UC Berkeley, lecturers’ union reach agreement to end FPF before fall semester | Campus

The Fall Program for First Semester, a campus freshman integration program with a 43-year history, is set to shut down before the fall 2026 semester, despite earlier plans to end it later.

The UC lecturers’ union, University Council – American Federation of Teachers, came to an agreement with the university to end the program this fall, with terms including rehiring rights, contract buyouts and financial compensation for loss of healthcare benefits for former FPF instructors. According to Dean of Extended Education Rick Russo in an email, “agreements are still being finalized,” as not all contracts have been signed.

Approximately 600 students admitted to FPF for this fall semester will be transferred to their associated intended major in the College of Letters and Science, Russo noted.

“The University, based on its original report, decided to end the program after Fall,” Russo said in an email. “During negotiations to mitigate the effects of the impact of the layoff, ELR (Employee and Labor Relations) and UC-AFT came to an agreement to end the program before the Fall.”

According to campus global studies lecturer and former FPF instructor Devin Leigh, the majority of FPF faculty voted to accept the terms of the preliminary agreement.

Leigh noted that the preliminary agreement arranges for former FPF instructors to be paid for the remainder of their contracts, which range from two to three years.

“We just want to emphasize that bargaining is always difficult and that we’re really happy with the agreement that we came to,” Leigh said. “We are really pleased that the university sat down with us and respected our time.”

However, campus math lecturer and former FPF instructor Arun Sharma expressed dissatisfaction with how the contract buyout was calculated. He said the preliminary agreement is set to provide financial compensation based on the single FPF class he taught in fall 2025, even though he was scheduled to teach two FPF classes this fall.

Regarding rehiring on campus, environmental science lecturer and former FPF instructor Ken Worthy, who served on the union’s negotiating team, said the preliminary agreement offers former FPF instructors priority for hire as lecturers over an “outside applicant” when their respective department has an available class they are qualified to teach.

“I think most of us would prefer to continue our employment,” Worthy said. “But barring that, if we’re not going to continue to be employed, this is the resolution that we feel is pretty satisfactory.”