Currently, throughout the UC system, lecturers courted during the height of the pandemic are facing sudden layoffs despite our reappointment letters and despite the university’s ongoing healthy enrollment numbers. Like so many other of my fellow lecturers, I too am a distinguished professor. But despite winning multiple teaching awards such as the Extraordinary Teaching in Extraordinary Times Award and the Faculty Award for Outstanding Mentorship of GSIs, and despite my building out courses with care and success, the dean’s office and the ethnic studies department have given me the message that I am expendable. Without prior notice, my colleague, Juan Berumen, has had all four of his ethnic studies courses eliminated, and is effectively being forced out of a department that he has been deeply committed to. And, although the department has shared their “regret” via email about the way I found out, their poor internal communication and the unexpected termination of my contract afforde...