UC-AFT wins reinstatement of UCLA social welfare lecturer
Arbitrator requires university to restore seniority rights and pay back wages
Larthia Dunham thought he was receiving merit evaluations, perhaps headed for a raise, until he realized he was being targeted for termination. A lecturer in the Social Welfare Department at UCLA, Dunham was cited in December 2008 for failure to try to improve his writing skills and for bad evaluations from some students.
With emotions roiling, he sat down during the holiday season that year and wrote 60 letters to colleagues asking for support. “Blessfully” (Dunham is a religious man), he received 50 responses.
He dug out a document — the UC Memorandum of Understanding with Non-Senate Faculty — the contract between lecturers in UC-AFT and the university, that he had kept for years unexamined in his desk. “I teach students all the time,” Dunham chuckled, “know the policies that govern you.”
