UC Santa Barbara graduate students voted Monday evening to begin a full strike on Thursday for a cost-of-living adjustment, preparing to join UC Santa Cruz graduate students who have been on strike for the same issue for the past two weeks.
After UCSC, UCSB’s movement is the most developed across the UC system. Max Abrams / Daily Nexus
The vote for a full strike comes three days after graduate students occupied Cheadle Hall for 16 hours on Friday, demanding that Chancellor Henry T. Yang email UCSC administrators and UC President Janet Napolitano to “denounce threats” of firing against graduate students at UCSC and call for system-wide cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) negotiations.
COLA movements have popped up at every UC campus except for UC San Francisco, but the amount students are asking for varies from campus to campus depending on local housing costs. UCSB 4 COLA is calling for a monthly amount of $1,807.51, which would be given to all graduate students regardless of individual salary.
Although housing costs have been an issue in Santa Cruz for years, UCSC brought the discussion of a COLA to the forefront starting in September 2019.
After delivering COLA demands to administrators in November, UCSC graduate students began a partial strike in early December by withholding Fall Quarter 2019 grades, which at least 85 graduate students still have not submitted, according to a UCSC Graduate Student Association (GSA) email sent to UCSC graduate students on Sunday.
One of the largest points of tension between administrators and strikers is the withheld grades, for which graduate students at UCSC have been sent termination warning letters. UCSC Interim Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Lori Kletzer gave UCSC strikers a deadline of Friday at midnight to turn in grades and end their strike, but the graduate students voted at a meeting late Friday night to continue striking.
Kletzer sent an email Monday morning to UCSC faculty “to clarify that fall-grade submission … will be verified on Thursday, Feb. 27,” a change from the previous Feb. 21 deadline set by Kletzer to submit grades.
The UCSC GSA wrote in an email to graduate students that they “consider [themselves] terminated from [their] employment” and that as of Monday morning, 351 graduate workers have committed to withholding Winter Quarter 2020 grades and several departments have committed to refusing Spring Quarter 2020 appointments if striking graduate students have their spring appointments revoked.
The Friday occupation of Cheadle Hall was organized in solidarity with the “doomsday strike” at UCSC, the name being coined due to the termination warnings and midnight deadline from administrators. Across the UC system, graduate students on almost every campus held a demonstration, rally or other action in support of the UCSC strikers on Friday.
The UCSC strike — and the imminent UCSB strike — is a wildcat strike, meaning that graduate students are acting separate from United Auto Workers Union 2865 (UAW 2865), the union that represents graduate students UC-wide. The current UAW 2865 contract extends until 2022, and a clause in the contract states that “there shall be no strikes, stoppages or interruptions of work” while the contract is still active.
However, UAW 2865 formally asked the UC to meet them at the bargaining table to negotiate a COLA for its members.
“Cost of living concerns have consistently been a high priority for academic student employees, and we have bargained over these matters in every set of contract negotiations at the systemwide table since 2000,” UAW 2865 President Kavitha Iyengar wrote to Peter Chester, executive director of labor relations within UCOP.
“We believe both the Union and the University have an interest in ameliorating the economic hardships faced by its academic student employees who face some of the most high-rent cities in the city and country, and welcome sitting down to negotiate over these matters.”
UCSB graduate students have been organizing for a COLA since December, but most of the movement’s initial actions were in solidarity with the striking UCSC graduate students.
Actions at UCSB began with a solidarity rally in December and with a “sick-out” in January, when approximately 150 graduate students, faculty and undergraduates marched from Storke Tower to the Arbor to coincide with the UC Regents meeting.
Organizers officially delivered demands for a COLA on Feb. 10 to Chancellor Henry T. Yang and Executive Vice Chancellor David Marshall at Cheadle Hall.
In addition to calling for a COLA of $1,807.51 per month, organizers demanded that the COLA payments do not come from “an increase in undergraduate or graduate tuition, campus fees, or university-owned housing rent.”
Organizers also emphasized that the university “must not retaliate in any form, implicit or explicit, against graduate students, undergraduate students, faculty, staff, or any other individuals who support and/or participate in the struggle for a COLA, regardless of citizenship or visa status.”
The demands also say that the COLA must be adjusted from year-to-year depending on inflation, and that the university should further accommodate graduate students with dependents who might have additional financial needs.
“We fight for a COLA not just for ourselves, but as part of a larger struggle for a dignified life for all at the university,” UCSB 4 COLA wrote in its demands.
“A COLA is more than just a raise: it is a structural commitment by the institution, recognizing that this university would not function without graduate student labor.”
Organizers within the UCSB 4 COLA movement have emphasized the importance of undergraduate and faculty solidarity and have been circulating petitions calling on both of them to support the movement. As of Monday evening, the UCSB faculty support petition had received 123 signatures, and the undergraduate petition had received 467, according to GSA President Cierra Sorin.
Over the past two weeks, organizers at UCSC have emphasized to COLA groups on other campuses the importance of taking further action and following them to strike.
In UCSB 4 COLA’s General Assembly meeting on Feb. 20, Jane Komori, one of the lead graduate student organizers at UCSC, spoke directly to UCSB graduate students about the need for striking beyond Santa Cruz.
After UCSC, UCSB’s movement is the most developed across the UC system.
“Other UC campuses are looking to Santa Barbara and taking inspiration in what you’re doing,” Komori said.
“We at Santa Cruz are staking a lot on your next moves,” she added.
Correction [Feb. 25, 1:04 p.m.]: Demands for a COLA at UCSB began in December, not January. This article has been updated with the correct information.
BA UCSB. I’ve worked since graduation and retired this year. $1807.51 is about the same amount as my social security payment. No sympathy here.
Must be nice to be retired and to be have the support of a system won off the struggles of contingent labor and wildcat strikes. Solidarity is the answer. Stand together.
It seems to always be the people who have benefited from social welfare programs who fight against others having similar benefits. #cola4all
Social welfare program. There is no way I will get out the amount that I paid in.
Sorry children, I can’t afford to pay for anymore freebies for whining UC students.
…who says that *you personally* are going to?
And just wear do you think the money will come from, out of thin air.
Its called raising taxes.
asking for enough money to cover food and rent is not whining.
What kind of lifestyle are we talking about here. Grad school should not be comfortable, it should be a struggle to get you out in 4 to 5 years. If we make it essentially a starting level job pay it will be even one more reason we have 10 year+ grad students. Professional colleges students that don’t want to move on. I had to pay my way through my college education and it was a struggle and makes me appreciate my position and where I have gotten to in the last 10 years. I don’t mean this in a negative… Read more »
This isn’t about comfort. It’s about living a healthy lifestyle in one of the most expensive cities, in the most expensive state in the world LOL. 10 years ago life was WAY easier. Expectations for graduate programs and medical schools were LOWER and less competitive. Things were cheaper. Living with roommates can add wayyy too many unnecessary stressors and ppl have partners and CHILDREN. Stop this nonsense. You have no idea what it was like and frankly there’s no guarantee you would’ve succeeded at THIS LEVEL of today.
Wildcat strike= illegal strike.
It’s not against the law. It’s not sanctioned by the union, but it’s not illegal.
Wildcat strikes have been considered illegal in the United States since 1935. … Under the 1935 National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), federal courts have held that wildcat strikes are illegal and that employers may fire workers participating in them.
You guys are absolutely ridiculous, you are being paid on top of getting free tuition. Your union negotiated your terms already. No need to to take it out on undergraduates. You guys are being paid very fairly and believe or not, most people pay to go to college.
They know- they paid to go to college too. Going to graduate school does not equal college round two. You are a researcher and educator who is expected to do professional level work. This is not, and has never been, about taking it out on undergraduates. Not everybody voted for the current union contract or felt that their concerns were recognized. Getting full funding does not mean that you have wads of cash floating around.
Go to a graduate school that charges you $40k a year in tuition if you don’t like it here.
This doesn’t even make sense
What does this have anything to do with the conversation?
Ok Boomer. Hopefully you won’t live too long to keep benefiting from the free hand-outs that us younger folks pay for from our hard-earned wages. “No sympathy here”.
You mean the handouts we paid our entire lives and we now don’t see the full benefit of?
You had cheaper taxes since in the 80s we borrowed from social security. If we hadn’t borrowed from it your taxes would have been higher. Enjoy the repeal of prop 13 and having to pay current california property taxes.
Ok boomer = I do not want to or cannot have a valid civil discourse on a subject so I will call you a funny name and move on with my beliefs.
Probably the person who said “no sympathy here” began the difficulties regarding the valid civil discourse bit. Though we millennials have not come up with terribly much, one thing we have come up with is this lovely word “sorrynotsorry”, which is what we say to people like that regarding their imminent dying off. So it’s less about moving on with beliefs and more about watching someone else’s beliefs die with them.
This is hilarious. If you’re an age to qualify for social security retirement, then on the generous end of the spectrum that means you were born somewhere around the late 50s or very early 60s. So that means, assuming you went to college right after high school without a significant break, you attended UCSB sometime between the late 70s and early 80s. That was right around the time the UCs decided to start charging tuition which was $630 a year. The equivalent of about $2,600 today. The average rent in Santa Barbara in 1978 was $150/month, which today would be… Read more »
THIS!
Organizing for COLA at UCSB began with a rally in December, not January. Thank you for your reporting!
Yawn 🥱
The reality is that a top R1 institution such as UCSB should not have graduate students living in their cars, scraping by to the next paycheck, taking out monstrous amounts of loans to support their kids, etc. The corporatization of Public University is a shame that must be addressed immediately.
The issue is the high cost of rent. This is a statewide, if not national problem. Students should be leading on that issue, not enabling the real estate industry with a band aid fix pay raise.
This is definitely an issue too. Why should graduate students be expected to shoulder all of that? Why aren’t others advocating for reform too?
Higher-education institutions need reformatting, plain and simple. Universities like the UC’s are built upon the exploited labor or graduate students and contingent faculty- and that doesn’t *just* have to do with rent.
But rent control and other measure hurt the long term markets. Look at New York City, rent has gone up a tremendous amount since rent control. Why do people believe they deserve to be able to live in a place they cannot afford? It is a free society and you are free to live where you want, but living in Santa Barbara takes much more resources and effort that Lincoln Nebraska. Why do people think they have an innate right to housing in a place that they cannot or may never be able to afford? If folks start leaving and… Read more »
Oh noooo you’re getting PAID to receive a world-class graduate education? It’s a shame that you’re not getting enough to support your caviar habit…
I’ve said it before and I’m gonna keep saying it. Get. A. Job.
Do you understand what being a TA entails? It IS a job, you twat. Graduate TA’s spend hours grading, planning, teaching, and mentoring. This. is. a. job. They are providing essential labor for the entire UC system, whether or not you see that labor as “valid” or not (and if you’ve ever been to college, then you have been taught or have had your work graded by a TA, so I’m not sure why you’d think their work isn’t valid). We are getting paid TO educate. Taking classes is only part of that- it is mostly research and engagement with… Read more »
So let me get this straight. The student employees not only have all of their tuition and fees PAID and they get a monthly salary…. sounds like a good deal all around. Why the complaints?
Because I shouldn’t have to use a good bank to make ends meet.
Then live in Santa Maria or Ventura…. you made the Choice , live with it.
I don’t know a single grad student who could afford that commute to be honest, but I bet some do live outside of Santa Barbara
I am a UCSB graduate student and commute from Ventura on the train. It is $150/mo so the price is reasonable but the issue is that I lose 15 hours a week commuting and cannot do work on campus past the scheduled train departure
I would do that if I could, but $150 is almost my entire monthly grocery budget, and I usually don’t have extra $$ left over, so it is not affordable for me
the trade off, stupid, is that rent is cheaper
Plus many students are scheduled to teach, take classes at different times of the day and wouldn’t be able to rely on a train that comes and goes so infrequently
We’ll be mighty happy to live with our choice if you’re happy to choke on yours!
Actually yes you do, that’s what it means to be an adult LOL. If yal take this kind of mindset to the next private company you work for, you’ll be fired instantly.
Actually, no. Private companies actually care about the housing situation and they are generous with providing support for commuters. I worked for a law firm in New York and they paid for my mileage as well as MTA pass.
Cool, you totally missed my point! I’m saying you’re getting paid to do something that many people take out giant loans to pay for. You’re not supposed to be able to live a cushy life on your debt-free graduate studies stipend. That’s why you: Get. A(nother if you’d like to be pedantic). Job.
This reasoning is so gross. You’re acknowledging that the job needs doing, but you think that anyone doing the job should just be okay with not being able to afford necessities. So that puts the blame on the worker for choosing to do this (necessary) job.
Gotta love when people interpret “not having to live in a car” as a cushy life.
You’re supported by a Union, signed a contract, now live up to it… spoiled Millennial.
Then why did you choose a job knowing the wages and cost of living, give me a break, if the job is that important to you you should have taken it in a part of CA that was more affordable, but no. you want to live like a millionaire on the Coast doing a job that will never pay a millionaires salary…. what a travesty… so spoiled
Literally nobody is asking “to live like a millionaire.” That’s absurd. We are asking for a cost of living increase so we can afford rent and food. It’s not being a spoiled millenial to not want to go hungry. We are the people who are teaching your children and grandchildren. We are the ones taking the time to sit down with them and go over their assignments. We spend hours grading and planning. I’m sorry that you think wanting a living wage for this is being spoiled. If UC needs these jobs to be filled-and they do- they need to… Read more »
Damn near every single other graduate student in the country has to pay tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars per year for their education. You are getting PAID for it. YOU are spoiled already.
You are right in that graduate students who have a stipend or who are able to get a tuition remission are in a better position to begin with- but again, this doesn’t mean that they have money. Being fully funded does not mean that you are wealthy. There are also plenty of graduate TA’s at UCSB and other UC’s who are taking out and paying off loans who are also striking or withholding grades. Why does TA’s asking for a wage increase to cover rent and food make you so…angry? I fail to see how asking for enough money to… Read more »
THERE IT IS – “…wealthy”.
It is not an educational institution’s responsibility to make you wealthy.EVER.
I don’t think the commentator meant that they are asking to a wage increase that would make them wealthy??? I think you’re misunderstanding.
Damn near every single other graduate student in the country has to pay tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars per year‽ Are you for real? Because that statement right there reveals that you have absolutely NO idea what you’re talking about. Almost every single PhD program in the country, those at Ivy League schools and private institutions like Stanford, Chicago, MIT, etc either offer tuition remission in exchange for research and teaching, or they offer a full funding packet as part of your acceptance. Thanks for outing yourself as someone who never went to grad school or knows… Read more »
not allowed to get another job at the same time.
Many of us are taking out loans, working multiple jobs (something we are not supposed to be allowed to do).
But clearly you Revel in your own ignorance.
Grads aren’t asking for a cushy lifestyle. We are literally asking for just enough money to be able to pay for rent and food. Read the testimonies online. Academia and education should not, and cannot, only be the purview of the wealthy. In some cases students do get tuition and fee remissio, but this money is not salary. It never touches our bank accounts. It is the university essentially paying itself. I also don’t know many graduate students who are completely debt free. That’s a huge assumption. A lot of graduate students with funding work outside jobs. Do you want… Read more »
Then move away from one of the most expensive places in CA to live, get over yourself… wanting to live in SB like a millionaire… if you care so much about your job go work in a more affordable part of the State…grow up…
I’m literally disgusted by your comments, Carole. You clearly have no idea how the system works. Grad schools for years have been exploiting students and what UCSC is doing can help every grad student in the US. You think this is only CA’s problem? No, it’s about the whole higher system education as well. As my professor already said, if you are already privileged, don’t get in other people’s way of fighting for the same. Your comment says a lot about how privileged you are.
where did u go to grad school that was so wonderfully cheap and magical?
Interestingly, if this happened and all the grad students left UCSB, the university would collapse. You are advocating for California losing a world-class university.
Is that really the solution you want to see?
This makes no sense though because someone has to do the job lol so even if it wasn’t them “complaining” it would be someone else because there’s always going to be this issue…don’t you see that? It’s like you acknowledge that it’s a hard job that makes no money but you say just don’t do it then, but someone has to. And I don’t see why it effects anyone but the university who is definitely hoarding money they can 100% afford to pay the people who contribute to their wealth just to be able to live an average life, nobody… Read more »
I mean, if someone wants to go to graduate school, one really has no choice but to live in that area. High COL is an issue with basically any major university area. The immediate area around UCSB isn’t even the “wealthy” area of SB- Goleta IS the more affordable area to live in, as opposed to SB proper or someplace like Montecito. And for students who don’t have cars (because they can’t afford it), living an hour away somewhere like Lompoc is not doable. Public transport to/from SB to other cities is extremely limited and unreliable. Not to mention that… Read more »
You’re disgusting. We will destroy everyone like you.
International students CANNOT get another job. They can only accept a 50% position at the university and are not allowed to work anywhere else. Also I love how being able to afford rent, and maybe have your own bedroom instead of cramming 5 people into a 2 bedroom apartment is “living a cushy life”
Don’t burden me with the problems that come with your choices. You made your decision now live with it. If you cannot afford to come here for grad school then dont
So you’re saying that attending UCSB should only be the purview of the wealthy? Especially given how much grad students are responsible for teaching, I find that to be a super undesirable scenario. Imagine the Olivia Jade’s of the world being the only TA’s for your classes.
lmao. I’m going to start using this snobby and dismissive attitude with everyone that comes across hardships.
Oh no! Your house was completely destroyed and your wife died in a hurricane? Don’t burden me with the problems that come with your choices. You made your decision now live with it. If you can’t afford to buy a new house and a new wife then don’t come to Texas to live.
Almost nobody takes out giant loans for a PhD, the academic work afterwards is not well-paying enough to justify it. You are sorely misinformed.
They are asking for more than I received during my 3rd year of residency working 16 -18 hours a day and making life and death decisions . Sorry, liberal arts TAs just aren’t worth that much.
I don’t understand why so many people think this is about humanities grad students. Grads from every field are advocating for a COLA, including social sciences and the sciences. Every field in underfunded. Somebody who is making a slightly higher stipend in stem isn’t necessarily working harder than someone in the humanities, and vice versa. The point is that the work of graduate student TAs needs to be funded enough for is to afford rent.
Then why are less than 5% of STEM graduate students striking? Maybe because they know you have to actually work to get what you want?
I can assure you that graduate students outside of STEM work hard. Every single day. I don’t know why you’re assuming that the students choosing to strike or to withhold grades are habitual non-workers. That is simply not true. I’m not sure what the percentage breakdown is to be honest- I don’t think that can be determined…but just because a student isn’t committing to a full strike doesn’t mean that they aren’t planning on withholding grades or that they don’t support the strike. There are lots of reasons why a grad might choose not to participate in a full strike.… Read more »
Wow, that’s really awful they paid you that little for such important work. You deserve far more, and I’m certain you agree. It seems like the bosses are the problem here and I’m not sure why you’re getting mad at other workers protesting.
an injury to one is an injury to all. you should have been paid more, as should these workers.
The difference is that doctors make bank eventually, whereas most academics never do. Even in STEM, professors make far less than doctors, and we work for years as postdocs first. It doesn’t make sense for us to go into the same level of debt long term (and I hope someone capable of making life or death decisions can understand this context rather than oversimplifying… your argument really concerns me). Forget liberal arts for a second, do you want the quality of physicists and chemists to go down in the US? These are the same jobs people like Einstein, Heisenberg, and… Read more »
… and one knows the pay scale going in.. …one can drive an hour from Santa Maria or half hour from Ventura if they want affordable rent. What, the bicycle or “Junk” Bike can’t get them around on the freeway. People have commuted for generations to work.
why doesn’t the university just move itself to one of the cheaper neighborhoods? problem solved
LMAO
It is a job and you all deserve to be treated with respect. But this is a job you are paid for no? I’m sure the university doesn’t pay fairly, but neither do most business on the planet. At the end of the day you need to remember that public colleges are still a business whether you like that or not. With that being said $1807 is higher than what most college students make on a monthly basis to cover their living costs AND luxuries, so are you really making so little every month that you need that on top… Read more »
You are actually got a point there, but this isn’t about how much they are paid. It’s the state-wide problem as well. $1807 might be higher than most college students make but for students at Santa Cruz or Santa Barbara, it’s not enough to afford rent and food. Again, this is a local problem and I don’t think we can judge these students as outsiders.
Ok boomer. I mean, we have jobs, obviously. If we didn’t how could we strike? And as far as getting PAID to receive a graduate education… I’m ABD. I haven’t taken a class at UC since 2016, but I’ve been charged full tuition each quarter since passing my QEs regardless. The only way to avoid paying ~$19,000 a year for classes I’m NOT taking and instruction I’m not receiving, is through the tuition waivers that come with a TA appointment. BTW, during the years that I spent abroad doing fieldwork for my dissertation I was still required to pay tuition,… Read more »
LOL @ “said it before and gonna keep saying it”. Gonna file that under: “things they used to say”
This is insanely stupid. The Union’s contract with the UC system runs until 2022 (I think). So, one of three things will happen: the grad students will come to their senses and go back to work, they get fired for violating the contract, or UC caves and and student tuition goes through the roof. Grab your popcorn.
Part of the demands are that tuition not be raised- graduate or undergraduate.
I hear a lot of people criticizing these students but not a single one of you offering your own solution for how to solve the issue of exploitation of labor in higher ed.
Yeah, I read that. Of course it isn’t possible unless they cut other programs. So, what do you think the outcome is going to be? Here’s my offered solution: Transfer out and go to a school where housing isn’t so expensive. This is the Central Coast, housing is expensive because living in this part of the country is in high demand. If you don’t want to suck up the high living costs, there’s plenty of other cheaper schools. Or continue to whine and get fired. OR…you can hope you get your little “demands” and let other students suffer with higher… Read more »
…like funding illegal immigrants….
If people truly don’t believe that any of this matters, then why are you worried? Why are you commenting here? The fact that you’re here expression your concern about how this could impact you as an undergrad is an acknowledgement that the labor your TAs provide is valid and necessary. If it wasn’t, things would be business as usual. Look- I don’t want to gloss over your concerns. Your TAs want to work. They enjoy their jobs and want to be able to do them well, because they care about what happens to their students. It is difficult to do… Read more »
If I guess correctly Seth is a grad student ;)
Nope. I’m an undergrad.
No where in this discussion is the fact that the grad students made a choice and like petulant child they want to keep everything they were promised and just demand more and more. It is not like the system changed after you got into your program you knew what it was going into it.
Upper class undergrads could TA lower div courses. They couldn’t be less knowledgeable than most of my TAs were. Way cheaper too.
Wildcat strikes are garbage unethical methods of dealing with labor issues. You agreed to the deal keep all the benefits and then demand more.
Ah, yes! The solution is definitely to hire even cheaper labor! An awful lot of people seem to be comfortable with unethical, exploitative systems!!!!
I am more comfortable with people working for an agreed upon wage than I am for one group to make a bad faith agreement, lie and try to force work to meet their demands while holding undergrad grades hostage and hurting undergrads.
Nowhere in this discussion is the fact that the administration made a choice like petulant children to keep benefitting from all the labor from grad students and keep getting to pay them lower and lower wages (corrected for cost of living). It’s not like they didn’t know going in that inflation and housing costs were rising and could easily have planned, budgeted, and built housing to keep up with that issue and maintain a high quality of life for their grad students and be able to recruit talent. Upper division undergrads can do much of the work these admin people… Read more »
seth and carole should get together
I KNOW RIGHT! THEY WERE BORN TO BE TOGETHER!
If all the graduate students transferred out of UCSB, the university would collapse and your degree you are expecting in the Spring will be worthless because the reputation of the school will fall apart. Is that really what you want?
Think of all the money that would be available if the UC system and California weren’t financially supporting illegal immigrants? I belonged to CTA for 20 years and even during the recession when we were furloughed we didn’t strike. Grow up or face the consequences.
You are so dumb its unreal. Imagine being this much of a whiny loser.
Carole is correct and you are the whiny loser.
While I don’t like the grow up portion of the comment, the issue here is very true. The support for DACA and/or illegal students takes away from support for Grad and other students. Don’t turn this into a “your racist” flame war, it is simple truth. Another item is the millions spent on various student affairs groups who do not further the mission of research and teaching. While they have important roles like Financial Aide and other functional departments, there are groups around being inclusive and diversity where other campuses have Vice Chancellors at 300k per year. Is diversity important?… Read more »
it’s “you’re” racist, not “your racist”. like this: you’re racist
Illegal immigrants are not a race… Correcting grammar mistakes to avoid addressing the issue being discussed just shows you know you’re wrong.
your mindset is all wrong: the way to get a bigger slice is to grow the pie; not to take someone else’s slice. there’s plenty to go around
Because money grows on trees and there is unlimited resources for everyone
The only way to “grow the pie” would be magic donations or increasing tuition. If you genuinely cared about grad students, you’d support getting rid of those who are using a disproportionate amount of resources (like illegals that receive tremendous extra financial support to attend here)
!? If you genuinely cared about graduate students, you would also care about undocumented ones
I’m more talking undergrads… you know, the ones who pay tuition to go here unless they’re receiving financial aid…
Growing the pie is wonderful, but who provides for the increased ingredients? There is only so much money in budgets and California is already a very high tax burden state with high income earners leaving in record numbers. Who do we take more money from to give to this need (and all the others by the way)? Tax payers? Other students? Less admin? Wealth distribution being changed by government initiatives often have negative externalities.
You’re making some good points, but it’s mixed in with a lot of nonsense. Diversity initiatives are important, but admin waste probably makes these programs far more expensive than they should be. International students are a huge contribution to the university, and the percentage of students on DACA or who are otherwise undocumented is very small and it’s hard to argue they are inherently less valuable than a documented student (especially considering the international nature of academia, especially at the grad student level). Agreed these admin paychecks are out of control. If you think these things will magically be fixed… Read more »
Admin waste a real killer. I have a project where I was forced to take a year to renegotiate a large deal. After the year, we paid half a million dollars more for less service. The first deal was a done deal, but to make folks of a certain pay level feel ‘good’ about the process we were forced to pay more. I sat in a meeting where these people were patting themselves on the back for what they had done. Wasting half a million dollars in one deal to make a good “process story.” After 20 years of this,… Read more »
Yeah universities tend to be less into the whole ethno-nationalism thing and thrive on there being different kinds of people. Even scum like you. and THAT’S where the real waste is. To think of all the resources this country has probably put into you and here you are, the very fruit of all those other people’s work to nurture you, here spreading filth and xenophobia on the internet about an issue that doesn’t even concern you you sad stupid fuck.
Hmm maybe I should go back for my grad degree if this goes through 🤔. I’m going to have to agree with the older folks in the comments; this IS the definition of entitlement. $1800/mth + Tuition Reimbursement + $ Paid Salary?!! I graduated in 2019 and had to work 65hrs/week to make ends meet in an accounting role. Now working in a coveted finance role and I’m making ~2k post tax… Don’t blame the university and take it out on the undergrad students. The university is already trying to raise funding to build more housing options. It’s supply and… Read more »
an injury to one is an injury to all. you should have been better compensated then and now, as should these workers.
Im not sure how it’s entitled to ask for enough money to afford rent and adequate food
These are things that everyone wants and needs for themselves
If you lived humbly you could 100% afford money and food. You can live in university subsidized housing. You can cook at home. You can spend your money frugally and get by just fine.
The only grad students I know who are struggling are the ones living alone in giant studio apartments, having brunch at Caje every morning, and act like they’re too good to get a working-class job on top of TA’ing. No shit you’re gonna have trouble affording rent and “adequate” food.
The COLA is only $5.54M!
Graduate students in the humanities and arts only make $1,807.51 per year when they graduate.
I’m a disabled veteran and get $400 a month less than that. GTFO here with that crap.
an injury to one is an injury to all. you should have be better compensated, as should these workers.
You deserve more than that too.
$1800 a month on top of salary? And don’t a lot of grad students live in subsidized grad student housing? Yikes. If they get that they’ll be better off than a lot of the professional staff who have to commute or pay normal SB rents. Where is this money supposed to come from? I’m guessing clerical workers’ and janitors’ salaries.
Some do- but not the majority. There is actually very little subsidized housing for grads here, and the university keeps reducing the amount of time they can stay in it.
…yet UCSC managed to find 3+million $ to pay for pigs to brutalize the striking students. It’s enough to have paid for 12% of the COLAs demanded at UCSC. Thinking back on interactions with pigs over the past several years at UCs, maybe they could stop paying for pigs. That wouldn’t pay for everything but it would literally save millions. So there’s part of the problem solved right there.
Funding for this will only come from two places – the taxpayers or student tuition/fees. No one in Sacramento will support going to the taxpayers for more money so it’ll be from increased tuition and fees.
$2400+/year per student attending. To support grad students who made the mistake of going to school in a zip code this expensive.
So if you’re an undergrad feel free to march in solidarity…but if they win you’re going to owe $2400 or more extra to BARC. There’s no way around that math.
Please correct me if I am wrong? Are the grad students not free to seek work in the private sector? I obtained my graduate degree at night (took 7 years btw. Haha). I worked full time during the day at a private company (oh the horror) because I didn’t have the money from the school or parents. I also went to a local state university (read cheaper) because I was footing the bill. What am I missing here? I don’t think it’s slavery here?
You are missing that they really want the money and really don’t want to do anything more for it
MONEY FOR NOTHING.
Not a lot of successful grad students here are striking. You know those you get out in 4 or 5 years and have fellowships and do meaningful research. The person working on their 8th year while teaching doing something like Education or History is sad. There should be a point where you either get your PhD or you are asked to leave. The university continuing to accept payment from students who are obviously not up to the task is pretty petty.
Just revoke the leader student Visa, duh
Hell of a lot of people here all pissy about grad students wanting to earn enough to pay rent, talking about “where’s the money going to come from” and “wow, how entitled to ask for a cost of living allowance” and NOBODY pointing out that Napolitano and all of the UC chancellors live rent free in multi-million dollar mansions while making half million a year salary.
Now that is a really stupid argument. We clearly are credentialing students well beyond their intellectual and scholarly capabilities.