I’m just going to post two (somewhat old) emails I have in my inbox. I think I’ve made it fairly clear how I feel about these issues, so I don’t think I need to add my own commentaries. I think the emails themselves and who sent them speak clearly enough.
First, the email from the chair of physics department:
From: Frances Hellman <phys...@berkeley.edu>
To: ALL Faculty <facu...@physics.berkeley.edu>,
Staff All <sta...@physics.berkeley.edu>,
Grads all <gra...@physics.berkeley.edu>,
Undergrad majors <maj...@physics.berkeley.edu>
Subject: [Grads] Department budget cut information
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:34:26 -0700
[-- Attachment #1 --]
[-- Type: multipart/alternative, Encoding: 7bit, Size: 16K --]
Dear Physics faculty, staff, grads, majors, post-docs, visitors,
I attach (and insert below for convenience) a summary of how the
department is handling its budget cut. To date, most of you have been
focused on the furlough program, which affects our salaries and our
ability to do our jobs, but which is temporary. In addition to this, the
Physics Department is taking what is being called a permanent budget cut of
approximately $400,000 (~20% of our permanent state budget, similar to
other departments). I have worked hard with staff and faculty to arrive at
what we think is the best way to handle this cut, and outline the details
below. A cut of this magnitude will have impact. There is without doubt
things here that will make you angry and frustrated - I share that
frustration, and am doing what I can to mitigate it. This mainly consists
of trying to choose as wisely as possible how and where to make the cuts,
keeping eyes open for places to recover money, and fund raising to offset
cuts where possible. Your input is and will be appreciated.
We looked hard at all parts of the department to find the best ways to
make this cut. We anticipate being able to do this without layoffs, which
I note many departments are facing, but by necessity there are going to be
some difficult choices and some services provided in the past will have to
be eliminated or reduced. I wrote you previously concerning one
significant part of the budget plan, which involved an increase and
restructuring of shop recharge rates. I am now writing to you with the
other parts of the reduction plan for this upcoming year. I apologize for
the fact that some of these changes are being implemented with virtually no
notice (e.g. lecture demos; end of semester teaching schedule announced by
the university). This is not how any of us like to operate, but the
process is cumbersome and not easy to anticipate what and when we will get
information from which we must make decisions. I reiterate that none of
this is being done lightly -- it is not possible to take a budget reduction
from the state of this magnitude without incurring some pain. It is also
not possible to say much about what is likely next year -- the university
is looking at a variety of ways to help reduce our reliance on state
funding, while still supporting excellent research and teaching and
remaining committed to being an open public university. I do want here to
inject one personal comment -- I still believe that Berkeley and
particularly our Physics Department is and will be a great institution. I
am committed to finding ways to make that continue to be true, and will
work with you as best as I can do to achieve this.
The changes for our department described below have been arrived at in
consultation with faculty and staff of the department. We are working
hard to find ways to increase income, and have targeted several opportune
fund raising efforts which have already begun-- ranging from support for
the Advanced Lab (Physics 111), to SPS, to graduate student fellowships
(two endowments), to (hopefully) a new endowed chair. Our successes in the
past have in fact been most helpful in mitigating the impact of the state
budget disaster on our department. Our block grant (grad student support)
and our TAS (GSI and lecturer) budgets have not been cut, so negative
impacts on some of our core functions are somewhat less severe than might
have been.
One important point to note --the below are associated with cuts in our
permanent budget. There is in addition the furlough program, which will
impact all staff and faculty (graduate students, post-docs and anyone 100%
on non-state funding are exempt). Furlough days will inevitably have an
impact on how department services can be handled. The staff in our
department work very hard to meet departmental needs, but furloughs will
impact their ability to do this, and faculty and students need to
understand and work with staff to avoid missed deadlines and other
problems. It is therefore extremely important to anticipate your needs
such as purchasing or grant handling or lecture demos; get requests in
early and recognize that staff may not be able to provide all the services
you have previously received (although I note that the search for another
accounting analyst is still underway and will help relieve pressure when it
is successful).
Specific cuts (approximate savings in parentheses):
1. The shop recharge rates have been modified as previously discussed.
The Electronics Shop manager position (budgeted at 100%) is reduced by 50%,
allowing us to continue to employ our present (temporary) 1/2 time E-shop
manager Jerry Przybylski. In addition, the shop tool allowance has been
temporarily suspended. Recharge income and shop usage will be carefully
monitored during the year.
2. Instructional support services will be reduced by ½ person. This takes
advantage of Cindy Holmes' retirement -- she was full time FTE but will be
replaced by a ½ FTE. Instructional support (lecture demos, lower division
labs, advanced lab) will re-organize to minimize impact on teaching, but
you should expect to see reductions in availability of demos for classes.
Guidelines on how this will be handled will be sent to instructors and
GSI's for affected classes.
3. Our main administrative office is discontinuing its student helper,
and Nathan Proctor will be covering assignments in other parts of the
department, in addition to his primary duties as web master, colloquium
and special events organizer. He will also be helping to cover for
Madeleine Gordon, who will be retiring this fall. A number of other staff
have opted for a temporary time reduction (in addition to the mandatory
furloughs) which help offset costs in other areas.
4. Colloquium travel budget and special events budget (Segre and
Oppenheimer, annual staff, student, faculty holiday parties) have been
maintained, but with reduced budgets where possible; support for colloquia
entertainment expenses is reduced to a maximum of $175 per dinner.
5. Faculty recruiting allowance has been eliminated for now (~$12,500);
funding for bringing in diversity speakers to the department has been
reduced to $2000/year, with a max of $400 per speaker, first come first
serve; funding for AMO seminar has been reduced to $1500 per year.
6. Support for SWPS, SPS, COMPASS, CalDay, graduation, and 111 lab have
been maintained, as has grad student recruiting budget.
7. Cookie/tea will only be provided on Mondays (colloquium day). On
other days, the department will provide tea only. (~$3000 per year)
8. The faculty lunches will no longer be held in the faculty club --
attendance was too light to justify the cost. (~$2500 per year). For
this upcoming year, we will try holding this informally in room 324
LeConte on Thursdays and see if attendance improves.
9. Telephone lines-- we have already identified 16 phone lines that have
been eliminated (saving ~$6000 per year) and estimate that there are an
additional ~16 lines that can be eliminated.
10. PANIC room charges are currently being assessed to see if there is
room for savings. Other small cuts have been made in all areas of the
department.
11. There have been shifts of personnel from state funds to more
discretionary funds -- this may impact the availability of matching and
recruiting funds and other discretionary costs. The impact of this will
be seen in time, particularly as we see if/how increased recharge rates
decrease shop usage.
Sincerely,
Frances Hellman, Physics Department Chair
[-- Attachment #2: Physics dept budget reductions.pdf --]
[-- Type: application/pdf, Encoding: base64, Size: 48K --]
[-- application/pdf is unsupported (use 'v' to view this part) --]
[-- Attachment #3 --]
[-- Type: text/plain, Encoding: 7bit, Size: 0.1K --]
_______________________________________________
Grads mailing list
Gra...@physics.berkeley.edu
http://physics.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/grads
And the second email is from my GSI union “executive board”, or, as I like to call them, union pigs:
From: UAW 2865 Berkeley <berk...@uaw2865.org>
Subject: UC employees hold no-confidence vote on President Mark Yudof
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2009 22:24:15 +0000 (UTC)
August 26, 2009
Dear UAW 2865 member,
Employees throughout the University of California system will be participating
in a no-confidence vote on UC President Mark Yudof. The vote will take place
from today through Wednesday, September 2 on all UC campuses, and results
will be announced on September 3rd. The vote has been organized by a coalition
of unions protesting Yudof’s budgetary policies and rejecting the notion that UC
has a fiscal emergency.
The university union coalition is encouraging all employees to register their
rejection of Yudof’s policies by participating in the no-confidence vote.
The remaining vote times/locations for your campus are:
Thu, 8/27
Bancroft/Telegraph, 11:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
University Village, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Dwinelle Hall, 8:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.
Thu, 8/27 thru Wed, 9/2
Moffitt Library/Free Speech Movement Café, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Northgate (Hearst/Euclid), 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Westgate (Center/Oxford), 7:30 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.
Fri, 8/28 thru Wed, 9/2
Bancroft & Telegraph, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Tue, 9/1 thru Wed, 9/2
Yali's/Stanley Hall, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Lawrence Hall of Science, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
1111 Franklin (UCOP), 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Richmond Field Station, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Wed, 9/2
College/Bancroft, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
In solidarity,
UAW Local 2865 Executive Board
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
UAW 2865 Berkeley
2855 Telegraph Ave, Suite 305
Berkeley, CA 94705
phone: (510) 549-3863 / fax: (510) 549-2514
berk...@uaw2865.org / www.uaw2865.org
mail-list.com 1302 Waugh Dr. #438 Houston, Texas 77019 USA
As a commentary not on the emails but on my own sentiments, this is all I have to say: my jobs at UC Berkeley were my first ever. As a first employer, I could not have asked for a better one—and as a continuing, 6th-year employee, I could not ask for a better workplace.
As for “my” union, for the life of me, I cannot figure out what they do with my $9 that they take out of my paycheck every month. Aside from giving salaries to the union pigs, I mean.