Prop. 75 would stifle support for students

If Proposition 75 passes, UCLA will lose one of its main methods
of influencing the state government, and this loss of political
power could result in higher student fees, larger classes, fewer
faculty and a less diverse student body.

What many students, parents and faculty do not know is that for
the last 15 years, the University of California chapter of the
American Federation of Teachers has spent a great deal of time and
money lobbying the governor’s office and the state Assembly
to help protect the funding for undergraduate education.

Not only have we helped to fight off several attempts to reduce
the state contribution to the UC budget, but we have focused our
efforts on making sure state money goes to the funding of
undergraduate instruction and not to various other university
functions.

In fact, several state representatives and senators rely on
UC-AFT to provide important information regarding the quality of
undergraduate education at the UC.

The main reason UC-AFT has been a central player in this
constant effort to educate our politicians about the needs of
students is that our union is made up primarily of non-tenured
faculty whose main task is to instruct undergraduate students.

Unlike the tenured faculty, who are often defined by their
research, lecturers and other faculty outside of the tenure system
are judged and promoted for their teaching.

Moreover, lecturers often have the most direct contact with
undergraduates because these instructors teach many of the small,
lower-division courses.

Since as a union our main concern is undergraduate education, we
have become one of the main forces in the state that fights to
reduce class sizes and improve the security and support of all
university instructors.

We like to say that our working conditions translate into the
students’ learning conditions.

If Proposition 75 passes and UC-AFT can no longer fight to
defend the quality of higher education in the UC system, who will
fight the growing corporatization of our great university?

Every student, faculty member and concerned parent should go to
the polls on Nov. 8 and help send a message to Sacramento that
education should be one of their main concerns, and that
politicians cannot allow corporate special interests to be the only
voice in the state capitol.

Samuels is the president of the UC-AFT and a lecturer in the
UCLA writing programs.