After occupying Cheadle Hall for most of the morning, UC Santa Barbara’s COLA movement drew a crowd of close to 3,000 graduate students, faculty and undergraduates at its UC-wide work stoppage on Friday afternoon, as they marched to the entrance of campus at Henley Gate.
After the UCDP and administration spoke with protesters, saying they had to move or risk being arrested, organizers regrouped and decided to move inside. Max Abrams / Daily Nexus
A majority of the UC campuses attracted crowds of demonstrators throughout the day, both in support of a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) and in solidarity with the UC Santa Cruz graduate students who were fired for withholding Fall Quarter 2019 grades as part of their COLA strike.
After UCSC, UCSB’s COLA movement marks the second UC campus to begin a full strike; Thursday’s action marked one full week since UCSB graduate students began striking. COLA organizers across the UC system called for the one-day strike, asking professors to halt lectures, students to walk out of class and for participants to wear black, hence the name “black-out” strike.
“The motto of the UC system is “let there be light,” one speaker said at the Storke Tower noon rally. “When we wear black, it shows the UC administration that without graduate student labor, there is no light.”
The UC-wide work stoppage started early morning on Thursday; at approximately 7:30 a.m. on Thursday, protesters blocked all four entrances to Cheadle Hall — UCSB’s administrative building — and stood shoulder-to-shoulder at each entrance. At the front entrance, organizers held a sign that read, “FUCK THE UC! AND A BITCH NAMED JANET.”
Some administrators who work in Cheadle Hall argued with strikers and attempted to force their way through but were pushed back, sending administrators and staffers circling around the building in hopes of finding another way in.
“You know, you guys, I don’t fucking support you. We have to work too,” one employee said to COLA organizers.
Organizers continued to refuse to allow administrators to enter into the building, including Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Margaret Klawunn and Executive Vice Chancellor David Marshall.
After the UC Police Department and administration spoke with protesters, saying they had to move or risk being arrested, organizers regrouped and decided to move inside instead, occupying every floor of the building and chanting, “Don’t cross the picket, don’t be a scab,” to employees as they entered.
One undergraduate advisor left his office to explain to strikers that “the students that we see are just as stressed as you are.” After organizers began arguing and chanting — drowning out the advisor — Ry Brennan, one of COLA’s de-escalators, came to help defuse the situation.
Brennan and the advisor reached a compromise, in which strikers would be alerted to stay quiet should any undergraduates come into the building.
After occupying Cheadle Hall for most of the morning, organizers started to gear up for the noon rally. At approximately 11:30 a.m., students and faculty holding “Faculty for COLA” and “You’re gonna have to fire us too, Janet,” banners marched from Cheadle Hall to Storke Tower and met with demonstrators who had been there since 8 a.m. as part of their regularly scheduled strike.
At Storke Tower, UC worker unions and academic associations expressed their solidarity with and support of UCSB’s COLA movement to an animated crowd.
Speakers representing different unions emphasized a message of solidarity between various unions, all fighting for better treatment from the UC.
Jarrod Colvin, a UCSB groundskeeper and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3299 member, noted the similarities between the COLA movement and the labor strikes throughout the country, including AFSCME 3299’s labor fight over the past few years.
“Every person in this country deserves that security, and that’s why we won’t stop fighting until we have a job that’s worth having and a way to pay rent. You have our support as workers, and I know not a lot of people [from AFSCME] made it out here today because they’re very busy, but I’ve been talking to them at work and you absolutely have our support,” Colvin said.
Following Colvin, Christopher John Newfield, a professor of literature and American studies at UCSB and second vice president of the executive council of the Modern Language Association (MLA) of America, emphasized the MLA’s “unanimous and quite enthusiastic” commitment to support the UC-wide strikers and condemned the termination of UCSC graduate students.
At 1 p.m., the procession of approximately 3,000 marched to Henley Gate, garnering the attention of those on campus as they passed through the Arbor and University Library. Those in “precarious situations,” such as undocumented or international students, were encouraged to walk by organizers wearing red armbands and caution tape, who were designated de-escalators.
At Henley Gate, the crowd chanted, “Cops off campus, COLA in our bank accounts,” at cars driving by and police officers monitoring the event. Protesters stayed at the gate for nearly 30 minutes before walking back to Storke, where some remained to complete the daily 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. strike.
New York University sociology professor Andrew Ross visited Santa Barbara to take part in the strike, praising attendees as a catalyst for social change.
“Graduate student employees are the true conscience of the academic profession, and COLA strikers are the true conscience of the UAW,” Ross said.
“No one deserves to be paid a poverty wage because they love teaching or because they’re training for a job in an academic profession,” he said. “That is not a principle of fair labor, that is a recipe for exploitation.”
Sanya Kamidi and Evelyn Spence contributed reporting.
So UCSB grads think they’re entitled to make more money working 50% time than most staff who 100% time? Staff have NEVER received COLA adjustments, don’t receive child care reimbursements (at $1,100 each qtr), aren’t offered subsidized housing anywhere near the extent that grads receive, some don’t have union representation (e.g. no yearly guarantee of a raise), etc. Have grads bothered to do the math: $21,911.50 (salary for three 50% TAships) + $16,368 (fee remission benefits) + $21,690.12 (COLA stipend of $1,807.51 for 12 months) = $59,969.62 per grad student! Talk about ENTITLEMENT!!!! Take some accountability, you willingly CHOSE to… Read more »
B-b-but solidarity… por la causa… muh living wage…
I’m counting the days until they get fired like those at UCSC.
I really look forward to the day they fired them, it’s going to be the end of the UC system. #COLA4ALL
They already got fired. And the UC system is still here. Crazy…
I really look forward to the day they get fired too! They seem to think the UC will fail without them. NOT!!! #GETAJOB
The global economy will likely go into recession if the coronavirus continues. Firing these grad students and cutting their classes may end up saving some money in the end.
You are using the information released by the University and it is inaccurate. Don’t believe me? Go to UCSB’s own cost of attendance calculator. You’ll see the fine print says “Keep in mind local averages are not used in determining the cost of attendance.” Why don’t they use local averages? So that people like me (i.e. rednecks who worked full-time through undergrad and after to get a degree in CA from a rural rust belt town) don’t realize that they don’t pay us enough to live here. Looking at my taxes now, salary I took home 2018 was 19k. The… Read more »
42K to live here. And you claim to be a graduate student. You knew the numbers (one assumes) prior to enrolling. How did you therefore decide to accept the deal offered? Are you insane? Feeble minded (forget that one — the answer likely wi be self-refuting if its reality is “yes”). Were you forced to come here? We have far too many graduate students. An advanced degree needs to be reserved for people with advanced cognitive capabilities. You have just offered a furious disply of why that is not happening on a regular basis. BTW: Faculty are only salaried 9… Read more »
And you are using information provided by the union which is also inaccurate.
I belong to a union and I’m pretty certain they lie and omit the truth to me more than the UC does. Whenever I deal with them, I get this sleazy, “used-car salesman” vibe from them.
Exactly, and they keep visiting me at work and being pushy and invite me to free lunch which ends up being an hour lecture on why everyone should be FORCED to pay union dues. I have so many better ways to spend my lunch hour…
Being nice to them is overrated. They’re already taking your money, so you should just tell them to shove it.
…I’m not the original poster, but… 1. This is not information “released by the University”. I process TA appointments. I know exactly what tuition is, what you make, and what your benefits are. 2. If you’re working more than 50%, take it up with YOUR UNION because it’s a violation of your CONTRACT. 3. UC is not responsible for Visa regulations. International students are, however, responsible for understanding them and for determining whether they would impact their ability to live. 4. TA’s ARE paid a “living wage”. $30/hr plus health insurance and child care benefits is quite livable. The trouble… Read more »
$60K per year at 20 hours per week employment not counting health and ancillary benefits. Hard argument to make vs staff on campuses making a fraction as much while working full time and in some cases supporting families. In the long run this is going to push UC campuses that have resisted hiring permanent lecturers (compared to most US universities) to shift teaching labor there. It’s cheaper to hire a permanent lecturer at 100% than two TAs at 50%. The current situation also causes grad student degree completion times to get ever longer. 100% solidarity with solving the big issues… Read more »
100% agreed! TA’s currently make the equivalent of close to $30/hr ($2,434/month for 80 hrs of work per month) not including their paid tuition, child care and parenting leave benefits, and guaranteed annual cost of living increase — all things NOT afforded to staff — for what amounts to a paid internship — they’re learning how to teach and most have zero experience in the field. They take home approx. $20k/year because they work 50% time for 9 months (no, you don’t get paid during the summer, because you don’t WORK during the summer, and you don’t get paid for… Read more »
Grad students really have it way better than the rest of the community. You’d think they’d be grateful for being able to get everything subsidized; I’m pretty certain there are a lot of people in SB that would switch places with them in a heartbeat.
Studying at the PhD level is labor, not a privilege anymore. It’s different from taking classes in undergraduate where you worked toward your degree. At the graduate level, it’s about doing research, getting exposed to different areas and producing scholarly papers (which in the end helped the school tremendously). Working on a PhD degree is very different from working on a JD or MD, because PhDs are virtually recruited by other schools, while JDs and MDs often get jobs outside of the academia where their salaries are way bigger. So, if you think these students are really entitled, it’s time… Read more »
Thanks for clearing things up. I imagined the issues were reasonably complex. But you have resolved my misconception. Clearly there is one side and one issue (never mind the UC business [not education] model, faculty not pulling their teaching weight, inequities in TA workload across programs, etc., etc.).
Simple solutions to complex problems best fit simple minds.
Of course the issues are complex. You keep coming into these threads snidely declaring your intellectual superiority because apparently you, and only you, see the “complexity” of the issues at play. Everyone knows that there are complex issues at play here. Nobody thinks that a COLA for grad students will single-handedly solve the housing crisis, or the larger crisis in higher ed. It will, however, help a population of workers within the system to get out of food/housing insecurity. It will make those who are studying and working here able to actually afford to live here as well. Grad student… Read more »
Moron. Addressing the actual is a way to tackle them. If 42K (see earlier claim) is a minimum requirement for living in SB (was this unrehearsed prior to your acceptance of your graduate admission offer?)how is a COLA of 1-2K allowing resolution of the stated problem? (Do not answer, it is rhetorical). As for your homeless “argument” — I neither implied do nothing or everything nor allowed such inference (from a rational mind). But thanks for the self-generated logical oxymoron. I do not “declare” my intellectual superiority (find ONE instance)– but that is a rational inference based on the caliber… Read more »
I’m embarrassed
I heard the protestors harassed some staff horribly. There’s no sense of decency among them.
They did harass staff! People who have nothing to do with their BS! And were shouting curse words to staff and the police who tried to help staff get into the building to work. Such a lack of respect from these entitled jerks. They should be let go ASAP!
By choosing not to negotiate and end the strike as Admin could have from the beginning, by my vulgar calculation, there’ll be something in the area of 4,020 fewer seats in classes in the spring since UCSC admin fires the strikers. if even 5% of those are needed for spring graduation, then UCSC admin is risking around 200 undergrads not graduating. Grads got grades submitted and distributed to undergrads who needed them and the same will happen at UCSB. This is because COLA is about improving the quality of higher education for students at the UC since grads would have… Read more »
“Every argument about the harm the strike does to undergrads is an argument for how crucial grad labor is to the functioning of this University.” Apparently rational abilities are not a criterion for admission to UC graduate work. The damage you note is an argument for many things — including the inadequate requirements placed on faculty when it comes to teaching, the business model that rewards research and largely ignores pedagogic excellence, etc. It does not point unequivocally to the crucial nature of graduate student teaching. One can just a reasonably argue that it shows that the TA “patch” is… Read more »
Grad labor is actually non-essential. If push comes to shove, faculty and lecturers could easily take up the extra work. Sections, which TAs teach, are a waste of time for undergrads. The only reason grad labor exists is because universities and departments are trying to do grad students a favor and offer them in-class training for their future academic careers. To argue that grad labor is essential to the functioning of a university is a gross and puerile misjudgment of the grad student’s place in the universe. They’re parasitic at best (since they also don’t pay for tuition!)
No. COLA harms undergrads when it shuts down the university for the equivalent of a week’s worth of classes, forcing professors to cancel undergraduate classes in which grad students have absolutely no role. Some of these forced cancellations fall precisely at the time of the quarter when undergraduates get to present their own research. This steps on some of the most important learning experiences undergraduates have in their entire college career. The harm of a withheld grade is in some instances reversible. The harm in missed learning opportunities and personal development opportunities in which grad students have no role is… Read more »
Correction: a COLA is essential. Nobody wants grad students, undergrads, and staff to suffer from housing insecurity and food insecurity. The UC needs to rethink how it allocates money. Universities and cities need to create more affordable housing. But wholesale university shutdowns do cause harm to undergrads, as mentioned above. All strikes cause harm to someone; that is their intention and their power. I hope the strike turns out to be worth it.
This is not a strike because the TAs are still getting paid for their duties while they strike….lol…The sense of entitlement is dumbfounding. And professors who cancel undergrad classes with no TAs are doing so by choice, they’re not being forced. Their pay should be docked accordingly.
Agreed. And if the faculty are so supportive, they should open their wallets and pay for some of these grad students. Instead, they’re encouraging the protestors to prevent staff from working when the staff need the paycheck as well.
“By choosing not to negotiate and end the strike as Admin could have from the beginning,”- My understanding is that those behind COLA are not open to negotiations. It’s what they demand or nothing. Please someone correct me if I’m wrong.
Additionally, this is a group of students represented by a union which does not support the strike. Kinda difficult to negotiate in this scenario.
According to the UCSB salary pay scale, teaching assistants (with a BA) are paid an average of $16/hr. I am career staff and that’s the same range that I am paid where I am bound to my post from 8am to 5pm. The TA’s I often serve have much more autonomy and freedom in their duties, are not strictly supervised, have more flexible work hours, and work with the promise of moving up once they achieve their degree. Their tuition is not “waived” as is so often thought, but simply paid by some other entity, person, tax-payer, etc. Undergrads and… Read more »
I was born and raised in SB and I can’t even afford housing without having to live with others. I’m not sure what all of these outsiders are complaining about.
TAs make much more than $16/hr. They make $2434/month for three months for each quarter they TA. That’s $7304 for 11 weeks of work during which they’re contractually obligated to work no more than 220 hours total. That’s more than $30/hr. PLUS health insurance, child care, parenting leave, and tuition. I have no sympathy.
Agreed. Let’s see if they can find anywhere once they graduate that will pay them like this and tolerate any amount of whining about it. Just fire them all already, the menaces.
There is a contract that is being broken by these strikers. The contract includes having to get state government involved to help settle disputes that arise because everyone knows many people today lack the character to honor contracts. There is no doubt cost of living in SB and SC is extraordinary but the time to hold out is during contract negotiations; not when innocent PAYING students are being punished by irresponsible strikers. There is also no doubt UC leadership (Janet) is equally irresponsible if not also corrupt. But again, innocent students are caught in the crossfire while missing classes, not… Read more »
Right??? I’m in a union and they negotiated a contract with the UC two years ago, and we all have to abide by it! If the strikers can violate their union contract with no reprisals, why am I still paying $60/month when I can use that for my own cost of living?