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Lecturers paid homage to the fanciful "St. Precaria" and sang, "Swing Low, Precariat" on June 1, kicking off a season of contract renewal efforts at a picnic protest that highlighted the precarious nature of their work at the University of California.

St. Precaria has become a signature presence at protests and rallies involving University of California contingent faculty, including members of the University Council-AFT, representing non-senate faculty and librarians throughout the UC system. The "saint" represents the precarious nature of working as a nontenure-track and/or part-time faculty member with a limited contract, no benefits if they work less than 50 percent time, relatively low pay, and no access to campus and departmental governance.

The picnic, at UC-Santa Cruz, was a lively event designed to draw attention to the issue and educate the university community with songs, teach-ins, oversized puppets and performances. But the issues are serious, says Roxi Power, president of the UC-AFT local in Santa Cruz. Lecturers now teach more than one-third of the student credit hours at UC, and contingent faculty more generally are responsible for about half of undergraduate credit hours. Traveling from campus to campus to find enough classes to make ends meet, "their precarious work lives make building a strong academic community especially difficult," say UC-AFT leaders.

"Lecturers often teach two times the number of courses as tenure-track faculty, but most make much less than tenured colleagues," read a flier that advertised the June 1 protest. "Most of us have little job security and are excluded from shared governance."

UC-AFT has been disseminating information to help students and tenured faculty understand exactly who the lecturers of UC are, and what their situations may be. In many cases, they have worked for decades at the university and are integral to the school's mission—to effectively educate and inspire students. "We are scholars, scientists, writers and artists with advanced degrees," reads one informational post. "We are highly qualified and experienced instructors who have enormous responsibility for undergraduate education." And, they are numerous, as protesters made clear when they sang, "The Age of Precarious," to the tune of, "Age of Aquarius."

To ensure they are also individuals with reliable jobs, UC-AFT is working to win job security for more members by expanding a policy that provides long-term contracts to those who have been at the university for six years. Currently, those contracts require six years in one department or program. Faculty are often refused these "plum" contracts, says Power, when administrators invoke what's become known as "post-six avoidance," giving unfavorable performance reviews or moving faculty out of a department right before they would qualify for the six-year mark. This "churning" of faculty is destabilizing for the university and the students, who need consistency in their coursework—though one administrator argued that faculty become "inbred" when they are not switched up frequently. The comment outraged many when it went viral on social media.

Although the current contract expired June 1, the day of the picnic protest, it has been temporarily extended through October. "This will allow us to continue negotiations for fair benefits, stable appointments and shared governance," says Power.

The UC-Santa Cruz Lecturers and Librarians Facebook page has more photos and videos.

[Virginia Myers/photo by Philip Longo]