Post updated June 24, 2023 –

SDFA would like to clarify that it endorsed the following faculty-authored letter in solidarity with 67 graduate student workers who are going through a student conduct process for their peaceful protest (including 18 who were not even present at the event) on May 5th, which now has 283 signatories: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1zo6cDELh_06_XQqwXVkckvuHiSFQQgy5vZF649iM9tA/edit#responses 

It has also been endorsed by 5 other UC faculty associations (UCSB, Riverside, UCSC, Berkeley, Davis,and Irvine), and The Council of UC Faculty Associations (CUCFA). Outside the UC, the NYU-AAUP chapter, Scholars for a New Deal for Higher Education, California Scholars for Academic Freedom, and the Association for Asian American Studies (AAS) have endorsed.

Reporting on the charges have appeared in the San Diego Union Tribune, the LA Times, and the Voice of San Diego. The pieces are here: https://voiceofsandiego.org/2023/06/20/ucsd-grad-workers-facing-administrative-violations-for-protest/ and here: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-06-22/59-ucsd-grad-students-face-possible-expulsion-after-may-5-protest

The letter remains open to signatures, but in addition graduate student workers we have been in contact with would appreciate your direct support. We encourage you to reach out to your graduate student workers if you have questions or concerns, and hope that you will support them through this difficult process. We also hope that the Academic Senate, through its relevant committees, will discuss the issue thoroughly, as these charges have implications for all of our ability to engage in collective action and critical speech on this campus.

Finally, we call upon Senate faculty to urge the administration to honor its contracts with graduate workers as outlined in the faculty-authored letter and UAW petition, which is here: https://uc-uaw.jotform.com/231637145960862 

 

June 16, 2023 – SDFA letter to Academic Senate Faculty

The San Diego Faculty endorses the UCSD faculty-authored letter calling upon UCSD administration to withdraw the charges against 67 graduate workers and the Graduate Division to dismiss any cases of student conduct code violations that are in progress, accessible here: https://forms.gle/n79KQwu5hJV5GgEs8

 

We too believe that by demanding that their contracts be honored, graduate student workers are fighting for a better and stronger university for all of us. In addition to endorsing the letter written by our faculty colleagues, we reaffirm the graduate student workers’ collective demands, which can be read here: https://uc-uaw.jotform.com/231637145960862

 

We ask our colleagues to read, sign, and share this letter, and advocate in your own networks (including in Senate committees) that these charges be withdrawn immediately.

 

In solidarity,

SDFA Board