Dear Colleagues,
I hope you are all managing well as Winter Quarter comes to close.
Since many developments have been unfolding within the system and on campus, it seems a good time to provide some updates.
Potential Strike Averted
As you now know, after four weeks of confidential mediation, the University has reached tentative agreements with the United Auto Workers (UAW) for the unified Academic Student Employees (ASE – TAs, AIs, Fellows, Readers, Tutors) and Graduate Student Researchers (GSR) bargaining unit, as well as the Student Services and Advising Professionals and Research and Public Service Professionals staff units. The agreements still must be ratified by union membership, which will likely happen by the end of this week. Along with annual raises, the contract would guarantee that teaching assistants receive at least half-time appointments. It also includes increased childcare benefits and enhanced protections for international students/workers, including the creation of a $400,000 legal consulting fund.
More details can be found in this news report on the agreement. As I mentioned at Representative Assembly, Academic Council was particularly concerned about bolstering language to clarify that determinations related to academic judgment (on student progress and degree qualification, for example) remain outside the scope of representation and are not subject to the grievance process. This appears to have been accomplished with revisions to the Management and Academic Rights article.
Federal Government Actions
At the February Systemwide Academic Senate’s Assembly meeting, Systemwide Senate Chair Ahmet Palazoglu reported that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is pursuing lawsuits and investigations throughout the UC system and is apparently staffing up and pushing for quicker turnaround for documents at the disclosure phase. As you’ll recall, a preliminary injunction back in November blocked the Trump administration’s attempts to enforce a proposed settlement that would have required UCLA to pay $1.2 billion, reduce international student enrollment, end gender-affirming care for minors, and eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The DOJ first appealed the injunction but withdrew its appeal in late February and immediately thereafter filed suit against the University of California. The lawsuit alleges that “UCLA’s administration turned a blind eye to—and at times facilitated—grossly antisemitic acts and systematically ignored cries for help from its own terrified Jewish and Israeli employees.”
Budget
At the February Systemwide Academic Senate’s executive committee meeting, UC CFO Nathan Bostrom described this as a “very confusing time” regarding budget projections. Tax revenue has been coming in stronger than projected, but the Legislative Analyst’s Office still describes Governor Newsom’s proposed 7% increase to the UC budget as “imprudent” and recommends reducing or even eliminating the proposed base increase.
Even in the best-case scenario – we receive the full 7% – we will still face a $30 million shortfall for FY27 due to baked-in increases in expenditures, mostly salaries and benefits. In this case, as Chancellor Khosla assured us at January’s Budget Town Hall, cuts will not be made to the core academic mission. But if the base increase ends up being lowered or eliminated, the deficit could expand to $65-70 million. Given these uncertainties, Academic Vice Chancellors have been asked to model out cuts ranging from 1%-2% of their FY25-26 core fund base for School and College budgets, while all other units, including academic support/services and VC Office components of Academic Affairs, Marine Sciences, and Health Sciences, have been asked to plan for possible cuts of 3%-7% of their FY25-26 core fund base.
At our most recent Representative Assembly meeting, Chancellor Khosla shared that the revised outlook for FY26 shows an almost-balanced UC San Diego budget. This positive situation is due to feared scenarios not coming to pass, including a drastic decline in federal grant funding, a drop in international student enrollment, and the capping of IDC rates at 15 percent. In sum, while we’ll have to see where the State Assembly lands in June, we’ll at least not be entering FY27 with a significant deficit.
Ongoing Divisional Senate Concerns
Admissions: Following Senate Council’s review of the Senate Administration Workgroup Report on Admissions, the Senate has worked hard to implement some of the report’s key suggestions. The overriding goal has been to ensure that the students we admit to math-intensive majors have the basic skills to succeed in their chosen course of study. Throughout Winter Quarter, Senate leaders and members of the SAWG on Admissions met regularly with EVC Elizabeth Simmons, AVC of Enrollment Management Jim Rawlins, and Executive Director of Admissions Blia Yang. The selection part of the admissions cycle is now complete, with acceptance letters set to go out very soon. While we will not be able to fully assess the result until next fall, we believe there will be a meaningful decline in the number of students placing in Math 2 and 3B, along with a general improvement in the math skills among first-year students pursuing majors requiring the most demanding calculus series, Math 20.
There was no playbook for this effort, and I’m sure that both the Senate and the Administration would agree that the process was not always easy. But for shared governance to work, faculty must not only assert our voice when a problem arises within our domain, but also contribute to the solution. We believe that we made significant strides in this direction, but there is more to be done to regularize processes of communication and collaboration between Enrollment Management and the Committee on Admissions.
Looking forward, the Senate will turn its attention to studying the issue of reading and writing preparedness, which the SAWG Report on Admissions originally intended to address as well. This committee will take a comprehensive view of the topic, rather than looking at the issue primarily through the lens of admissions.
Meanwhile, the systemwide Senate is preparing to launch a review of UC undergraduate admissions processes. The review will assess A-G requirements and involve extensive engagement with the K-12 sector. The issue of standardized testing (requiring applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores) will also be revisited.
GenAI and Academia: Senate Council has recently completed its review of the Senate-Administration Workgroup Report on the Impact of Generative AI in Research at UC San Diego, as well as the systemwide Report of the Academic Senate Workgroup on Artificial Intelligence. In addition, we are currently discussing the organizational structures that our campus needs to address the myriad issues that AI poses. We are also working with the Chancellor’s Office on organizing a UC San Diego AI Symposium; please see further details under Upcoming Events.
Important Reports under Review
Our divisional Senate-Administration Workgroup Report on the Academic Peer Review Process is now complete and under review. The report was produced by a committee co-chaired on the Senate side by Phil Roeder (Professor, Political Science) and on the Administration side by Marianne Beckett (Assistant Vice Chancellor, Academic Personnel). The number of files that CAP must review each year has been rising steadily and is now over 40% more than what it was 15 years ago. The report proposes ways of mitigating this workload problem while also addressing topics like holistic teaching evaluations, service expectations, and standards for acceleration and above scale. As part of its comprehensive review process, all Senate faculty are encouraged to read the report and weigh in. The link to the report includes a feedback form; you may also email your comments to academicsenateoffice@ucsd.edu by May 1, 2026. Many thanks to the committee members for their efforts.
Undergoing review at the systemwide level is the Report of the UC Tribal Lands Workgroup, the UC’s “first systemwide effort to explore and develop unified guidance, tools, and best practices related to tribal access, co-stewardship, and reburial on UC lands.” This report can be viewed as part of a nationwide movement by universities to belatedly reckon with the fact that land grant universities, initially established in 1862 with the passage of the Morrill Act, owe their origins to the expropriation of Native American lands. In 2020, an award-winning investigative report, “Land-grab Universities” (High Country News), drew public awareness to history and generated further studies and reports, including TheUniversity of California Land Grab: A Legacy of Profit from Indigenous Land. In brief, the state of California received nearly 150,000 acres of land from the federal government that it gradually sold off, funding the University of California’s endowment. Native Americans received no payment for the land in question, which was allegedly ceded in a series of treaties that the Senate never ratified. The link to the report includes a feedback form; you may also email your comments to academicsenateoffice@ucsd.edu by May 1, 2026.
Upcoming Senate Events
Happy Hour at the Faculty Club: Vice Chair Akos Rona-Tas and I will be at the Happy Hour at the Faculty Club from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. today, Thursday, March 19. Please come celebrate the end of the quarter with us! No sign up required.
UC San Diego AI Symposium: Chancellor Khosla and the Academic Senate will be holding a day-long symposium on May 29. We encourage faculty to submit proposals that showcase AI use cases and discuss ethical, evidence-based practices for AI integration in teaching.
Please stay tuned for an announcement at the beginning of April about our Spring events!
Other Updates and Reminders
Bond funding for the UC: The UC has signed on as a sponsor of the California Science and Health Research Bond Act (SB 895), legislation to place a $23 billion bond to fund scientific research across California on the November 2026 ballot. You can read the press release here. The UC is also lobbying to include student housing in the Affordable Housing Bond of 2026. If you’d like to urge Assembly members to designate bond funding for the UC, you can use this form.
Visits to Departments: Vice Chair Akos Rona-Tas and I have enjoyed visiting different departments across campus this year. Department chairs, if you’d like us to drop by to share Senate updates and hear your faculty’s concerns, it is not too late! Please email senatechair@ucsd.edu to schedule something for Spring Quarter.
Thank you for your interest in Senate happenings. In this particular historic moment, which will surely be remembered for its elevation of brutality and stupidity, I’m grateful to be surrounded by colleagues who are dedicated to discovery and creation and committed to helping our students and patients thrive.
