Rationale

Increasing minimum appointment lengths will benefit both Academic Workers and the UC. Increased job security is proven to lead to more grants, papers and awards as researchers.  Longer appointments will ensure more stability for international scholars on visas, limiting the number of visa renewals required while at UC.  Eliminating short appointments will also help reduce the incidence of bullying by removing a key lever used by abusive supervisors. Short appointments allows the employer to use the threat of non-reappointment as a threat by which to deter workers from reporting abusive behavior. Our proposals will also reduce the administrative burden on UC, which spends thousands of hours each year processing paperwork for short appointment extensions. 

Bridge funding provides independent researchers with job security and allows retention of independent researchers during funding gaps. With bridge funding, Academic Researchers  can spend more time focused on their research and less time worried about securing the next funding grant. ARs have cited bridge funding as one of the most important ways that UC could improve research.