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Education United States

University of California Students Strike To Protest Graduate Student Pay (latimes.com) 83

Posted by EditorDavid from the grading-inflation dept.
There's more than 280,000 students in the prestigious University of California system, spread throughout 10 campuses across the state. But now "a growing number" of students and faculty members are walking out of classes and holding rallies, reports the Los Angeles Times, "as a systemwide movement takes hold in support of graduate students demanding cost-of-living adjustments [COLA] to their salaries." During widespread U.C. campus demonstrations, students filled the Janss Steps at UCLA, Sproul Plaza at U.C. Berkeley and Cheadle Hall at U.C. Santa Barbara on Thursday and other pickets unfolded on Friday. At Santa Cruz -- where the protests began three months ago with a wildcat grading strike that ended in the dismissal of some student workers -- students blocked entrances to campus. At U.C. Riverside and U.C. Irvine crowds marched. "Out of the labs, into the streets!" they chanted, and "Give us COLA, we demand it!"

"It seems to be growing like crazy within the U.C.," said Sherry Ortner, professor of anthropology at UCLA. "I think this could really become a national issue."

Students at U.C. San Diego voted to begin a grading strike next Monday. Those gathered at UCLA voted to go on a full teaching strike as early as next week if graduate students in at least 10 departments vote in favor... At U.C. Davis and U.C. Santa Barbara, some graduate students are on strike as well, although the number is unclear. At San Diego they will begin a grading strike Monday, and at Berkeley the graduate students in five departments have declared themselves "strike ready."
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University of California Students Strike To Protest Graduate Student Pay More

University of California Students Strike To Protest Graduate Student Pay

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  • Could become a national issue? I doubt it. Most places actually have sane costs of living, so adjustments to deal with high costs aren't (nearly as) necessary. Sadly for these Californians living in their little bubble of reality, most of those places are outside of California. At most, this is a statewide issue, if even.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Depends on the costs unique to the expected CA lifestyle. Once people paying for projects and science notice, they can take their work to better states.
      Where staff are at work and ready to work.
      The more demonstrations, the more any open and ready for work lab outside CA looks better long term.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hey! ( 33014 )

      I've always like UC Davis. It's a reasonable drive to San Francisco or Sacramento, but rents aren't insane and there's graduate student housing.

      Unfortunately none of my kids were interested in biology, which is the main reason to go there.

    • Re:Could become a national issue? (Score:5, Funny)

      by stephanruby ( 542433 ) on Monday March 09, 2020 @01:33AM (#59809946)

      Please note they don't even tell you which five departments are striking. In my day, it was usually the liberal arts departments, English, art, education, women's studies, ethnic studies, etc, plus maybe 'environmental science and policy management'

      Everybody else, plus most of the STEM subjects like math, engineering, computer science, physics, astronomy, chemistry, biology (MCB), etc. and even business administration and economics would always cross the picket lines (and try to avoid Sather gate especially). Now don't get me wrong, many of the science students were usually overjoyed that their English classes were canceled, but that just meant they could focus the remaining of their time on their core curriculum.

    • This is a University-only issue. The problem these students have is that they're all part of a union which has agreed on their wages with the University and the students. They are just unhappy about their collective bargaining agreement which is ironic given these students' political ideology. If they didn't unionize, they could've negotiated wages on what they were worth.

      • They are indeed exercising their collective bargaining power at this time, however. Had they not had collective bargaining available to them then there would be absolutely zero negotiation. They were happy with their bargain when they originally made it - they're just re-negotiating.

  • Most state colleges actually educate (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    This is because they have less money and need to focus on practical skills. California, however.....

    Take a look at the classes at https://www.registrar.ucla.edu... [ucla.edu] .

    M167. Worker Center Movement: Next Wave Organizing for Justice for Immigrant Workers
    CM113B. Legislative Theater for Race and Gender Justice
    M182B. Culture, Gender, and Human Development Ethnography

    The African-American studies department get

  • not a working system (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Goldsmith ( 561202 ) on Monday March 09, 2020 @01:23AM (#59809936)

    The University of California is the largest government run university system in the USA. The salaries for teaching assistants are set by the appropriate government committees. In return for low salaries, the junior researchers and teachers hope to attain some piece of paper that may or may not net them a better job. However, when you're an employer, even if you're a school, the labor laws don't let you pay employees with "prestige" or "experience."

    There are tremendously good things being done at UC campuses, and there are a lot of really great people in administration and management there. However the government here has taken average people for granted for a long time, and really screwed things up. Graduate assistants and researchers, for example, are treated individually as if they're exempt employees (unpaid overtime, teaching, managing technicians, etc.) while as a group they're treated as hourly employees.

    That's really what this is about. In California, minimum salary as of 2020 for anyone reasonably doing the work graduate assistants do is the minimum for any exempt employee (~$54k in California). Part of the government simply doesn't want to pay that, and so they don't. It's worth remembering that the government is not immune to the kinds of abuses people complain about in private industry.

    • > However, when you're an employer, even if you're a school, the labor laws don't let you pay employees with "prestige" or "experience."

      If I may say, nonsense. Those are the basis of unpaid internships in many fields and the basis of very low pay jobs in many fields, such as any television or movie role, and high prestige roles without outrageous work expectations like legal clerk or White House intern. While it may not be legal to make salaries _zero_ for employees, many such roles pay very poorly and

      • and if they are they are supposed to be paid, and are interns in name only. Yes, the hyper competitive job market means that these sorts of basic labor laws aren't being enforced, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by crgrace ( 220738 )

        Name two: I'm afraid I'm very disappointed with the work candidates I've met from UC schools, especially the UCLA candidates I met last year. They were so deeply invested in their "growth as a person" that they had no time or resources left for their professional growth.

        1. RISC-V
        2. CRISPR

        • 1) RISC was finally developed, based on earlier work, at Stanford and UC Berkeley, not UCLA, in roughly 1980.
          2) CRISPR was invented in 1987. in Osake, the Netherlands, and Spain.

          It's been a at least at least a generation since that work only a fraction of which occurred at UC Berkeley. Can you suggest anything more recent or published within the career of any staff at a University of California professor?

  • Give us COLA or... (Score:3, Funny)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Monday March 09, 2020 @02:04AM (#59809986)

    "Give us COLA, we demand it!"

    Given that you are gathering in large groups in California, would you settle for some COVID instead?

  • Darn! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by cygnusvis ( 6168614 ) on Monday March 09, 2020 @02:14AM (#59809998)
    The 100k of tuition plus living expenses plus money and small amount for entertainment and food is just not enough!

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by sjames ( 1099 )

      Keep in mind, the tuition isn't real money the school is paying the grad students. I can sell you a bulk pack of chewing gum for $15 and say "WOW, this is a $50 dollar value!", but the fact is I bought it online for $9.95.

      • It's real money when the non-teaching grad students have to write their own checks to pay for it, isn't it?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by eepok ( 545733 )

        It's not real money paid to graduate students only because it bypasses them and then directly pays for the many support services and facilities throughout the campus. It's actually more efficient that the grad students don't handle the funds. Kinda like taxes being taken out of your paycheck.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by rea1l1 ( 903073 )

      No California resident is paying 100k of tuition for two years. Wealthy foreigners might be paying that and are essentially funding the financial aid for local students. Impoverished Californians (families that make less than ~50k) pay nothing and often are provided additional funding to attend these universities.

  • How? (Score:2)

    by dohzer ( 867770 )

    But how can Universities afford to pay them properly? It's not like they're capitalistic, money-hungry businesses or anything.

    • I wonder how it works when college will become "Free". I could see price controls going into effect on schools, which would also cap pay to employees.
  • To determine who gets salary increases. Obviously we can't afford to give them out across the board. I'm thinking a dodgeball tournament would be most equitable but if anyone has a better suggestion, do chime in.

  • ... to be a student striker?

    The whole point of striking is to without labour and inconvenience someone else and cost them money. The only people inconvenienced by a student strike are the students themselves who've paid for lectures they're not going to. The college/uni doesn't care, they've already got the money. The lecturers don't care, they'll still get paid but get the day off too!

    I mean seriously, how can people supposedly smart enough to do a degree be so unutterably thick?

    • For universities, like most companies, it is about the numbers. Yeah, they have the money now, but that is only part of it. If this turned into something that impacted enrollment or worse degree completion / dropout numbers, then it might matter. Because those numbers are what really hurts the universities.

      You hear that kids? If you really want to stick it to your schools drop out now! That is how you will show them! Dropouts for COLA!

    • Re:How chronically dumb do you have to be... (Score:5, Informative)

      by KramberryKoncerto ( 2552046 ) on Monday March 09, 2020 @06:36AM (#59810320)

      Graduate students, particularly PhDs (the ones that get paid), are labor. They're the fuel of research institutions like UC, in scientific disciplines at least. Now go educate yourself.

      • Graduate student does not mean someone with a PhD. Although I suppose a PhD could be pursuing another degree... but I doubt the >280,000 people referenced in TFA fall into this situation.

        A graduate student is someone who is pursuing a graduate degree. For example, someone enrolled in a Master's Program or, yes, a Doctorate Program.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Viol8 ( 599362 )

        And just how many of them are graduates? And as for them being the main labour , oh please. What do you think paid lab assistents and researchers are for?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by CQDX ( 2720013 )

        It's not labor. It's more appropriate to think of it as paid training or an internship. You work in a lab being mentored by your prof., post-docs, and senior grad students. You get a stipend to pay basic housing and food and tiny bit for entertainment. As pay back you get your name on important journal articles that (hopefully) will lead to a good career in academia or industry.

        For some you'll have to TA many semesters but that is benefit to you as it forces you understand your field in a much broader s

        • Only in university and hollywood one can employ talented individuals for 4-6 years of near minimim wage and call it a prolonged internship. Most jobs, even high-paying jobs, expect you know little about actual business and train you on the job, i.e. an apprenticeship.

          Work is work, and even a 5-year internship should be recognized as labor. Individually post-docs are more productive but star students are more productive than even some professors and are thus criminally underpaid. Even the median student at a

  • Maybe it is the State of CA that needs to get its shit together, not just the University system. Endless taxes -- the highest in the nation [politifact.com], in fact. Ever-increasing out-migration [ocregister.com]. An insane homelessness crisis [nbcnews.com] with no plan to fix it and no end in sight. But yeah, let's blame the colleges.

    • Re:California Cost of Living (Score:4, Interesting)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Monday March 09, 2020 @08:53AM (#59810664) Homepage Journal

      The homeless are overwhelmingly migrants from other states, ones with shitty weather and no programs which will care for them. The out-migration is due to the high cost of living and low availability of housing. The housing has been burning down. This is partly California's fault, and partly that of the federal government which is responsible for the fires in the national forests which spread to communities. There's lots of blame to go around.

      The big problem I see in education is at the executive level. Executives have their own union and are grossly overpaid. You could reduce their salaries to what teachers make and have enough left over to hire two or three more actual educators. Unions don't just screw things up at that level, though. I've personally been hired to do contract work at a community college that was something that a salaried employee should have been able to do by reading the documentation, which is how I did it. So they paid him to do nothing, and me to do his job...

    • The state must really be messed up if you need a (1400/2400 - 58%) COLA adjustment.

  • Much like the homeless crisis is partially a housing issue and partially an addiction and mental health issue, the problem at UC Santa Cruz is fairly simple. It's housing. Santa Cruz is a BEAUTIFUL place. Owning a home there is ridiculously expensive. And the campus is surrounded by nature reserves. Thus, land on which to build is hard to come by. How bad? Last year, they sent an email out to the campus employees asking them to rent rooms to students.

    Why is it so bad? Because property investors LOVE buying near major campuses! University employees and students are pretty darn responsible, so they're safe bets as renters and love to patronize local businesses. Consider the locations:

    La Jolla (San Diego) - Expensive
    Irvine - Expensive
    Westwood (Los Angeles) - Expensive
    Santa Barbara - Expensive
    Santa Cruz - Expensive
    Berkeley - Expensive
    San Francisco - Expensive
    Davis (Sacramento Area) - Expensive compared to neighbor cities.
    Riverside - Smaller campus, Lower-Income City
    Merced - Low-Income City

    Remember, the University of California didn't just drop the campuses in expensive areas. Expensive areas GREW UP AROUND the campuses. So couple that with the State pushing to constantly increase the number of undergraduates admitted and you simply run out of space. The only way for the University to contribute to a solution is to build more on-campus housing before its needed and to charge MUCH lower rent than market. Force the local landlords to match the pricing or sell their homes to the MANY willing buyers.

    So no... if you increase grad student wages, they're not going to suddenly be better off. They'll just be able to afford housing in Santa Cruz... and then the rent will go up again. And again. And again. Build the housing and put the landlords out of business.

    • > Riverside - Smaller campus, Lower-Income City

      UCR is likely to remain a cost of living bargain compared to the other UCs (apart from Merced and Davis, which are cheaper) for another 5 or 6 years at most.
      Newly-built 2BR rentals in the downtown area are creeping up on the 2500/month mark, and the medical school has begun a major expansion.

      The campus isn't that small either, at 25,000 undergrads, though as a largely commuter school with little emphasis on athletics, it has a rather busy layout that genera

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by eepok ( 545733 )

        Damn. I knew UCR was finally hitting its stride as a UC, but I didn't know rents were climbing that high. Looks like they're only a few years behind Irvine in the close-to-campus rent comparison.

  • UC's academic graduate students work part-time and typically receive total annual funding packages that average $47,000, which include $22,000 in salary (on average), and reimbursements for tuition, health insurance premiums, fellowships and scholarships, and various campus fees.

    Being a graduate student is not a career. They are being fairly compensated for their work. Tell them to get back to work or suggest they submit an application at the local fast food joint.

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