Day 30

I'm back!... Wait, what happened? Did I miss something? Thousands of faculty staff and students protested, marched, and had rallies around the entire UC system, you say? But I read that the Governor shrugged the whole thing off as just a bunch of eccentrics raising a silly little ruckus! I also read that the legislature is not interested in taking responsibility for the impact of the $800 million dollars in cuts to the UC system, saying that UC administrators were allowed to deal with the cuts in their own ways, so if there are any problems in the system as a result, we should blame UCOP.  But wait, I thought Yudoff and his administrators don't want to take the blame either, and are saying that the fault lies in Sacramento? Well if it isn't the fault of anyone in charge, then I guess that all means that it must be my and my colleagues' faults for making too much money and participating in the bloat, and students' faults for not paying enough tuition. I'm relieved that the finger is now pointed in the right direction.

Sorry about the lame post from over my vacation, I didn't realize it hadn't come out right. My supervisor had forwarded an email to us all that was sent to building coordinators around campus with the subject line, "WALK-OUT Precautions." Here is the message I was trying to share with you:

"Building Coordinators

As I am sure you are aware, the walk-out and its associated events scheduled for tomorrow may present some unique challenges for the campus as the majority of our facilities are open to the public. Although we do not expect any malicious activities, its [sic] possible your building may be marched through or even have minor disruptions, so it's best to be a little more vigilant of those who may be roaming our halls. It might be good to review standard operating procedures for this eventuality (see below."

Specific instructions on what to do in case of a variety of potential scenarios follow in the email. As far as I know, no buildings were occupied, but Sproul Plaza was covered with people, and the steps of the Sproul administration building acted as the soap box stage, which has been a tradition here at Berkeley since the movements of the sixties. I remember that when I first started working here, a staff person who works in the Sproul building said that while she thinks its neat that we have a tradition of free speech and protest here, that it gets pretty loud and annoying having to listen to the happenings out on the plaza every day. Ah, the costs of freedom and democracy.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go catch up from vacation and work hard to earn my depleted income so I can pay bills and restock my raman noodles supply. Tomorrow is the big day when we receive our first furlough paychecks. Can't wait.

Day 24

Post contents deleted: Please see Day 30

Day 22

Posted on fliers all over campus, including on the back of my stall door in the ladies room:

No New Student Fees!
No To Staff Layoffs!
Stop the Privatization of UC!
WALKOUT
SEPTEMBER 24th
Picket Lines All Day
Rally at Sproul Plaza
12:00 to 2:00 pm
Solidarity
Students Workers Faculty

(I am ashamed to admit that I tore one of these gems down to share the contents with you. But I can reassure you that there were two fliers next to each other, and I carefully removed the masking tape from my copy and stuck it to the other to ensure it wouldn't fall off the stair railing to which it was attached.)

Vice Chancellor Breslauer sent an email to campus this morning with links to the YouTube video of President Yudoff's remarks at the regents meeting. The vice chancellor encourages us to take the time to watch the video. He tells us that the President's comments are highly informative on UC's budget issues and on Yudoff's approach to the issues. But everyone SO already watched that, like, a week ago, George, so keep up!

My supervisor sent an email this morning with a link to a Berkeley News Center page that has excerpts from a few letters written by administrators on campus about the upcoming faculty walkout and UPTE strike this Thursday. She asks us to please read the information, and tells us that our office will be open as usual on September 24. Here are a few highlights from the letters:

Letter to faculty from Academic Senate chair Christopher Kutz: "We...neither endorse nor oppose a walkout, regarding participation in it as a matter of individual faculty conscience, and knowing that faculty will meet their obligations to their students."

Letter to deans and directors from Provost Breslauer and Chancellor Birgeneau: "Any instructor who does not plan to teach during the scheduled time or location [on September 24]  is urged to communicate with the chair in a timely manner and, as a courtesy, provide advance notice to the class of alternative arrangements."

Letter to staff from Jeannine Raymond, Human Resources: "...all employees are expected to report to work and meet their job obligations. Offices will be kept open, classes will be taught, and the campus will provide normal or equivalent services."

Please take an extra moment to reflect on the quite explicit and noteworthy difference in tone between the memos addressed to faculty, and the one addressed to staff. Faculty are politely encouraged to let someone know if courses won't be held as normal, while the staff are practically threatened if they do not do normal work during normal hours. This brings a lump to my throat and makes my hands shake just a little. I have a renewed appreciation for why faculty fight so hard to keep tenure in the academy, and why unions sometimes seem to go overboard with accusations and demands. I am also reminded of the great big line drawn with a wide-tip Sharpie between the place of faculty and that of staff in the university.

In an editorial in our campus student paper, two students outline the reasons they believe we are in this mess, the actions of our legislatures and university administrators that are at fault, and the reasons why the Associated Students of the University of California Berkeley (elected student government) and CALServe (a student activist group) are endorsing and participating in the September 24 walkout to protest the huge increases in student fees, and what they call the administration's "path toward privatization." The students concede that we are in a budget crisis, but warn that there is also a "crisis of priorities." In 1964, Berkeley students from all walks of life--jocks, nerds, beatniks, rich, poor, white, black, etc.--were inspired to join forces against the administration's rules that censored student speech. Because students from different backgrounds found strength in a common enemy, they were able to change this campus, and college campuses across the country. In 1964, just one action from the administration was the final catalyst that led to a minor revolution in the culture of students' freedom of speech. Perhaps, now in 2009, President Yudoff has handed the students, faculty, (and yes, even staff) that magic button of the "crisis of priorities" that we can all agree on, and stand together to save UC. OK, now is anyone around to give me a hand while I try to climb down off this damn soap box?


Well, my loyal readers, I am disappointed to remind you that you won't hear much from me in the next week or so. How was I to know when I booked these flights and hotel rooms months and months ago that one of the most interesting and important moments so far in my higher education career would happen during my vacation? But don't think I'm gone altogether; I'm too much of a nerd invested in California politics, the University of California, and higher education in America to ignore this for a whole week. So until next time...

(By the way, I am pleased to report that I have learned that I am not writing this daily account just for the amusement of my loyal and loving father. Thank you, Professor Dickson, for your words of encouragement. You understand my purpose perfectly, and I am humbled that you find my notes about the daily grind during this bizarre time interesting. I am embarrassed to admit, however, that I had to look up "quotidian" in the dictionary.)

Day 21

On Friday afternoon, my supervisor wrote to us all to assure us that the appropriate percentage decreases in our pay had successfully been updated in the campus HR system, and that we would "unfortunately" all see the applicable reductions in our October 1 paychecks. Here we go...

This morning, a fellow staff member brought to my attention the fact that Berkeley undergraduate admissions is now participating in online virtual college fairs. A company hosts these online fairs, saving colleges and undergrads oodles of travel money by allowing schools and students to get to know each other with scheduled "fairs" that include live chat with admissions reps from hundreds of different colleges and universities. On October 1, the site is hosting University of California day, where students from around the country and the world can "chat" with representatives from all of the UCs. The website is set up to look like an actual college fair, complete with images of booths set up in a giant conference hall. You visit each booth, and chat with representatives much like you would at a real fair. In California, high school guidance counselors have been laid off in hordes. This new online fair is giving CA high school kids the chance to still learn about college and successfully enroll when their guidance counselors just don't have time to help.  I called a representative from the company, and explained to him how he their company could help graduate programs around the country, too, and that we would most certainly participate if given the chance. An example of innovative new technology helping us through an economic crisis. I just worry that the state will see things like this as an excuse not to replace real, live guidance counselors in our schools, turning the lives of California youth into even more virtual versions of reality than they already are.

In a recent conversation with one of our cleaning staff, my building's manager learned that the cleaning staff has had over 35 layoffs, those who remain have had shifts dramatically cut, and that 3 people are now in charge of cleaning four campus buildings including my own (the building I work in is 8 stories with hundreds of classrooms and offices). To be honest with you, I'm not sure how that compares to normal, but my impression is that it is nearly impossible for 3 people to keep four buildings clean. My trash wasn't emptied for 8 days, and as I understand it, this will be the new norm. And forget any vacuuming or other cleaning. Allow me to lay out the welcome mat for bugs and mice. The cleaning woman told my building manager that she doesn't know how often they will be able to clean our offices, but that they are just trying to do the best they can. My building manager wants to know why she heard this from a member of the cleaning staff, and not from the chancellor's office or other appropriate administration.

I spent time this weekend figuring out how the change in my pay will affect my monthly bill paying. This next year will be a true test of my frugality unless I find another source of income, such as getting myself a paper route. Oh, wait, all the papers are out of business...

Day 18

This morning, a new member of our faculty came to the office wondering what she's supposed to do about the walkout next week. Is she supposed to be canceling her classes? Is everyone or no one going to participate? Who is she supposed to talk to? One staff member suggested she ask the department manager. Well, the way the walkout has been framed is Us vs. Them, so I'm not sure administrators are the right people to ask. I suggested that she is allowed to make the decision for herself whether to cross picket lines and hold classes as promised to her students, or join in the fight and meet on Sproul Plaza at noon. She says that "people" have been asking her whether she's going to have class next week. I'm not sure whether these people are students or her colleagues, but her facial expression seemed to express a bit of confusion, and she seemed to have the desire to just do what she's expected to do without fuss. I'm sure many on campus plan to just ignore the whole thing and go about business as usual, leaving the action and arguing to others. I don't think that we, as a campus nor as a university system, really have that option.

This afternoon, while working at my computer, my left arm started to go numb. First my pinky, then on to other fingers, and up my arm into my elbow and shoulder. The numbness and pain were in no way severe--I could still move and grasp things as normal--but a bit alarming just the same. This is a commonly known early-warning symptom for stroke or heart attack, so naturally, I took it seriously. I dug through my purse, found my health insurance card, called my doctor's office, and was connected to a help nurse. She spent 10 minutes on the phone with me asking the important questions to determine if the problem is urgent (my answers all pointed to non-urgent), helping me figure out the problem (probably just a pinched nerve or tense muscles), telling me what to watch for (if it worsens, or doesn't go away), and how to help it for the time being (take an Advil and do some stretches). She offered a few times to make me an appointment, but we both agreed that it would be fine if I just wait it out a bit and see if anything persists or worsens. Panic and crisis averted. Since the problem is probably related to bad posture/repetitive motion/lack of proper ergonomics setup in my office, or something like that, I can now register for a class on campus or ask my supervisor to have someone come evaluate my work space and work habits to help me be healthier and safer. But what if I had been laid off during this crisis, and was at home or out and about looking for a job, without health insurance or other employer benefits, and felt this similar left-arm numbness? I could be risking my entire financial future if I even stepped foot in an emergency room and started accruing charges and fees that I had no hope of paying. I could have worried myself into a frenzy about what I should do, whether I would be OK, Googling like mad, probably making myself feel even worse in the process. So while the whole thing turns out to be no big deal, if I imagine a dramatic worst case scenario, my life and future could have been at serious risk if these resources were not part of my life. During normal economic times, I might take these resources and my job for granted. But at this moment, I realize how easily I could lose it all.

Day 17

Two stacks of campus newspapers sat on our front reception desk this morning: the student-run The Daily Californian, and the campus public affairs office-run The Berkeleyan. Top headline in the student paper: "UC Students May Face Major Fee Increases." Top headline in campus-run paper: "It now costs less to park at Berkeley." Different priorities, different perceptions on what constitutes news, differing opinions on whether we have reasons to be optimistic. Allow me to point out the contrast in the dollars of these articles. As staff member, as I've mentioned before, the parking fee cut will save me $87 this year. Based on information from the campus registrar website and the student paper, a student will have to pay $5428 more for school in the next year. I think the student paper wins on this round.

We received an email from our building manager this morning that if the trash or recycling bins in our offices and cubicles need to be emptied, then we are being asked to put them in the hallways rather than leaving them where they are and expecting custodial services to go into each of our spaces like they used to. When I first started working here, my trash and recycling were emptied nightly with zero effort by me. For about the past year or so, it has been about once every other day. As of today, the trash currently in my bin has been there for a week. Not that it's a big deal for me to put my cans outside my door, because it certainly isn't, but it's just a small, noteworthy detail from our deteriorating budget and workforce.

Speaking of decreased labor force, I watched Mark Yudoff's remarks to the UC Board of Regents this morning about his budget proposal, which includes dramatic increases to student fees. There are many points from his speech that I would like to point out as particularly interesting, but for now, I am going to stick to highlights on the labor issue. Yudoff told his audience that while he did his best to make the furloughs fair, he understands that the whole thing really isn't fair, in part because of the high complexity of a university as an organization. He refutes two of his opposition's biggest criticisms: that the university has a huge amount of financial reserve they could be using to avoid a furlough, and that top administrators received raises. I found it interesting that throughout the speech, Yudoff remained mostly calm if exasperated with the situation UC finds itself in, but that he was almost spitting mad when he talked about the unions. He asked the union representatives who have refused conversations with him, and who have refused to participate in the furlough program, to go knock of the doors of fellow union members who have been laid off, and explain to them and their families why the union decided they should be laid off rather than take a relatively minimal pay cut. I'm just quoting the man, so don't shoot the messanger. And while his language may be extreme much in the same way as those he criticizes, he makes a good point. Finally, he says that he wishes that critics of the administration would walk arm in arm with him and his team to Sacramento to demand attention and funding for UC. I wonder if he would walk out of his office, and ask his chancellors and other administrators to walk out with him in support of faculty, staff, and students on September 24. Now that would be a united front.

Also in higher-education-union-eruption-news, Oakland University (this school is in Detroit's backyard, not Berkeley's) faculty held a week-long strike to fight against hiring non-tenure track faculty and the removal of faculty control of the institution's curriculum and other academic decisions. This relates to the upcoming faculty walkout at UC because of the universal issue with faculty strikes of leaving classrooms without instructors, and therefore harming the education of the students. Opponents to the walkout here at Berkeley don't like leaving classes empty, but imagine if we had a week-long walkout? Not exactly the same as a nurse's union staging a walkout, but significant just the same. Higher tuition for empty classrooms (and empty department and advising offices, while I'm at it)? I can hear the furious tax- and tuition-paying parents already...

The other big news today is that the House will probably pass a bill essentially deconstructing the current system in which the US government subsidizes private loan companies to offer student loans. They hope to instead use the money to just do the whole thing themselves and eliminate private lenders from their program. Many student loans, particularly undergraduate, are issued directly by the federal government anyway. In my personal student-borrowing experience, federal loans are managed better, have lower interest rates, and are more flexible than private loans. Opponents say that it's an egregious attempt by the federal government to take over education. Um, okay. The federal government essentially has control of the whole damn thing anyway (kind of reminds me of farm subsidies), but with the current system, private lenders face virtually no risk with loans in default thanks to government subsidies, and they get to keep all the profits. This is a pricey deal for taxpayers. I'm not necessarily in favor of government takeover of a private industry on principal. But in the recent past, private lenders have caused financial damage to student borrowers, colleges and universities, and taxpayers. As a California citizen, and advocate for my students who will soon be drowning in new student debt, I am in favor of providing them with the lowest interest rates, and most flexible payback schedules this country has to offer.

Day 16

As I walked past the department mailboxes this morning, I noticed that most of them contained a bright red piece of paper. I checked my mailbox, and sure enough I had not been excluded. Printed on the alarmingly red paper was a place for me to write my name and department, then a short list of checkboxes for me to check off if I felt so inclined. The instructions at the top tell me to check all that apply and to post the form on my office door to help "spread the word." No group or person was listed on the form as taking credit for producing or distributing them. My checkbox options are as follows:

• Control of UC's budget should be democratic and transparent.
• Classes should not be cut.
• UC should be public and not be privatized.
• Education should be affordable.
• All UC workers should have living wages.
• I will walk out on September 24 to advocate the above.

After a quick, nonchalant stroll through the office, I noticed that no one had posted the form, and I doubt anyone will. This leads me to wonder whether my fellow staff members find the whole thing to be a bit of a joke, or if they would prefer to post the note but fear retribution and scoffing from others. Maybe people are just waiting for September 24 to take action, and don't want to raise any--pardon the reference--red flags just yet. I also imagine that my supervisor might be inclined, and I think would have every right to walk around the office and tear the notes down if she saw them posted. I'm not certain that I could get away with posting something like "Free Tibet!" on my office door, though I've frankly never tried, so I don't know. These unofficial rules are, of course, different for faculty who might face nothing more than an eye roll or guffaw from fellow professors. Honestly, the whole thing feels a bit awkward, and doesn't seem to fit with the goal of having a set of staff members feel like a team. In my office, we have union represented staff, non-represented staff, and administrative management. It's us against them. I know how important these issues are, but I am also learning the uneasiness at the thought of blatantly disregarding the rules, and potentially causing rifts between myself and my boss or fellow staff members. I am sincerely disappointed that I won't be here on September 24, but I am at least a little relieved that I will be observing from afar rather than having to make these difficult decisions on that day.

I have done a little math, and the loss from my paycheck with the furlough will be for about the same amount that I spend on groceries in a month. This means I will need to hunt through my budget to scrounge up enough money to feed myself. Thankfully, during my vacation next week I am staying with friends and family, and at those resorts, meals are included.

Day 15

The UPTE walkout is a real strike. According to Berkeley's human resources website, it will be an illegal strike. The HR office has put information on its website that includes answers about the consequences of participating in the strike, and union member's rights and responsibilities. Pay will be docked and benefits such as vacation time will not be accrued for employees who decide to participate. I am very disappointed to report that I will be on legitimate vacation next week, and will not have the privilege of choosing whether or not to cross the picket lines. Therefore, my benefits will continue to accrue as normal. Phew!

A colleague of mine is participating in a year-long leadership course. She's also recently completed mediation training, and taken a day-long class on project management. Sounds like career training for a back up plan to me. I am anxious to chat with others on campus to see if they are taking similar actions. I've thought about enrolling in courses to improve my statistics and sophisticated computer skills for the same reasons. Sounds like a good plan for us all. Now, will Berkeley be able to/choose to capitalize on all of our newly improved skills, or are we all preparing to take our skills elsewhere?

One of my most loyal readers brought my attention to the current conversation about online education, and the fact that universities face something resembling extinction if they don't participate. Online education provides versatility to non-traditional students who don't have as much flexibility to participate on a physical campus, and allows faculty and students to take advantage of a variety of technologies in the virtual classroom. But the most important benefit in our current climate is about the money. Online courses can save money for the university while bringing in more students, which means more tuition money. The cost per student decreases when facilities management is removed from the equation. Of course, the startup costs for the technology required for online teaching and learning are nothing to sneeze at, and are themselves barriers to access for students and even for institutions without enough capital to get things started. That said, many colleges and universities have already added online learning concepts to their reportoire. You can practically get an MIT education for free with their open courseware philosophy and materials. Berkeley currently offers video and/or audio of most of it's classroom courses as podcasts to students who can't, um, make it to class on any given day, which is a version of online education. Last July, a Berkeley dean wrote an oped for the LA times suggesting UC open an 11th campus, a campus located entirely online. I'm afraid I can't see how a new campus would be a good idea financially when each of the current campuses could serve the online community at much lower startup and administrative cost, but what do I know? Conceptually changing how things are done at a university can notoriously be like trying to move a mountain with a toothpick. But American universities have historically changed with the times when they had no other choice. Harvard is over 300 years old, but hardly resembles the institution it started as, and in many ways, has quite a different look than the Harvard of 1950. Just a few generations ago, only rich white boys from prominent families could go to college and would study greek and latin and mathematics. Ivy leagues only began admitting women in the sixties and seventies. On the technology side, as an undergraduate, we barely had overhead projectors. A few years later as a graduate student, most every one of my classrooms was equipped with some combination of laptop, projector, soundsystem, and internet and phone connections for remote lectures, meetings, and conference calls. Things can and will change. I'm a believer in progress, and I'm a believer in tradition. I have confidence that the institutions that belong in our future will adapt--maintaining tradition while providing for modern needs--and be here for centuries to come. This is one of the primary reasons why it is so important for the state of California and the UC system to think about how we can still exist and be viable 200 years from now in the same conversations in which they discuss our 2010-2011 fiscal budgets.

As I mentioned earlier, I'll be on vacation part of next week. I can't really afford it. I don't care. A person has to continue to live.

Day 14

Today, I received an email from the faculty walkout group giving me a web address where I can keep track of happenings in the group. In the email, they also asked me to join their Facebook page, but I figured a person is allowed to draw a line between work and personal life somewhere. Anyway, according to headlining information on the UC Faculty Walkout website, on September 24,  Berkeley campus may have the largest demonstration of campus-wide participation in the walkout. UPTE members (unionized staff and technical workers) will strike and picket, faculty will not show up to class, GSIs (graduate student instructors, a group that has its own union) have agreed not to cross picket lines, and the entire campus community is invited to a rally at noon on Sproul Plaza, the home of a few of the earliest and most important student protests of the early 60s. The free speech movement of that era began with a student sit-in on that very site. Double doors leading into and throughout the Sproul administration building are all missing handles on one side so that protesters cannot chain themselves in the building as they did in 1964. I remember thinking that this oddity in the facility's doorways was more a historical monument than practical plan on today's campus. Perhaps September 24 will prove to be another important day of protest on campus that will bring history back to life and refresh our collective memories to our everlasting Berkeley values. Of course, it is impossible to tell at this point whether participation will be as high as group leaders hope, and whether the actions of participants will have any impact on administrative or state actions, but it's worth it to raise a big fuss and bring attention to the issues if nothing else. It is also impossible to tell, come to think of it, whether the message will be coherent and on target, or sound whiney and aimless. The countdown continues...

Day 11

Before I begin, I would just like to acknowledge the significance of the day, and the fact that problems like a 6% salary cut in exchange for a forced two week vacation pale in comparison to the events of September 11, 2001, including the pain and loss for the families of those victims, as well as of all of the soldiers and civilians killed in subsequent "war on terror" activities overseas. A day like today kind of puts things in perspective. But one of the motivations behind the attacks was to cripple the American spirit and distract us from our daily lives. I was originally going to leave out any UC related commentary today, but then decided that I wasn't going to let terrorists make my less-important problems seem completely meaningless, and that I would push ahead as usual. So all honor, thoughts, and remembrance to those we've lost, and onward with my American day.

I have received a response from President Yudoff about the period of furlough during winter break that could have a negative impact on the admissions season. I am of course highly skeptical as to whether he wrote the message himself, but I suppose it doesn't much matter, so for argument's sake I will assume that he did. In the email, he does not address my specific concerns, but instead clarifies that the chancellors of each campus made the decisions about when to have furlough days. He has taken the liberty of passing my message on to Chancellor Birgeneau, which he hopes is alright with me. He then graciously thanks me and my colleagues for all we do for the university. He tells me (us, I guess) "You are a vital part of what makes this institution so great and your contributions to it are invaluable." Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting today that President Yudoff will make his tuition increase recommendations to the board of regents this week, and they will vote on the recommendation in November. Long story short, the increases would make in-state education fees (California's code words for "tuition"), including room, board, and other fees top $24,000, putting the cost of a UC education ahead of major public universities in Illinois, Michigan, Virginia, and New York for the first time. California citizens: the days of the bargain basement price of a world class education at the University of California are over. Finito. Done. They will exist no more. Frankly, I find it quite astounding that it lasted as long as it did. Of course, this price-tag is a bargain compared to our private competitors, and financial aid money is always boosted along with fee hikes, but California students are now going to have to start taking out student loans in ways they never have before. I can personally vouch for the fact that student loans are scary monsters that lurk in the closet and hover over you during times of financial stress, particularly for a public servant like myself. I don't realistically see myself paying off my own student loans in anything short of a decade, probably closer to two. By allowing these dramatic hikes each year--a trend that sees no end in the coming years--the state is doing its future work force, particularly in the non-profit and public service sectors, a great disservice.

Day 10

Yesterday, the chairman of my department stood before us all and agreed that each of us is under pressure and stress because of the financial situation of the university and the state. But he assured us that our department is in good shape because we had planned for the future during good times, and we have a few pockets of money that will help see us through. He asked us to stick together, help each other, and not let our intellectual community suffer from the stress. He reminded us that our department consists of great minds with big ideas and that tight budgets should not be allowed to ruin our conversations. I looked around the room while he was speaking, and was inspired by the attention he commanded, the occasional nods of agreement, and smiles of appreciation. He wasn't sticking up for the state or the administration or asking us to go about business as usual and act as if nothing is wrong. He wanted us to feel good about our little piece of the UC community and find comfort and inspiration in each other. It was a nice way to usher in the new school year, a year that might seem daunting at times, but one in which we can all now think back to those words and remind ourselves and each other why we are here in the first place.

Another professor and I had a chat about how we are going to recruit a high quality class of new PhD students on a very tight budget. For the past handful of years, we've been offering very generous fellowships to our incoming students, but we won't be able to go quite so overboard this year. I'd been asking several professors how we are going to entice students to join us based on our department's merits rather than on the size of the fellowship we can offer them (gasp!). This professor pointed me toward a recent ranking published by Washington Monthly that puts Berkeley at the top of the list of institutions that contribute the most to the country's public good by enabling the social mobility of its students, producing cutting edge research, and encouraging students to give back to society, to name a few of the biggest criteria. If we can find the best prospective students who care about these characteristics of an institution, we will be able to enroll an outstanding group of students eager to be part of Berkeley without having to offer them more money than everyone else.

Day 9

While checking our mailboxes in the office's main lobby, a professor and I started chatting about our graduating PhD students, and whether they will be able to find jobs this year. He commented that the newly minted doctor so-and-sos don't have much hope for the job market this year (academia's lingo for when PhDs are looking for jobs as tenure-track professors) because of the major budget cuts at institutions around the country. He also suggested that we might have to start holding workshops or something to help students consider alternative career paths. Our PhD's dreams of becoming professors may not come true. Adjunct teaching positions might find a new place in the norm for PhDs in the years to come. These temporary teaching positions (no research support) are a much cheaper way for schools to put someone at the front of a classroom than to hire tenure-track faculty. It seems unlikely, however, that students will be as willing to endure the rigors of graduate school for nothing more than a handful of adjunct positions or a desk job unrelated to their studies. Graduate school usually consists of several years of living at the poverty level, researching and studying in a cage-like library carrel, surviving a handful of day-long exams, and writing a 200 page dissertation that will for all eternity collect dust in the bowels of a university library. If students start deciding that PhDs just aren't worth it anymore, I wouldn't blame them.

A colleague of mine asked if I could give her a hand with setting up our function room for our annual department reception this afternoon. She needed help because she wouldn't have enough time to do it herself: she had to make a run to Costco for our food. "Guess we're having a Costco party this year," another staff member quipped. "The California budget crisis has found our department." Gone are the days of nice wine, chicken skewers, and those dainty little strawberry pastries. Today we celebrate with cans of Sprite, and Ritz crackers and cheddar. Maybe the wine and pastries were a little over the top during the richer days gone by, but it was only once per year, and it was nice to enjoy a few treats to welcome our new and returning students and faculty, and get everyone re-acquainted after summers abroad (or in the case of staff, summers in the office).  Ah, well. We all have to make sacrifices.

This morning I had a dentist appointment for my semi-annual teeth cleaning. I didn't pay a dime. Well, if you want to get into economics, I suppose I paid for it through my taxes, which partially support the university (that's an interesting circle of money to think about), and lower wages because part of my potential earnings stay with the university to cover the cost of my, uh, free dental benefits. But still, it was nice since it would be a heck of a lot more expensive for me to pay for my own dental care out of pocket. As I left the dentist's office, I had a sentimental moment of gratitude for my life working in academia, and the great health, retirement, and educational benefits that university workers typically enjoy. Despite the potential that health care reform won't happen, and that insurance costs continue to skyrocket, for today, my teeth are tinglingly clean and healthy, and I didn't even have to dish out a copay.

The campus community received an email today from Chancellor Birgeneau bringing our attention to the fact that next Thursday is (apparently) Constitution Day. The Chancellor informs us that "Federal law requires all schools who receive federal funding to hold an educational program annually on this day." I wonder, does the federal government gives us any funds specifically for this educational programming? We are having a few panels/talks on campus, and the topics seem vibrant and interesting. They each have a co-sponsoring unit listed, but it isn't clear where the rest of the money comes from. I sent an email to the president's office to ask, and I assume I'll receive an answer sooner or later. I'm also waiting for a message from the UPTE-CWA Local 9119 that explains how our administrators are throwing away money that could be used for our salaries on wasteful spending like Constitution Day activities, and that they need to reconsider their priorities...Oh, I'm just kidding! The forward-thinking, university-mission-loyal UPTE-CWA Local 9119 would never say something like that.

Day 8

Administrators, commentators, and campus brains are rightfully worried about "brain drain"--loss of talent--from the UC system. They sometimes mention staff, but I think that's more to be polite than anything else since the real essence of the university is in the faculty and students. However, since I am here to write from a staff member's perspective, I've been thinking about the staff drain that will also happen. So here's my bit on how staff brains like mine can also be drained from Berkeley, and why that stinks:

I spent the first half of my day in the office today working on something that was not in my job description when I was hired. When a member of our staff resigned last summer to take another job, half of her responsibilities became mine. I had been able to make some pretty significant improvements to the efficiency of operations back in my corner of the office, so I had the time. The added responsibility was initially labeled "temporary" but as California's fiscal situation rapidly tanked, and my boss saw that I could handle both jobs, the second job was mine for good and the other staff person was not replaced. Because these changes took place mostly after we were all finished re-defining our jobs through the Career Compass project, these new responsibilities were thrown in at the end of my new job description as a side note rather than as a significant part of my job. My title is defined by what I was hired to do, while the new set of responsibilities is listed as just one of those random things that all staff members have to take care of because someone needs to do it.

However, this new job actually takes up the majority of my time during the late summer and much of the fall, and I'm working on it one way or the other throughout the year. I can in fact comfortably handle the new responsibilities along with the old, but in a normal work environment, my efficiency and multi-tasking would be rewarded with a promotion or at least a raise. Neither has happened in my two years working here, nor is either in my foreseeable future. My boss has zero power to give me any sort of tangible incentive to keep up the good work.

This is essentially what will lead to brain drain in the staff-operated trenches at UC. It is true that many of my staff colleagues are between a rock and another really hard rock, because on one side they need to stay local for family and mortgages but on the other side they can't exactly find better positions in the university system in California since we aren't hiring. However, those of us who are more mobile will be able to abandon California for better prospects elsewhere in the country. I am fully aware that universities around the country are also suffering, but many institutions, including a handful of our east coast competitors, have recently lifted hiring freezes just as UC goes into a furlough and layoff period. If I find a better job for more money at another university, my boss has nothing to offer me to encourage me to stay. She can't even promise a raise at the end of the furlough, because the financial situation could possibly worsen, and we all know that non-union staff raises are typically very low priority on campuses with any sort of budget trouble. A colleague of mine in another department has warned her supervisor that she is actively looking for a job at another school in another state where they can give her regular raises and hope for promotion rather than stagnancy and fear of layoff. I have no doubt she will succeed before the furlough period is over, particularly since her department has no choice but to let her go. And when she does go, they won't be able to replace her since attrition is part of the cost-cutting plan at UC. Once she is gone, her fellow staff members will have to pick up the slack by adding functions to their job descriptions, the quality of student and faculty service will drop while staff are working harder for less, and the cycle will continue.

My department's leaders recruited me from outside California, and paid me the highest they could in fairness to my colleagues. They flew me in and put me up for an interview, and helped me in whatever ways they could with my move and new start. While I know that my "start-up" package is a joke compared to faculty, the cost of hiring me was not insignificant. As the new guy in an office, it can take a year or more to really get a feel for the culture, the annual process of a job, and build significant efficiency. The cost to replace me, or my colleague who is actively looking elsewhere, will not be insignificant either. Maybe they won't fly anyone in, but hiring new staff is costly if for no other reason than because of the time it takes to review candidates, interview them, make a decision, and finally conduct orientation and training. Hiring freezes that include attrition add to this cost since once the hiring freeze is lifted, the institution will not only have to spend more than in a normal year to fill all of the empty positions, they will undoubtedly have to give handsome offers to draw people to the formerly crisis-ridden employer.

I decided to work at UC Berkeley because I believe in the institution, its mission, and California's vision of higher education overall. I've become a member of the community, and would very much like to build my career here and contribute in my small ways to one of the best public universities in the world. I am sure many other staff members at the university feel similarly to varying degrees. However, assuming the normal 3% increase in the cost of living per year, with my current 6% furlough, I've effectively taken more than an 11% cut in pay since I started working here. This of course excludes any merit-based raises my supportive boss would like to give all of us, and any deserved raise for doing more work.

My case and that of my colleague are of course just anecdotes, but I imagine this is the case across the system. And I know that in tough economic times, we must do what we can to keep the university operating while scraping away dollars and cents to fill Mariana Trench-sized budget holes. It's just that it seems like it would be such a terrible shame for all that the University of California has grown to be and its collection of great minds might be whittled away by state budget cuts, and shrunken to a skeleton as staff, faculty, and students abandon the flooded ship. I hope we can all have our raises and that departments can conduct new hiring soon after this is over with, and that history will look back on this as nothing worse than a rough year, and not a moment of decline for the university.

Day 7

While I do not intend to make it my practice to write over weekends or holidays, I thought that it was worth noting that today is, in fact, a paid holiday. One of the original ideas that floated around for the furlough was to turn paid holidays into unpaid days and use our normal time out of the office as the mechanism for salary savings. Perhaps we've been allowed to keep them in order to ensure that the grand budgeteers won't try to keep our paid holidays in their greedy coffers once the furlough is over, as well as to prevent uprisings regarding our fundamental American right to the Friday after Thanksgiving.  Consequently, we are not only out of the office for our various normal state, federal, and religious holidays during the year, plus vacation and sick time we each take. We are now away from our desks for additional furlough days (about the same number as annual paid holidays), most of which have been assigned by the school principal, Mr. Yudoff. Being forced to shut the entire UC system down for three extra weeks this year could be a powerful tool for our administration to use in the fight for the future of UC in Sacramento. Take up arms, ladies and gentleman. And while I'm at it, my supervisor had us close shop and go home at 3pm Friday so we could all have an early start to our long weekend. We were of course paid for those last few hours of the day, too.

Incidentally, did you know that Labor Day was originally put into place by the American government as a mechanism AGAINST lax attitudes and the leisurely activities that kept us from our long hours and hard work? So that means that we are getting paid to not work on a day that was intended to be a day for encouraging work, and we are not going to be paid for days that we will be away from work wishing we were at work and getting paid (say that five times fast). And by "wishing we were at work," I mean not-so-secretly celebrating an extra long, fun, joyous (though carefully budgeted) holiday break with family, friends, and daytime TV.  

Day 4

The word of the day in my office is "cynicism," a sentiment that abounds about the actual impact of faculty/student/staff outcry against the administration, including whether the outcry is significant and sincere. We were discussing an article on the front page of The Daily Californian, the Berkeley campus student paper. The piece is announcing the 96% vote of no confidence in President Yudoff by 10,000 members (including faculty, staff, and students) of the UC system. Yudoff refused to accept the vote this morning, and the president's office has called the vote "a publicity stunt." I don't really blame people for feeling doubtful that anything will change, or that the president's office is interested in what members of the UC community have to say (you mean, he doesn't care about my letter?!). It's fairly difficult to push "The Man" around in this world, especially when constituents show even a hint of apathy or resignation. Once the semester really gets rolling, and students, faculty, and staff start getting into mid-terms and the other busy activities of the real school year, will everyone be able to keep up this apparent fervor against Yudoff's policies? We shall see. It's also worth noting that one could potentially also label the president's office's call-to-action against the legislature (see post "Day 3") a "publicity stunt," considering the email was sent on the same day that the vote of no confidence was being tallied...

This morning, I read a letter dated September 2, written by UC Berkeley professor Catherine M. Cole. She wrote an open letter to her students and UC Berkeley students as a whole about the current fiscal crisis, and the administration's response. Said letter has now made its way around to faculty and staff not only at Berkeley, but throughout the UC system. As far as I can discern from Professor Cole's letter, she is telling students that she believes President Yudoff has disregarded the structure of shared governance at UC by ignoring the recommendations of the faculty-run Academic Senate via the Gould Commission (a committee initially sans faculty), and is working to fundamentally alter the priorities and functions of the university through his most recent allegedly budget-driven policies without the proper input and approval of faculty. Basically, she calls him a dictator and encourages a vote of no confidence. In one of the opening paragraphs of her letter, Cole tells students, "...The underlying causes of this disruption in your education have profound significance for you. At stake is the prestige of the institution that will grant your degree. The University of California will be at the top of your resumes for the rest of your life." Profound significance, indeed.


Another popular conversation topic among my fellow state employees is that the current fiscal crisis in the state of California owes its thanks-for-nothing in part to Proposition 13, a 1970s law that caps property taxes. The law has consequently let the outrageous property "values" of modern-day California slip past the state coffers because long-time owners of these properties are not paying what many feel is their fair share of taxes. Prop 13 is a popular target for blame, though I'm sure it seemed like a brilliant, citizen-friendly idea during the tough economic times of the 70s. Since the current fiscal crisis is what led to the $820 million or so budget shortfall for UC (about $140 million for Berkeley), that means that by the transitive property of equality (10th grade geometry, thank you very much), we can blame the voters of 1970 for the current increased tuition, increased class size, and decreased staff and faculty support for students at UC and throughout CAs entire public education system. Similarly, 20 years from now, Californians might be able blame the lousy over-priced educations of California citizens on the members of California's 2009 education community for watching the erosion of our education system and not doing anything about it.

Do any of you read Sports Illustrated? Every month there is a short, usually somewhat disturbing blurb that they call a "Sign of the Apocalypse." Here is one from the national education stage: President Obama plans to give a televised speech to school children to encourage them to work hard and stay in school, and the white house has issued a suggested lesson plan for teachers that includes a call for students to write down their educational goals and how they plan to achieve them. The political right has expressed "outrage" over the President's audacity in daring to attempt to indoctrinate impressionable young American minds with his Socialist ideals. One American parent opines, "I feel very scared to be in this country with our leadership right now."

On a personal note, I typically hate to let a long weekend go to waste. I usually take a short road trip somewhere to make the most of my life in this beautiful, albeit broke, new home-state of mine. But for this year's tightly-budgeted version of Labor Day weekend, I may decide to just put on my walking shoes, and take a short sidewalk trip instead.

Day 3

Holy bananas, my letter to President Yudoff worked! Well, let's be honest here: it is highly unlikely that my letter to the president did squat, or that he or anyone else even read it. Nevertheless, this morning Berkeley's fearless leader, Chancellor Birgeneau, sent a call-to-action email to the entire UC Berkeley community asking us to write to the legislature advocating for the UC system and letting them know the harm that a weakened UC system could do to the future of California. The president's office set up a website, www.UCforCalifornia.org, to encourage members of the UC community to speak out against the state's cuts to UC. The sample letter they provide includes a blurb about the major "brain drain" we are already starting to experience and which will only get worse (losing faculty, staff, and students to wealthier, more stable institutions who will give people raises instead of cutting their pay). Yudoff and the administration want us to ask the governor and legislators to remember UC in their budget for next year and for us to tell them, "I hope you'll choose to invest in the students and professors who represent our state's economic future." Birgeneau called it "Cal Advocacy," which is the catchphrase used in the Berkeley section of the website. Hooray for grass roots! Amusing post script in the email? Birgeneau reminds us to do this on our own time, to write as individuals rather than representatives of the university, and not to use university resources like university letterhead or email. Hah!

I wrote to the faculty walkout group mostly just to send my kudos and suggest they group together with other constituencies on campus to help boost the effectiveness of their efforts. An anonymous email-answerer wrote back saying Thanks! and asked for my name and campus affiliation. Gulp. It felt a bit like that moment when you are about to sign some petition or other in your neighborhood, and you wonder if you are signing onto a modern-day communist club and that some friendly senator is going to go all McCarthy on you. But then I decided that this is a free country, and it's just my job and my reputation at stake, so what the heck.

While testing whether one could find this blog by googling it (which one cannot), I found a blog that seems to have been around since this whole fiscal crisis began. It is written by an English professor at UC Santa Barbara, and he seems to be keeping track of most every news release and article on the topic. While I am in no way endorsing his commentary, you might find it to be an interesting archive of what happened leading up to Day 1 of the furlough: http://utotherescue.blogspot.com/

It's that odd time of year in the San Francisco Bay Area when our summer begins. Everywhere else, it's starting to cool down for autumn, but this is when we experience our 80 and 90 degree weather. In order to help cool down the office, we keep most of the lights turned off. But do you think we get any kick-back from the university for our energy cost-saving efforts? Noooooo! I think I'll write a letter to my legislators asking them to give tax credits to departments that contribute to lower energy costs. Put your monitors to sleep while you're at the water cooler, people!

Day 2

The day began with an announcement from campus that parking fees are going to be decreased for the upcoming academic year starting today. My parking permit has decreased from $97 to $90 per month, a savings of $84 over the next 12 months. Now is my chance to boost my IRA like I've been meaning to.

Graduate advisors around campus received a reminder email from the fellowship office on campus that we will be receiving increases in our block grants (our term for campus allocated funding for graduate student support), and that a report would be coming soon in the mail. I am not sure how much this increase is for, and I'm sure it will hardly fill the gap left by the 18% permanent budget cuts my wizard supervisor had to make, but it will at least help a little.

The union is still in negotiations with campus, which doesn't seem to be going all that well. The first pay decrease, as I mentioned, is supposed to show up in our October 1 paychecks, which means payroll processing for union members could be a bit tricky this month if the union doesn't reach an agreement soon.

Various groups on campus are trying to take a stance against the furloughs, but it feels like the lack of unity across groups, and lack of consensus within them is weakening their potential to actual affect serious change or reaction from the president's office. I heard rumors and rumblings about a faculty walk-out coming up. It's a shame they don't include staff and students in on this. It might be even more effective if it swept across campuses, but I doubt that will happen.

I wrote a letter to president Yudoff basically accusing him of not taking admissions into account with his winter furlough plan, and asking him to either change it, or support us by bringing the problem to the attention of Sacramento and the Regents. I tried to leave out the snark, but these are challenging times, and I am human. I'm certain this cleverly written letter will spur him into action, and that the woes of UC employees and students alike will be solved and there will be dancing in the streets with confetti and trumpets. So, I'm looking forward to that.

Not much talk in the office today except frustration over the union not reaching an agreement. It's difficult to sense when people are angry enough to complain to friends and colleagues, and when they are really, super angry enough to complain loud and clear to the people in power. It might be good for Berkeley to have another rousing round of activism on campus.

On the home front,  I spent more on groceries than normal this week with the goal of eating at home a lot more. I also considered taking the bus instead of driving to work (for the umpteenth time in my full-time working career), and promptly started to feel physically ill at the thought. I wish I didn't hate the bus so much, I could save a lot of money not using my car every day. Then again, I do have that new savings on my parking permit...

Day 1 - The furlough begins

Starting today, (almost) every employee throughout the University of California system will begin accruing furlough time based on a graduated salary scale. We'll see the first salary cuts in our September paycheck, which we'll receive on October 1. In my spot on the scale, I will accrue 16 total days of furlough time, which will amount to a 6% pay decrease in each of my paychecks for the next 12 months.

The "(almost) every employee" is probably the most interesting news of the day: at least one major union on campus has NOT agreed to the furlough and pay cuts. This means that in theory, if they do not accept the plan, all union represented employees will have to show up to work on days when the rest of the university is closed, and their supervisors will have to suck-up their own lost pay for mandatory furlough, and show up to work to supervise said union employees. Bad unions. On the other hand, these unions be holding the university to the contract that all parties agreed to, and refusing to compromise with the bullies who accepted pay increases while everyone else gets cuts. Hooray unions.

Here in the trenches, I overheard a fellow staff member having a minor meltdown about some complicated accounting. Seems that in these tight budgetary times we're doing a lot of nickel and dime-ing from various funding sources, which makes the accounting much more complicated. That might be fine and dandy, except that we have fewer staff resources due to layoffs and normal attrition, and will soon have even less when we all have to take extra unpaid time off. And budget cuts add extra stress to the work and personal lives of all employees, even if they are not directly impacted.

On a personal note, while 6% isn't completely traumatizing, I don't exactly have the recommended 6 months of living expenses just hanging out in a savings account, so I'll have to do some acrobatics to keep successfully paying down debt and building my savings without having to move into a cardboard box.