I appreciate the opportunity to welcome you to the WAGE Newsletter. Getting the news to members twice a year is one of the most important functions of this organization. Please, take the time to read this issue from cover to cover, and let Charity Hirsch and Cathy Kessel know you appreciate their commitment to getting out the news. If you have an idea for an article we would love to hear from you. Call me at (505) 689-1099 Mountain Standard Time.
If you haven´t attended one of the meetings in San Diego or Berkeley in the past year you really should think about getting more involved. There is a huge need for us to keep supporting faculty, students, and staff who have suffered discrimination in the workplace, especially when that workplace is in the University of California or California State system.
Publicity about discrimination cases is what catches our attention and fuels our involvement, but there are many cases that do not get in the news and just plod on year after year. If you are waiting for the next "big case" to inspire you to get more involved, please, remember that the need is always there for you to show your support. We especially need helpers to organize the Spring Meeting in the Bay Area in 2006. We always need good people to serve on the governing council. Finally, we need to see your interest and support when it is dues time (the beginning of the dues year is here).
We have a terrific new organizer in Southern California who has planned two exciting meetings in San Diego in the past two years. Pat Washington is a former professor at San Diego State University in the Women´s Studies Department with a wrongful termination case pending in state court (see Case Updates). Pat brings great skills and commitment to bear on getting the word out about cases in the San Diego area and getting WAGE support where it is needed most. The meeting she organized in early November was one of the biggest WAGE meetings on record! Thanks to Pat for the enthusiasm and energy she brings to our organization.
UC Student Fees Increase, So Does Executive Pay
In November, the UC Regents voted to raise fees for the next school year for undergraduates, graduate students, and (again) professional school students.
The Regents also approved salary increases for senior executives and staff - with the exception of union-represented staff. The latter are still subject to collective bargaining negotiations with UC. Three of these unions recently had strikes for higher pay and better working conditions (see Spring 2005 Newsletter).
Sources: Daily Californian 11/17/; 11/18/05, San Francisco Chronicle 11/19/05
UC Labor Relations Hearing
The California State Senate SubCommittee on Higher Education held a hearing at UC Riverside in October. Witnesses from UC unions told legislators that "UC comes to the table with no intention of good-faith bargaining and continually violates its legal obligations." UC lecturers testified that their starting salaries were $37,000 per year and that they had twice the class load of an assistant professor. One lecturer stated that after seven years at UC his salary is now $44,000 per year.
Sources: UPTE Bulletin October 2005, KQED Forum 12/1/05.
2005 Governing Council
Sue Carol DeVale, Secretary
Charity Hirsch, P.A., Newsletter
Cathy Kessel, Ph.D., Newsletter
Anne MacLachlan, Ph.D., Treasurer
Kristina Murch, M.A.
Marjorie Mosier, M.D.
Eloise Rosenblatt, Ph.D.
Mary Singleton, M.S.
Angy Stacy, Ph.D.
Pat Washington, Ph.D. 2005 Executive Board Co-coordinators
Pat Washington, Ph.D.
Mary Singleton, M.S.
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