Roughly 200 faculty members and students gathered in the Humanities Quad to rally against budget cuts to the UC Irvine School of Humanities for the upcoming 2025-26 academic year on June 4. The march placed emphasis on lecturers who face layoffs due to UC Irvine’s new budget model.
UAW 4811 and UC-AFT organized the rally with support from the Irvine Faculty Association following the budget cut announcements that came at the end of the spring quarter according to protestors.
A screenshot of the 2025-26 academic year’s budget sheet was leaked to faculty and provided to New University by a faculty member who requested anonymity. According to the budget sheet, the humanities are facing a 9% cut of approximately $6 million, with the UCI School of Law at the top of the list with -35.6% and $9 million. According to the faculty member, the full effects were allegedly offset by payments the school made to mitigate the cuts — payments that will not be in place next year.
New University reached out to the administration to confirm the sheet’s authenticity and did not receive a response.
Marshals from the organizations passed around sign-up forms, follow-up QR codes, chant sheets and a petition calling for School of Humanities Dean Tyrus Miller to meet and further discuss these budget cuts. UC-AFT previously made two attempts to get an audience with Miller, both of which he refused.
The rally was emceed by U.S. history lecturer and vice president of the UC-AFT legislation Trevor Griffey, who delivered an opening speech summarizing the cuts. According to Griffey, at least 20 lecturers in the School of Humanities are set to be laid off.
“Even if we cost the same as tenure-track faculty, which we don’t, they still hire us because they need someone to sacrifice — someone they consider nonessential to manage budget cuts,” Griffey said at the rally. “But there’s a problem with their plan. They hire so many of us that they can’t survive without us.”
Chris Varela, a full-time composition lecturer who has taught at UCI for a decade, said he received official notice on May 30 that, despite passing his review, his appointment was not being renewed for next year.
“In other words, I will be essentially laid off after the end of the quarter,” Varela said at the rally. “And this is, I quote, the legal budgetary consideration — to quote Article 7A Section J-61 — ‘lack of work.’ Lack of work. In other words, ‘unavailability of [a] course assignment for which the Unit 18 faculty is qualified, as determined by the university.’”
Patrick McBurnie-Nicolay, a Ph.D. candidate in English and teaching assistant in the composition program, attended the protest as a marshal and union member of UAW. He addressed how the UC system has nearly $6 billion in reserves.
“A graduate student like me makes $36,000 a year at max. The UC can fund institutes that can fund instruction or research, but instead it inflates the salary of top executives,” McBurnie-Nicolay said to the crowd.
As one of the rally speakers, he wanted to emphasize that many of the lecturers are strong educators.
“We care about our jobs,” McBurnie-Nicolay told New University. “We care about our students and the UC is showing us that they do not care about their educators. They do not care about their students.”
As of right now, McBurnie-Nicolay will not be returning in the fall.
At around 1:41 p.m., the rally moved from Ring Road to Aldrich Hall for a teach-in, informal lectures and discussions. Protestors chanted phrases like “We are unstoppable! A better UC is possible!” and “When they say cut back, we say fight back!” Some union members held signs reading, “We are proud union educators.”
The teach-in in front of Aldrich Hall featured more speakers, including professor of physics and astronomy Kevork Abazajian, who stressed that STEM is not the only education worth funding.
“Education is not a factory. It is a process of discovery, criticism and creativity,” Abazajian said at the teach-in. “The humanities give our students voice, purpose and perspective. When we cut those programs, we aren’t saving money. We’re robbing students of the tools they need to be full participants in our democratic society.”
Alexander Rudenshiold, third-year Ph.D. candidate in film and media studies and head steward of UAW, spoke about Gov. Gavin Newsom’s initial announcement regarding the state government’s 8% cut to its contributions to the UC budget. After students, workers and faculty lobbied in Sacramento, the Legislature counterproposed a 5% increase to the UC’s budget, which Newsom recently passed.
Rudenshiold, along with other speakers at the rally, argued that the UC system is operating as though the reduction is still 8%.
“UC, however, is still acting like it’s going to be this giant 8% cut to the entire system’s budget,” Rudenshiold told New University. “And that’s just not right.”
At the time of Newsom’s original announcement, UC President Michael V. Drake issued a statement in response to the governor’s proposed 2025-26 budget on Jan. 10.
“At a time when the university is enrolling record numbers of California students, I am concerned about the impact of the proposed $271 million funding reduction on our students and campus services,” Drake wrote.
On May 14, Drake released another statement after the revised budget proposal was announced, stating that the UC is “deeply grateful” for the changes.
Despite uncertainty surrounding his employment, McBurney-Nicolay still has hope.
“I have seen our unions make incredible change[s] in the past couple years,” McBurney-Nicolay told New University. “Even though I’m going to lose my job as [things stand], I hope that we can turn this around.”
Zoë Chang is a Features Intern for the spring 2025 quarter. She can be reached at zoeac@uci.edu.
Edited by Alyssa Villagonzalo and Jaheem Conley