UC lecturers are bargaining for a new contract. Who are they and what are they asking for?

Despite teaching more than 30% of undergraduate courses, lecturers teaching at University of California campuses, including at UC Santa Cruz, have to reapply multiple times for their jobs to be considered permanent employees. 

As the union representing lecturers begins negotiations on March 5 for a new contract, they’re fighting to change that, and for increased pay for instructors who for decades have said they feel like an oppressed, second-class faculty. 

Jeb Purucker, the UCSC representative for UC-AFT, the union that represents lecturers, said this two-tier system doesn’t make any sense. They want permanent job status and for their work to be “valued the same as other teachers at the University of California.” 

“We’ve got lecturers who get paid less than the teaching assistants that they supervise,” he said. “That’s messed up.”

The union, University Council-American Federation of Teachers, represents about 7,000 lecturers and librarians systemwide – including 370 lecturers at UCSC. Lecturers teach first-year writing courses, upper-division seminars and specialized graduate courses. Local lecturers include former Santa Cruz mayor and current mayoral candidate Ryan Coonerty, who teaches legal studies and politics, while other lecturers teach language courses. 

UCSC employs about 670 professors who, in addition to teaching, are required to do research and hold administrative responsibilities. Lecturers, many of whom have doctoral degrees, are hired only to teach and to help the university fill the instructional gaps when professors don’t have the capacity to teach courses because of their other duties. 

UCSC spokesperson Scott Hernandez-Jason didn’t respond to Lookout’s questions regarding the role of lecturers, what percentage of courses they teach on the campus or for a response to lecturers’ complaints about feeling like second-class members of the university community. University of California Office of the President spokesperson Heather Hansen said Lookout’s questions “are all subjects that fall within the scope of collective bargaining” so it would be inappropriate for UC to answer them before official contract negotiations begin next month. 

“We’re looking forward to working with the union to reach a mutually beneficial contract that recognizes the value of lecturers and supports their essential contributions to our students, our academic community, and the broader mission of the institution,” Hansen said.

During these negotiations, Purucker said the union will be prioritizing permanent job status, higher pay and better protections for academic freedom and free speech rights — all issues that would make lecturers know that their work is valued the same as that of other UC instructors. 

In 2021, in the most recent contract fight, the union won historic gains after over two years of negotiations that barely averted a strike. It won higher base salaries, annual cost of living adjustments, four weeks of paid leave and greater job security: one-year, two-year and three-year appointments. That contract expires June 30. 

Despite those gains, the union said the precarity of the job is unsustainable, the wage gains have been lost due to inflation and current budget-strapped campuses are first targeting lecturers and other at-will employees to reduce costs. UC-AFT officials said permanent status for lecturers from Day 1 of hiring would solve many of the workers’ problems. 

The union said more than 200 lecturers have seen their appointments reduced or eliminated since spring last year, and Purucker said about 33 lecturers at UCSC lost their jobs or had their course loads cut. While each year the university typically lays off a few lecturers, Purucker said last year’s 33 was a big increase. The layoffs primarily affected the languages program, as well as some positions in the arts and humanities divisions. 

“We’re kind of at the bottom of the pile,” he said. “We’re the canary in the coal mine. We’re the first ones on the chopping block when cuts come down.”

To reach full-time status, the majority of lecturers have to teach eight courses per year, while under eight courses is considered part-time. Of the 370 lecturers at UCSC, only 35 have full-time appointments. 

The pay range varies significantly depending on how many courses lecturers teach and how many years of experience they have. For example, at the lower end, Purucker said one lecturer who started teaching part-time in 2023 earned $18,000 his first year and $57,000 his third year. 

Initially, lecturers are hired on one-year contracts; after that they can get reviewed and approved for two- or three-year contracts. After teaching for 18 quarters, lecturers undergo a review to gain an open-ended contract without an end date, called a continuing appointment. UCSC has 148 continuing lecturers, some of whom have made a stable living in Santa Cruz, while others have left because they couldn’t afford to live in the region. 

Kevin MacClaren, a Stevenson core curriculum instructor, said he loved his “profoundly fulfilling” job, but he found it untenable long term, according to a union statement.

“After 10 years of service, I ultimately made the difficult decision to leave a profession I deeply loved despite having obtained continuing lecturer status,” said MacClaren. “Despite my commitment, the low wages and lack of financial stability made it impossible to sustain a livelihood in Santa Cruz.”

Continuing lecturer Brij Lunine has made it work for the past 28 years, all while raising a family in Santa Cruz. He’s taught in College Nine as well as Stevenson, Kresge and Cowell colleges. He currently teaches writing, but for many years he taught core courses that first-year students take in their colleges. 

In his early years of teaching, his annual pay was around $27,000. That went up to about $57,000 around 2010. Now, with a full-time appointment, his salary is $144,283. But it’s difficult for lecturers to get continuing status and full-time positions. 

While Lunine acknowledges that there’s been significant improvements from the last contract, he still feels as though lecturers are considered second-class faculty. 

“I’ve experienced that. Going to faculty meetings where I’m the only lecturer — people go around the room and they just don’t acknowledge you,” he said. “I think it’s a status thing, because they’re at-will employees sometimes. The last to be hired, the first to be cut.”

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