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/chairsnotes.august2014.html
The outgoing Senate chair reflects on the Senate’s accomplishments in 2013-14 and future challenges/concerns.

New Faculty Total Remuneration Study
http://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/source/totalrem.august2014.html
Academic Senate leaders say a new study of UC faculty compensation calls into question the university’s ability to successfully recruit and retain the best faculty in the world. The just-completed study of total remuneration provides evidence that the position of UC faculty relative to faculty at the “Comparison 8” group of institutions (the benchmark group of four public and four private research universities accepted by the state for comparison) has declined since 2009.

Open Letter to Faculty Confirms Authority to Take Advisory Votes from Non-Senate Faculty
http://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/source/bylaw55.august2014.html
The systemwide Senate office has released an Open Letter to clarify that the existing Senate bylaws permit appropriately authorized and separately reported “advisory votes” by non-Senate faculty in personnel cases. The letter follows a proposal put forward by the San Diego division to amend Senate Bylaw 55 to permit the Senate members of an academic department to extend advisory voting rights on personnel cases to non-Senate faculty colleagues in that department if authorized by a two-thirds vote of the department’s Senate faculty holding the rank of Associate Professor or above.

Senate Speaks on Importance of Systemwide Research
http://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/systemwideresearch.august2014.html
The Academic Council has endorsed a letter from Chair Jacob to President Napolitano expressing concern about the impact of budget cuts on several systemwide research programs overseen by the Office of Research and Graduate Studies (ORGS).

Baxter Named New Senate Director
http://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/source/SenateDirector.august2014.html
Hilary Baxter has been named executive director of the systemwide Academic Senate, effective September 1.

This issue also includes a list of current items under Academic Senate review.

We welcome your comments.

Bill Jacob, 2013-14 Senate Chair

Michael LaBriola, editor
senatenews@ucop.edu
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/senate/