We are excited to announce the formation of the UC Merced Faculty Association as a new independent organization for advancing faculty rights. Like the faculty associations at all other UC campuses, the UCM Faculty Association is a complementary organization to the Senate as our vehicle for shared governance.
Following discussions at our founding meeting, we prepared a memo to request support from UCM leadership for mitigations of strike impacts on faculty and students. The memo has been signed by several dozen faculty across most departments and all three UCM schools.
While we sent the memo to UCM leadership this morning, we are still inviting faculty to add their signatures. You can read the memo and add your signature here: https://tinyurl.com/ucmstrikeimpacts
Since we first drafted the memo, Registrar Erin Webb has granted both individual and department-wide requests for grade deadline extensions until 2 weeks after the conclusion of the strike for courses that have TAs. We are pleased to see this implementation of one of our requests. Individuals can request such extensions via the grade deadline extension form. Department chairs can also submit such requests on behalf of their entire department via the form here: https://registrar.ucmerced.edu/form/grade-deadline-extension-request-form
The Registrar has also made it possible for instructors to submit final grades for some (but not all students) in a course through Catcourses. You can use this option if you are unable to submit all grades on time but have some students who have informed you that they need a final grade for their financial aid to fully disburse in January (this applies to students currently on Satisfactory Academic Progress probation). If you wish to use this option in the Catcourse grade submission module, you must enter “NR” for “not recorded” in the “Optional Grade Override” box for all students for whom you are not submitting a final grade. For the students you are submitting grades for, the “Calculated Grade” will be submitted if you leave the override box empty. You do not need to complete the “no activity” box or “Date of Last Activity” field to submit. The Registrar has said she will provide instructions for submitting late grades soon.
We will convene further campus-wide discussions about faculty rights and mutual support in the spring. If you would like to join those convenings, please reply to this email to let us know.
In the meantime, we hope that you have a safe, restful, and happy holiday break!
Sincerely,
Members of the UCM Faculty Association Steering Committee:
Lindsay Crawford, Public Health
Sapana Doshi, History & Critical Race and Ethnic Studies
Charlie Eaton, Sociology
David Kaminsky, Global Arts Studies Program
Erik Menke, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Whitney Pirtle, Sociology
