Petition in support of UC Librarians and Academic Freedom
- UC-AFT Unit 17 Librarians
- Closed on
- Target:
- University of California Office of the President
- Region:
- United States of America
- Website:
- ucaftlibrarians.org
Hello,
To all supporters of the Petition in Support of UC Librarians and Academic Freedom, we're happy to report your support has made a difference! UC Provost Michael Brown has issued a proposed new section of the Academic Personnel Manual (APM) called APM – 011, “Academic Freedom, Protection of Professional Standards, and Responsibilities of Non-Faculty Academic Appointees.” A 90-day systemwide review of the policy begins immediately.
https://www.ucop.edu/academic-personnel-programs/academic-personnel-policy/policies-under-review/apm-011.html
This proposed new policy includes not only Librarians – it includes 60 other academic titles employed by the University of California. We commend the distinguished members of the working group and UCOP for their lightning-fast work on completing this task. We want to thank CA-AAUP and CUCFA for their principled, unwavering support. We will submit comments to the systemwide review, and look forward to the policy’s implementation as soon as possible.
This petition is now closed! What a great day for the University of California!
At the April 24 bargaining meeting between UC-AFT Librarians and UC administration, UC-AFT presented a new article which guarantees Academic Freedom to all librarians, so that they may fulfill their responsibilities for teaching, scholarship, and research. UC negotiators responded with a flat NO to the proposal at the July 26 bargaining meeting, stating that “Academic Freedom is not a good fit for your unit.”
The California Conference of the American Association of University Professors (CA-AAUP) and the Council of University of California Faculty Associations (CUCFA) issued a Joint Letter in Support of Librarian Academic Freedom, which was sent to President Napolitano and the UC Board of Regents. They urged “UC President Napolitano to instruct UC negotiators to grant academic freedom to university librarians as they rightly deserve and have requested.” Sign below to lend your support to this struggle.
Whereas,
In its 1972 Joint Statement on Faculty Status of College and University Librarians the Association of American University Professors (AAUP) has recognized that “College and university librarians share the professional concerns of faculty members. Academic freedom, for example, is indispensable to librarians, because they are trustees of knowledge with the responsibility of ensuring the availability of information and ideas, no matter how controversial, so that teachers may freely teach and students may freely learn. Moreover, as members of the academic community, librarians should have latitude in the exercise of their professional judgment within the library, a share in shaping policy within the institution, and adequate opportunities for professional development and appropriate reward,”
Whereas,
the 2013 Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act (HEERA) states explicitly that “it is the policy of the State of California to encourage the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research,and learning through the free exchange of ideas among the faculty, students, and staff of the University of California” and that “all parties subject to this chapter shall respect and endeavor to preserve academic freedom in the University of California,”
Whereas,
academic freedom is a right historically associated with faculty, but extendable in principle to all categories of academic employees,
We support the demand of University of California Librarians to have their right to academic freedom explicitly recognized in their contract.
The Petition in support of UC Librarians and Academic Freedom petition to University of California Office of the President was written by UC-AFT Unit 17 Librarians and is in the category Education at GoPetition.