Graduate students, undergraduates and faculty gathered on Thursday in front of Storke Tower for the first day of UCSB 4 COLA’s strike for a cost-of-living adjustment, a monthly stipend to alleviate housing costs. UCSC graduate students are currently in their third week of striking for COLA, meaning that they have stopped all grading and teaching.
"+"
“dusty rusty crusty musty ass california hills”
“frowning in plaid (haunted radios, bird bones + anthropomorphized wind)”
“warming my hands on bridges i’ve burnt”
“songs that make me see god”
“My Playlist #236”
“classy wine moment and intellectual conversation”
“90s heroin chic model off duty”
“tweet tweet bird emoji map emoji”
“not my circus, not my monkeys”
“a grave is probably cheaper than an apartment”
“ATE THESE BITCHES LEFT NO CRUMBS / DID IT IN DESIGNER PUMPS”
As a former UCSB grad student, I want to give the current grad students some hints on how I did it. I never had the newest phone or laptop. I never went on Spring break. I spent 0 dollars on alcohol or drugs. I never owned designer anything. I very rarely ate out. I did take some student loans, but after graduation, for 3 years I continued to live in cheap apartments so that I could pay off my loans. After graduation, I did need a car to get to work. I bought a used 7 year old car.
It’s so condescending that you seem to think that grad students at large aren’t already doing these things. Do you really thing a TA who is resorting to sleeping in their office/car is also buying the newest iphone and designer clothing?
When you know you can’t afford something and you do it anyways, that is a personal choice. I don’t disagree that TAs should be paid more. Most everyone should be paid more and have benefits and more time off. BUT if you agree to something you cannot afford, you have made a choice. Same applies to student loans. I looked at student loans years ago and said, wow that would be a small mortgage. I cannot afford that. So I worked full time through college and kept my loans to nearly nothing/almost nothing. People want to have a certain life… Read more »
Your comment is naive, flippant, and out of touch. I suppose my trying to make a life for myself is a personal choice. I am a proud and grateful PhD student at UCSB. Leave for a cheaper place? Do you have any idea what some of us had to do to get here? It took me 7 years of university education (GPA 3.8+) and three degrees just to land a PhD placement in a program from which I might have a fighting chance on the job market after graduation. I was paid 11k to teach 6 classes per year while… Read more »
You made a choice to go here knowing the reality and don’t like it. But no where in your rant does it address personal agency and the fact that you chose this opposed to many many other life paths
It sounds like you made poor life decisions. You weren’t the top of your class but still really worked hard and made it here and no you realize you aren’t going to make it in the top tier(a professorship at a good research school). So along with the realization you will not achieve your dream you now resent your own situation (one that you put yourself into through many decisions). Instead of seeing your position as a series of decisions that you made you see your self as a victim to an oppressive system the you had no part in.… Read more »
I agree with you!
Yeah holding up a sign that says “fuck you” is supposed to convince me to listen to you…lol.
Pretty much. “Fuck you I want what I want.” I even want to listen to their point but with many people holding these signs, fuck you I don’t want to listen.
Pretty much. I’m just saying what would convince me and I’m not sure how others feel. I was taught to be nice to get what you want but I learned how cold the world really is.
Yeah, because major social movements have succeeded because they “asked politely.” Look up “respectability politics.”
Worked for MLK.
The TA’s at UCSC we’re fired today lol should’ve been done a long time ago!! If other UC TA’s pull the same bs I hope they’re all fired ASAP.
The joke is on you haters because we are going to win a COLA. Easy…
Ooooh, too bad. Strikers fired from UC Santa Cruz. Welcome to the real work, snowflake.
Thanks for that burst of energy. Gonna crush economic injustice with every spare moment and breathe of energy I have. Fuck you.
You sound like a small child whining that life isn’t fair
Can the two of you sit down and have civil discourse. What the hell is wrong with both of you.
The fact that they were fired is a testament to how UCs cannot handle this problem. This action only fueled the already existing class struggle. Termination of employment? Good luck finding TAs next year. UCSC professors are already siding with the students. It’s only a matter of time until the whole system collapses.
The only reason why TAs get paid so shitty is there is a tidal wave of people who want to do it. Maybe if they had trouble getting some next year wages would rise.
Professors often focus more on their research than teaching, but that’s not to say that they can’t do the job without TAs. There isn’t exactly a shortage of people applying to grad schools. In fact, too many choose to invest in grad school without having a clear goal of what they will be doing with that degree and end up in insurmountable debt. Professors siding with students says nothing. It’s not as though the professors themselves are paying the students, they’ve got nothing to lose except helpful mentees who are replaced every few years anyway after they graduate.