COVID-19 has changed the way education is being taught right now—but across the University of California, lecturers are now complaining that UC is failing to support them in their efforts to engage in distance learning.
According to a release, UC administration recently acknowledged that lecturers, who teach over 30 percent of student credit hours, are crucial to the continued function of the university.
However, according to a press conference on Friday, while UC has announced a moratorium on spring layoffs for career employees, contingent teaching faculty hired on short-term, part-time contracts remain at risk of losing their jobs.
UC management claims that the “delivery of instruction is an essential university service” but has not acknowledged the enormous challenges lecturers face from the virus.
The release adds, “With the health risks associated with COVID-19 and the sudden transition to online teaching, the precariousness of teaching faculty positions and livelihoods has become 
dire.”
Complaints include “a vast increase in uncompensated work to redesign courses to bring them online.” Further, “Many live in fear of mass layoffs and loss of health insurance in the coming months. UC-AFT, the union that represents UC lecturers and librarians, has been bargaining over the effects of the virus on their members, but the UC has thus far refused to take job insecurity and health and safety seriously.”
“Everyone is working like crazy to manage this crisis,” said Josh Brahinsky, a lecturer at UC Santa Cruz. “We are having to do work and try to make things go well. The university’s response is super-chaotic… there are places where things are working really well and there are places where things are working really badly and there’s no coherent response.”
He noted that the university acknowledged that teaching is the most important thing. “It’s what is left when the university does its core thing,” he said. “But they’re not giving us the support to make it happen.”
Mia McIver, a lecturer in writing at UCLA, noted that UC-AFT (University Council-American Federation of Teachers) is a union that represents lecturers and many others in the UC system—these are contingent workers on low-wage, short-term and part-time contracts.
“We are the front-line educators who are primarily responsible for teaching and developing mentor relationships with UC students,” she said. “We love our work and are extraordinarily happy to be teaching now in the wake of massive unemployment across our state and our nation.”
They believe that UC could be doing far more to make sure that the students are receiving the best possible education during this time.
She said they have been bargaining with UC management for the last month and their message is: “The responsibility to continue to teach is yours alone as individuals. You are on your own.”
“UC management is communicating that they are not interested in protecting our health and safety,” she said. Part of the complaint is that UC is not providing lecturers with the supplies that are needed to successfully teach from home. “UCOP’s position is that since we can still teach on campus, they are not obligated to provide adequate equipment.”
She argued that the idea that “we can still teach on campus is absurd. Many of us don’t have offices on campus. Buildings are locked.”
Moreover, she said, “teaching faculty in high risk groups cannot travel to campus without exposing themselves to risk of infection.”
John Branstetter, a lecturer in Political Science at UCLA, noted that there is a great uncertainty among lecturers about whether they will have a job or health care in another few months.
He pointed out while there is a no-layoff pledge until June 30, he said for “people like me who make up much of the contingent faculty, that pledge really doesn’t mean anything.”
He says his last paycheck will be June 1 and he loses his health insurance on June 30.
“UC hasn’t made any effort at all to extend my contract at least through the summer, so I can count on having health coverage during this crazy time,” he said, and they have made no commitment on whether he would have a job for next fall and he probably won’t know at all “until probably the end of May.”
“I’m trying to teach classes and do a great job for my students, but I have this economic worry hanging over my head,” he said.
Joy Hagan, a lecturer for the writing program at UC Santa Cruz, said, “We’re teachers.”
What she noted “is just how much work it is to engage students in an online platform.”
She said that this is really what we love, but “right now our students are someplace, out there, and to really engage them we know takes a lot of work.”
She called this “extremely work intensive” and that most people believe “it takes three times as much work” to engage students in this kind of environment as opposed to the normal classroom.
“To switch to these online platforms, we all have to launch these in person classes to remote platforms,” she said. Under normal conditions, to teach such a course, the university would give the instructor a full quarter just to prep the course. Now they have to roll that into their first weeks of this quarter “and it’s going to be on-going.”
Alison Black is a lecturer in education studies at UC San Diego. As a fourth year lecturer, she also feels the economic uncertainty.
She spoke to the challenges as a parent. She noted that she just read a piece in Medium, “The Parents are not Okay.”
“These times just make us feel real alone even though we know everyone else is going through this too,” she said. She noted that 16 days of paid leave may well be helpful for other employment circumstances, “but they’re not super-useful for instructing a course, which the work continues 24 hours rolling no matter what.
“It’s been a huge struggle,” she said. “It’s incredibly anxiety provoking just for the fear of how this is affecting our children.”
“The work-life balance is always incredibly burdensome,” she said. “Now I have additional fears, anxieties and struggles.”
There also problems with arranging for safe space and materials.
Katie Rodger at the University Writing Program at UC Davis said that she was in part filling in for a colleague in her department, who is ill and unable to participate.
“The university’s response to date has been inadequate,” she said.
In her department, there are 60 lecturers trying to teach writing and people who are “desperately trying to stay healthy.”
A lecturer a few weeks ago asked the chair what to do if his apartment wi-fi doesn’t support synchronous teaching through Zoom or even uploading videos onto campus wi-fi for students to watch.
“The department asked the Dean’s office, and the Dean’s office said, ‘good news, you are now deemed essential and therefore can break the shelter in place orders and go to campus and use your office,’” she said.
The problem—some people don’t have offices. Some people have children at home and can’t just take them with them.
“Some of us have pre-existing health concerns,” she said, and the idea of risking health and lives to use the university space where there have been confirmed cases “is not something that sounds particularly attractive.
“It seems somewhat ludicrous that a university like this, with the resources it has, cannot do better,” she said.
The press release shared the story of Jillian Azevedo, a lecturer at UC Davis who is struggling to teach from home.
She has asthma and one of her UC Davis coworkers has tested positive for COVID-19.
According to the release, she was recently “told by administrators to return to work at her university office, a small, shared room in which safe social distancing would be impossible.”
She “bought a new desk with her own funds, and then joined UC-AFT’s bargaining session with UC administration last Thursday to demand ergonomically sound desks and strong internet connections for all lecturers that need them to teach effectively and safely from home.”
In response, “UC negotiators told Azevedo to go to campus to hold her online classes, even though the equipment in her office is inadequate and driving to UC Davis would require her to cross county lines and disobey shelter-in-place requirements.”
Further, the release notes, “Ironically, while refusing to supply better internet, UC negotiators expressed frustration that Azevedo kept disappearing from the Zoom call because of her weak internet connection.”
The organizers note that even before this COVID-19 outbreak, lecturers faced difficult working conditions.
The median UC lecturer salary of $19,900 “means that many can barely afford to pay rent in high-cost areas.”
Approximately two thirds of lecturers are not eligible for UC health insurance. The turnover rate is as high as 45 percent per year on some campuses.
As a result, they argue, “UC students are often deprived of mentors who lose their jobs at the end of the term. UC-AFT is calling on UC management not to abandon students or their teaching faculty during this crisis.”
—David M. Greenwald reporting
We’re all working remotely and struggling. I’m working from a dining room table on a laptop all day. It is very lonely. The students are hunkered down in their apartments or from their parents homes. Some are studying at the kitchen table and they have to pack up and move when family wants to eat. I had a meeting with a student who was sitting in her car in a parking lot, because it was the only private space she could find to talk to me. Only these people are bringing their complaints and demands to the media. I suggest they arrange for a different office on campus, use one of many conference rooms or borrow a chair to use at home. Find a solution.
Sharla, I 100% agree. At least they still have a job and in many cases have the option of either working from home or going into work. I can’t imagine the tens of millions of people who have lost their jobs who didn’t have the option to work from home having any sympathy for their complaints. Everyone is being put out to varying degrees and having to deal with it.
You say at least they still have their job – but they don’t know if they will after June. So that’s a huge uncertainty. And the other issue is that they don’t have the tools to do their job which seems like a reasonable complaint especially since their job is public university education.
They can access the tools that they need. They seem to want the University to pay for furniture and internet access at their homes and extend their appointments into Summer and into next academic year, even though they may not be teaching.
What this really seems to be is that lecturers want to be hired as full time, permanent career employees at the University – not quarter by quarter, contract or temporary lecturers. That is a valid desire and I think the University could hire more “continuing lecturers” to provide stability for the lecturers and some departments. The COVID-19 crisis has only increased the tension and anxiety over job security and access to healthcare. But finding a chair and workspace does not rise to the level of crisis, when this is temporary and solutions seem to be available.
Yes and how many have already lost their jobs? It’s the current state of affairs.
From what I’ve read here they still have the option of going into work and using those resources if they don’t have the tools at home.
It looks like Sharla is making it work.
Sharla: The complaint seems to be that they can’t access the tools that they need.
Keith: Just because a lot of people are unemployment, doesn’t make it easier when the shoes falls for you.
Also with respect to Sharla making it work, she’s not lecturing, she’s not having to adjust on the fly to teaching and she also no longer has young children.
To think about it from the other angle, if my kid is going to UC Davis and I’m still having to shell out full tuition, shouldn’t my kid be getting a full education – from what it sounds like, that might not be happening.
I know these are trying times, but that doesn’t invalidate these concerns.
The only ones who do so are non-residents of California.
Not what I meant
I have 3 of my kids now working from home and dealing with their children too. They’re happy to be able to work from home and still keep their jobs and pay. It is what it is right now.
Well, I thought that’s all workable now with programs like Zoom as you have pointed out in several articles concerning City Council meetings.
I have a question – if you have an itch, do you try to scratch it or do you simply accept it since it’s not a stabbing pain in the temple?
David… re:
The more appropriate analogy is who do folk want to (and seek the resources of others) to ‘scratch the itch’ (job security and benefits) that they have? A pain in the temple, is a different matter… if I was asked to pony up (directly or indirectly) $$$ to solve the lecturers ‘problem’, or the ‘homeless’, I know where my priorities would lie… not to ‘lecture’ you…
In this case, I think most of the concerns are realistic, and people ought to be able to ask for more accommodation. Actually Alan Miller’s 2:43 comment is spot on.
They could take the money they are saving by not commuting and pay for parking and use it to upgrade their internet. The University is providing Zoom Pro and other technology. They could then stream movies and Zoom with their family and friends. They could borrow a chair from work. There are so many solutions.
Sharla, Keith, I know you hate the thought that anyone might get more than you and that envy is understandable in this objectivist world but as someone with two grown kids who are directly impacted by unemployment and no clear future job, and having survived a few trying times myself, I know that you don’t get anything without asking and sometimes you have to ask loudly.
JH, I actually agree with your comment on asking loudly, but “I know you hate the thought that anyone might get more than you and that envy is understandable” was sure an unnecessary, passive-aggressive and probably invalid judgement on two commenters.
I have two grown children – one was laid off from his steady employment due to COVID19. He is teaching music lessons over Zoom and scrambling for other ways to earn money in order to pay rent and groceries until the orders to stay home are lifted. His former job is not a guarantee. The other just started a new job when this hit and is being directed to work remotely from home – using her own internet and furniture (the kitchen table) but using a company issued laptop.
And John, I think your comments directed at me personally are just plain rude. It’s hard to read beyond an insult.
^^^^Ditto^^^^
Sharla, I don’t understand why John’s comment is allowed to stand.
Suggest KO, SC, that JH to accept his admonition and learn from it… not censored/censured… I agree that the motivations ascribed to SC and KO were more than a tad bit out of line… I doubt either were coming from ‘that place’…
Others can learn about attributing ‘motivations’ to others…. easy to do, often incorrect…
So everyone can judge for themselves . . . better that way.
I have little clue how academia ‘works’ as to not extending a temp contract… is that considered a ‘layoff’, where one could collect unemployment insurance? Are they even ‘covered’ by SDI?
Can the folk currently with health insurance move to ‘Covered California’ or the like?
How many lecturers would have been affected by position loss even w/o covid-19?
I don’t claim to know, but looks like all quoted above are universally ‘blaming’ covid-19, and/or UC for not providing continuing income and insurance, in any event… whether they are able to ‘work’ or not…
It’s temporary employment, so unless they changed eligibility, it would not be subject to unemployment
https://edd.ca.gov/about_edd/coronavirus-2019.htm
Looks like the ‘rules’ may have changed… did not fully “drill down” as it doesn’t affect me or mine, and not trying to “make a point”, one way or the other… suggest it be a good site to explore, if one is affected… has to do with the CARES Act, apparently…
My oops!… not SDI, but SUI…
One question partially answered by David… perhaps someone can enlighten on the other two…
Yeah, mee too. It took me three different tries to figure out an area in my tiny home to work at home, something I thought I would never be doing. I have a college housemate who’s struggling with the online classes thing, and we’re both home all the time now instead of at work and on campus. I’m blessed that we get along, and have good neighbors, no nearby barking dogs, and OK internet — but at times I’m on a conference video and he’s on a Zoom class, and the internet gets slow.
My butt was killing me from using the dining room chair 8-hours, and luckily I had taken home an office chair from a job in 1990. Had I not, I’d be SOL. If I sit on my glasses, I’m SOL. My cell phone carrier bricked my iphone the day all the apple stores closed and I’ve been making all my phone calls over Skype for three weeks, tethered to my computer. A friend in SF has such sh*tty internet at her house, she had to sit outside a closed city building with her laptop to steal their internet signal to download a program she needed for a class.
No one was ready for this. Not the teachers, not the students, not the University, not my employer. There are single points of necessity that if lost, can cripple someone trying to forge their way through their job. I am lucky I’ve been able to compensate for like my phone being out, but what if something critical breaks? What if we don’t have a space to do our work at home? So I’m real empathetic to all these stories, they sound like the struggles I am hearing from many.
Normally I’d be like, ‘well, you took a part-time, temporary job, that’s what you get’. But this isn’t normal. The reality of things like not having internet bandwidth and not being able to go in to their office for many reasons are real, and I am very empathetic to the anxiety one would feel right now not having a stable job.
I don’t know that the U can promise them much in the way of job security due to their status, but the tone-deaf responses to their very real challenges to teaching are disturbing, and the U needs to put crisis teams in place to assist in solving individual challenges.
I think you nailed it, Alan Miller.
KO, good to have you back. Who would like to play you in the upcoming low-budget indie-film “The Usual Suspects” dealing with local Davis politics? We have five self-castings so far, and so far all the high-paid actors requested have agreed to participate, even the one who died in 2010. –Alan Miller, ‘a bearded Jason Bateman’.
I like Jason Bateman, just finished the 3rd season of Ozark. Being that I’ve seen pics of you in a purple Tank t-shirt I can see a bearded Bateman playing you. Good choice.
For me I would go with Brian Keith as I have a brother named Brian.
Thank you, I debated coming back but David emailed me and asked me to return and said he asked for more leeway for our comments. The fact that I’m stuck at home and bored to death might have something to do with it too. 🙂
OK… I can see where folk would like me to be played by Claude Raines or John Wayne [if we could ‘channel them’](‘Invisible Man’ or ‘Quiet Man’)… I could go with either, most of the time…
Good for DG. That buys him a lot of points in my book. And erases the argument I often hear stated that the DV does not want people with diverging views to comment. This move may actually bring back more participation, which I’d like to see.
More good self-casting KO/WM. I’m gonna have to start keeping a list. Now, how to bait the council to join in . . . surely we need some lightheartedness around these parts.
The connectivity @ any given site (local streets?) and bandwidth (collectors/arterials) are real issues… have noticed slowing, even in a 1990’s neighborhood… more of a nuisance than a problem for us…part of the problem is employers (like UC) who govern the ‘local streets’, and part is with the OH, UG, and wi-fi networks that exist.
How that connectivity and/or bandwidth, creates the problem described, or other factors (covid-19, etc.) is unclear. Probably a function of several variables… not clear which one(s) dominate… some might be ‘natural selection’… where in a crisis, the least effective folk, as lecturers, are culled out of the herd… I add the latter, as none seem to be quoted as to their personal effectiveness… and we experienced where lecturers were funding their further studies, or just drawing an income/bene’s, rather than a true commitment to the education of students (we sometimes got more out of the expensive ‘textbooks’ than we did the lecturer)… yet, we also had some great ones, and most in the middle of the ‘bell curve’… as expected…
This article is unbelievably tone-deaf. My immediate reaction this morning was basically unprintable, so I chose not to share it. Being very, very polite now, I will just say that people whose paychecks are still automatically coming in appear to have no idea how bad things are right now, and how bad they are going to get in the next 6 – 12 months. We are already in a recession. It is likely to be the worst recession anyone reading this blog has ever experienced. Unemployment rates are already skyrocketing and likely to hit unprecedented levels.
Please go interview 6 Davis restaurant owners, and a good sampling of their former employees, to see how things are going. Please go interview 6 Davis retailers, and a good sampling of their former employees, to see how things are going. Talk to those allowed to remain open what they are doing to keep goods and services moving and their doors open and meet their payrolls.
UC lecturers have been underpaid and under-resourced for as long as I can remember. But I really feel that a lot of people have no idea How. Bad. Things. Are.
If it has been so bad, since you can remember, why do folk still do it? To get a professor position? To support them in Grad School? Unless one of those, doesn’t look like a viable career path…
A lot of people don’t have viable career paths, they are just trying to survive, pay the rent. I know a lot of people like that.
DS, you are not wrong. I do think, however, that comparative situationalism needs to be checked at the door right now. Most everyone is having serious challenges right now with their jobs, or lack thereof — but you are very right, many small businesses are eating sh*t right now and aren’t going to survive. As a lover, intentional patron and believer in small businesses, this is all breaking my heart. I know some that are actually doing better – such as my computer-repair guy with Apple closed. But many are just shut down, or have a trickle, and there’s no way many of my favorite restaurants and cafes are surviving this – many of those have already cut way back on hours or closed branches due the minimum wage increase (hey, it’s real socialists, get over it).
The employees at least can get unemployment, but that is no golden retriever either, and if part time, it won’t cover needs very long. I’ve been telling people, look for some real strong bumps in the fabric on May 1, then June 1, as more and more people can’t and won’t pay their rent. I agree, from the vantage point of someone looking at economic devastation, these stories may sound like whining. I was prepared to hate this article as it started out sounded like smarmy union propaganda taking advantage of the crisis. But these stories are similar to many I’ve heard and experienced myself, and these challenges are real and some can be debilitating – with the resources to assist either closed or overloaded.
So I’d be careful of falling into the trap of ‘oh, you think you have it bad . . . ‘ -ism.
But you are not wrong!
Good points, Alan.
The pandemic might have a slender silver lining… to remind folk it is not about “me”, it is about “us”… locally, state wide, nationally, and world wide… in its own way, the pandemic is a ‘climate-change’, of a sorts…
” I do think, however, that comparative situationalism needs to be checked at the door right now. ”
Once again, I think Alan Miller has nailed it. There is a tendency to say to someone who is struggling – it could be worse, look at this person, but that negates their struggles and challenges. I have had my share this last month of real challenges, low points where I have broken down and high points where I have pressed on. Some really bads things have happened, on the other hand, my wife and I are still working and we have a roof over our head, health insurance, and food on the table. I don’t think we ever get to the point where we shouldn’t try to make things better.
Yes, but for these lecturers, there are so many solutions for them that they haven’t seemed to try. It’s hard, but not unsolvable.
One thing that baffles me is how much less the university has done to support 30 percent of their teaching staff than the state has done to support people like my wife telecommuting.
Where do you get your information that they are not being supported as much as the faculty and staff who are also working remotely? My department is supporting our lecturers at the same level as the faculty and staff? Why say that these employees are getting less technical support than the other 70%? If they cannot access internet at home, then they can find a dedicated office or conference room on campus to use on campus. They can arrange for getting a key to the building and an office. If they don’t want to commute or high risk, they are getting refunds on monthly parking passes and maybe they can use that money saved in gas and parking to upgrade their internet speed? Currently, parking fees on campus have been suspended. They can record their lectures in advance and upload them to a UCD site and then link to them. They could get help from IT staff to do this. There are resources available to do remote testing and grading, access reading materials for assignments. There are chat functions built into Canvas to communicate with students. They could borrow their office chair to use at home. They could collaborate with other instructors, the Chair of their departments, etc. There are staff working full time that can help them, if they ask.
There is this resource:
https://keepteaching.ucdavis.edu/
Don – no doubt things are really bad and probably getting worse. See no reason why people can’t ask for better.
Sure. The pie’s getting a lot smaller, but go ahead and ask for a bigger piece of it.
Now, if they want to tithe all tenured faculty, and administrators, 10% and redistribute that money to lecturers and lower-paid support staff throughout the UC system, I’m all for that.
That tithe concept has merit… at least for the duration of the current emergency… I’d join you in support for that, Don…
But am thinking about a snowball’s chance…
10% – It’s not a bad idea, and may have more traction as things get worse and those with stable jobs at the U’s see how fortunate they are compared to those without.
A professional friend in SF just text me that he just got a promotion, and due to the economic slump, a 20% cut in pay along with the promotion. Meanwhile, his boss who promoted him got laid off. So he’s feeling relatively well off, all said and done.
I have read where in some cases hospital doctors are looking at pay cuts. I know hard to believe with the current situation but elective and non life threatening surgeries and other services being cancelled or delayed has led to a big drop in revenue at many hospitals.
Heard that too, KO. What is so troubling about this situation is the absolute disparity between those that happen to have picked careers that are stable or flourish in this situation, and those that picked careers where their incomes have been terminated. The US economy is based on stability. We build our lives and our job paths on that foundation of stability. The foundation has crumbled.
While I am glad the feds are extending unemployment and allowing it for gig workers, here are two downsides to these huge federal emergency programs — 1) Many people have cash jobs they can no longer work. Not legal, maybe, but real, and they don’t have any income to show to get unemployment. We can get on their case, but they are SOL; 2) Trillion dollar bailout bills – sounds great, but ladled thick with political pork thrown in – so many are seeing this as an opportunity to fund their programs with the thick government fat while no one is looking, and then the corruption will begin, while no one is looking because there is no bandwidth to cover so much money going out. It may look fine now, but will increase with time, and even more so with more trillion dollar bailouts with the party politicians now having had time to add their pet programs — and then, quite possibly, with such mega-strains on the federal budget –> hyperinflation, because none of this money is real, and then everything goes into an economic death spiral. Happy Sunday everyone!
As “Rich Dad” puts it:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/personalfinance/rich-dad-poor-dad-robert-kiyosaki-don-t-save-your-money-spend-it-on-the-best-buy-for-future-security/ar-BB12c0eD
I agree, inflation is coming big time.
For those who have never read “Rich Dad’s” books and online references, I’d highly suggest doing so.
He puts forth explanations regarding money in a very straightforward manner.
Some may not like what he has to say, but it’s not an ideology or judgement regarding “right vs. wrong”. It just “is”.
As noted in the link above, “Rich Dad” thinks that the dollar will weaken.
Maybe that’s the plan, pay off our country’s huge debt with hyper-inflated dollars.
Anyone who has cash or savings are screwed.
OK… we already have inflation… has been running 1-2% last few years…
For those predicting much greater inflation, or, hyper-inflation, will you dare to predict when, and to what extent? Or just hypothesizing?
I would hypothesize that deflation is also a possibility… the changes in the stock market (prices dropping considerably) lean towards that… given the decrease in stock market prices, some concerned about inflation should consider watching the downward trends, and when the market seems to be close to bottoming, put that cash (savings, whatever) into the ‘market’ … if they are correct about inflation, that cash is worth less, and the investments would be forth more (buy low, sell high).
I suspect that prices for many things may well drop (goods), as unemployment increases… suppliers still have to pay their expenses, and more folk will hesitate, or be unable to afford purchases…
The main argument I can see for the inflation hypothesis is the ‘printing of money’ without increase of revenue/increase in GNP…
Clearly, if significantly higher inflation or deflation occurs, someone is going to get the bad end of the stick… that will happen, either way…