Unit 3 faculty, represented by CFA, are not responsible for an hourly accounting of our whereabouts. Our flexibility in the work schedule, despite being often overworked, is one of the few advantages to our work as systemically underpaid professionals. Even instructional faculty teaching face-to-face classes enjoy flexibility per academic senate policy with the ability to conduct 25% of our curriculum remotely. Many faculty must work without pay on Saturday and/or Sunday, just to meet our workload demands and serve our students.
With regard to the Interim Provost’s message, we encourage faculty to see the message for what it is: a misleading intimidation tactic geared toward suppressing our strike escalation activities in the new year. At a time when faculty pay has fallen well behind inflation (while administrators have enjoyed generous raises), management grinches would like to deny us a day of pay, even as we work many more hours than we are paid for, and our working conditions do not conform neatly to hourly schedules.
We acknowledge just how demoralizing it is to receive a clearly threatening and retaliatory email while we’re all busy grading. The interim Provost waited until we were isolated from our colleagues at home to send it. Unless you are directly asked by a campus administrator, we suggest you not self-report since Unit 3 faculty are exempt/salaried employees and don’t punch a clock. Additionally, this course of action is out of line with campus faculty norms. Please note, faculty chairs and faculty directors are not administration.
If you have any questions, or feel like your protected union activity is being singled out, please contact your Department Rep, Faculty Rights Chair, Molly Talcott at mtalcott@calfac.org, or your Union Rep, Marcelle Alvarado at malvarado@calfac.org, from your non-CSU email.