Faculty at the University of California (UC) have endorsed a set of 18 principles that they propose be taken into account when UC engages in its upcoming and future journal license negotiations with commercial publishers. These broad-ranging principles were devised with input from various stakeholders across UC and at other like-minded academic institutions. They are intended to help restore the balance of power in the publishing system and give researchers control over the fruits of their own labor. By endorsing these 18 principles, faculty intend to 1) signal their collective commitment to advance the mission of UC; 2) accelerate their ongoing effort to make the products of UC research and scholarship as freely and widely available as possible through open access; and 3) leverage faculty backing to ensure that UC spends taxpayer money in the most ethically, morally, and socially-responsible way when entering into agreements with publishers. Faculty expect that these principles will lead UC to push for terms and conditions in publisher agreements that are transformative and closely aligned with the goal of making scholarly communication more fair, transparent, sustainable, and open.