To: Members of the Los Angeles Division of the Academic Senate
Dear Senate Faculty:
Congratulations on completing this academic year! As we cheer our graduates’ accomplishments, we also celebrate your role in the teaching, research, and service that have contributed to their achievement.
We write to share (below) Academic Senate news about elections, a Legislative Assembly statement on financial matters in the wake of UAW contract settlements, our new distance learning policy for graduate courses, a diversity requirement report, and more.
Please know that we have been advocating for additional faculty salary increases, given that the previously-announced 4.6% increase was applied to base salary only, not to off-scale and above-scale salary components.
Budget season is concluding. The Academic Senate is working toward fulfilling our responsibility, as delegated by the Regents, to advise the Administration on budgetary matters. Thanks to the Council on Planning Budget and collaborators Interim Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer Allison Baird-James and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Darnell Hunt, we are increasing our role in budget meetings and review of the proposed budget, providing budget training to FEC chairs and Senate leaders, and discussing how UCLA sets budgetary priorities. At a time of budget cuts, the Senate and the faculty must advise the Administration on how to keep the academic mission at the center of our budgetary decision-making.
Thank you, and please read below for more updates.
Jessica Cattelino
Chair, UCLA Academic Senate
Academic Senate Updates
June 2023
In this issue:
→ Election Results
→ Approved Legislative Assembly Statement
→ DEI Award Recipients
→ Diversity Requirement Report and Course Proposals
→ Graduate Council’s Distance Education Policy
→ Revised Course and Program Guides
→ End Of Senate Regulation A-332 Partial Suspension
→ Your Academic Senate
Election Results
Welcome to Professor Kathy Bawn, Political Science, the elected Vice Chair/Chair-Elect of the UCLA divisional Academic Senate for 2023–24! The Academic Senate also recently held elections for 2023–2024 members of the Legislative Assembly, Committee on Committees, and at-large members of the Executive Board. Full election results are forthcoming.
Approved Legislative Assembly Statement
On May 18, 2023, members of the Legislative Assembly endorsed the following statement regarding post-UAW strike concerns and finances:
“The Legislative Assembly of UCLA’s divisional Academic Senate calls on our campus and the University of California to center the academic mission in our responses to the budgetary and policy challenges arising in the wake of contract settlements with UAW academic workers. Academic units, PhD training, and faculty research must not be undermined, either by design or by default. The faculty stand ready to support efforts to increase public funding in support of our academic mission, and we urge the Administration to take bold approaches to meeting funding needs by making targeted cuts to administrative budgets and non-academic programs rather than from academic budgets. Nothing less than the future of education at both the undergraduate and the graduate levels, and higher education more generally, is at stake. Should we make the wrong choices now, there will be dire consequences in the future for the state’s social, intellectual, and economic vibrancy.”
The Senate Chair sent this statement as a BruinPost (PDF) to all UCLA faculty. Please ask your department, IDP, or Faculty Executive Committee to endorse this statement, and share the results with Chair Cattelino, Chancellor Block and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Hunt.
DEI Award Recipients
The Academic Senate has announced the 2022–23 award recipients for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Awards (PDF). Three faculty, two students, and one staff member are recipients of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Awards. The awardees exemplify extraordinary accomplishments in leadership, innovation, initiatives, inclusiveness, and creativity to foster and promote diversity.
We encourage you to visit the Academic Senate’s Award Opportunities web page to celebrate the awardees. Please join the Senate in congratulating the 2022–23 award recipients.
Diversity Requirement Report and Course Proposals
The Diversity Education Governance Committee (DEGC) recently issued its first-ever assessment of the Diversity Requirement (PDF) for undergraduates in the College of Letters and Science. We encourage you to review this informative report and share with your departments. To propose courses for Diversity credit, please consult DEGC’s Diversity Course Guidelines and Course Information Sheet. The deadline for Fall 2023 Diversity course submissions is Friday of Week 1.
Graduate Council’s Distance Education Policy
Graduate Council has approved revisions to the Graduate Distance Education Policy (PDF) for online and hybrid courses, effective Fall 2023. Under the new policy, approval is required for all graduate courses in which 50% or less of primary instructional time is in-person. For details, please consult the full policy and the Graduate Distance Course Information Sheet (DOCX). As a reminder, the Undergraduate Council earlier approved the Undergraduate Distance Education Policy.
Revised Course and Program Guides
Planning a new course? Creating or modifying a degree program? The new and improved UCLA Course Approval Manual (PDF), UCLA Compendium (PDF), and Undergraduate Program Proposal Template (DOCX) are now available on the Academic Senate website. We encourage you to consult these updated resources to assist with preparing course requests and proposals to establish, disestablish, or modify academic programs and units.
End of Senate Regulation A-332 Partial Suspension
In March 2020, the Legislative Assembly voted to authorize temporary suspension of specific provisions of UCLA Senate regulations that restrict final examinations to the method, time, and place announced at the start of a quarter. The suspension of provisions of Divisional Senate Regulation A-332 (SR A-332) due to COVID–19 allowed instructors to institute alternative methods and, as needed, times and places of final evaluations for any courses for which they are responsible.
At its May 11, 2023, meeting, the Academic Senate’s Executive Board voted unanimously to end the partial suspension of SR A-332 effective Fall 2023. The goal was to restore SR A-332 in its entirety now that the COVID-19 emergency declaration has ended. Thus, beginning again in Fall 2023, instructors must include, and adhere to, information about final exams in their syllabi.
Your Academic Senate
The Academic Senate is only as strong as its engaged faculty. We uphold the principle of faculty governance in higher education only when faculty exercise their governing authority. We welcome you to volunteer, contact your Legislative Assembly representatives (PDF), reach out to your Faculty Executive Committee Chairs who serve on the Council of Faculty Chairs, visit the Academic Senate website, and follow us on Twitter at @UCLASenate.
Download this BruinPost PDF Here
