UC Faculty Association calls on UC to hire more faculty, criticizes growing ‘senior administration’ | Administration

The UC Faculty Association is calling on the UC system to hire more faculty, protect research budgets and defend university research against federal funding cuts.

In a public petition on its website, the UC Faculty Association — a coalition of more than 14,000 UC Academic Senate faculty members across all 10 campuses — lists three main demands. It urges the UC Office of the President to hire more faculty and reduce the student-faculty ratio to 25.5:1, commit funds to protect research budgets and create a fund to “defend UC against Federal Interference.”

For the 2025-26 academic year, the ratio of students to tenured and tenure-track faculty and equivalents was 29.6:1.

In its petition, the UC Faculty Association encourages UCOP to negotiate with faculty to reach an agreement. It also encouraged the UC to adopt the standard of Rutgers University’s faculty union contract by covering the “difference between budgeted expenses and unexpected increases.”

In its supporting documents, the UC Faculty Association claims UC senior administration is “ballooning.” The association found that, from 2011 to 2025, tenured and tenure-track faculty positions increased by 20% while senior administrative positions increased by more than 100%. It also found that there are 3,000 more senior administrators than there are Academic Senate faculty.

Chris Hoofnagle, a professor and director of the Center for Law & Technology at the UC Berkeley School of Law, has criticized “administrative bloat” on campus.

Hoofnagle said he attributes administrative growth to making “value commitments without weighing their expense,” such as creating positions for sustainability and regulation practices.

“I believe that much of our staff growth hinders our operations, because they create more rules in pursuit of values not tightly connected to research and teaching,” Hoofnagle said in an email. “Many of these rules are articulated in procurement limitations, which make it more and more difficult to do anything, ranging from buying food for students, traveling, or hosting conferences.

Hoofnagle claimed certain sustainability certifications create unnecessary spending and staff roles. He cited campus policy mandating the inspection of vending machines “to see whether ‘healthy’ snacks are at eye level,” and noted that at UC Berkeley, there are “at least 40 staff on campus with compliance titles.”

UC Student Association President Candice Phan affirmed UCSA’s support for faculty demands.

“We have said in the past that we’re concerned with the UC hiring these high-level administrative positions instead of more faculty, more lecturers, more student support advisers and counselors,” Phan said. “We definitely think that the UC has its priorities in the wrong place.”

Phan said UCSA has pointed out the “contradictions of (the UC system) hiring more administrators instead of faculty and advisers and counselors” in monthly phone calls with UCOP. She emphasized the importance of bringing awareness to the issue: “It’s just a matter of us making it more known to the student body and the public.”

Phan also rejected any potential proposals for increasing tuition in order for UC campuses to be properly staffed.

“There’s this narrative that the university likes to perpetuate, which is that there’s this zero-sum game where, in order for the university to be sufficiently staffed and workers paid fair wages, that means that tuition and fees will have to inevitably go up,” Phan said.

Trevor Griffey, the vice president of legislation of University Council – American Federation of Teachers, the union that represents more than 7,000 UC librarians and non-Academic Senate faculty, said administrative growth is driving budget cuts, which are “jeopardizing educational quality.”

“The 45% increase in the employment of senior professionals at UC campuses between 2019 and 2024 has significantly contributed to structural deficits across the state,” Griffey said in an email. “Too many UC campuses are not addressing the effects of this growth, and instead are cutting funds for instruction.”

Griffey said that using “student support” as justification does not adequately account for the increase in administrative staff.

UCOP spokesperson Stett Holbrook said there is no “singular UC definition” of administrative staff.

“The (UC Faculty Association) petition has not been formally conveyed to the UC Office of the President. UC leadership is engaging with the UC Academic Senate on the issues,” Holbrook said in an email. “However, broadly speaking, the University adheres to the principle that union representation is a matter of employee choice. UC supports employees’ rights to determine for themselves whether unionization is beneficial.”