Furloughs

For those of you not happily employed by the State of California, the word "furlough" may bring up images of soldiers on leave. In my case, it's professors on leave. We have two furlough days this month: the Friday before and the Tuesday after Labor Day. For me that works out to one instructional day and one non-instructional day.

In addition to four fixed furlough days throughout the semester, we're expected to choose another five, for a total of nine. There is something of a furor among the professoriat about whether we should be taking furloughs on instructional days (to make some sort of political point) or non-instructional days (so as not to harm students any further than they are already being harmed).

When I said I'm taking all of my non-fixed furlough days on non-instructional days, I was told "that's just what they want you to do." They (presumably, the nefarious powers that be) apparently are counting on the good will of professors who are unwilling to completely eviscerate their classes. On the other hand, by taking furloughs on non-instructional days, I'm not really taking days off, since I use those days for prepping.

At the UC, meanwhile, professors have been told that all of their furlough days will have to be non-instructional.

For those of my colleagues in the CSU system, what's your plan?