Why are academic student employees at the UCs striking?

Academic Labor in the UC

• Graduate students provide 30-40% of total academic labor
• UC estimates cost of grad education at 2.5x that of und. vs. state finances 1 / 1
• Graduate students can only work at 50%
• Typically work 30-40 hours per week
• Have undergrad student debt accrued
• There are fewer and fewer secure jobs for graduating PhDs in the hum and ss

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Why are graduate workers

striking?

• Graduate students provide 30-40% of total academic labor
• UC estimates cost of grad education at 2.5x that of und. vs. state finances 1 / 1
• Graduate students can only work at 50%
• Typically work 30-40 hours per week
• Have undergrad student debt accrued
• There are fewer and fewer secure jobs for graduating PhDs in the hum and ss

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What are graduate workers demanding?

• An increase in salaries to combat rising costs of living — over 85% of UC graduate students are rent-burdened
• A typical teaching assistant at UCSB pays 51 percent of their wages to housing costs at average rates. Many pay much more.
• There has been a dramatic rise in the cost of living across California and UC campuses. As a result, graduate students across the UC system are facing a significant and growing burden from housing costs.
• An increase in childcare reimbursements and benefits for parents
• A safe and inclusive workplace

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Does the graduate worker strike have anything to do with undergraduates?

• How many of you think the graduate student struggles have something to do with your own experiences?

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• How many of you, as undergraduates, would also consider yourself rent burdened (30% of your income goes to rent?)

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• Graduate students want a cost-of-living adjustment not just for themselves, but for ALL: undergraduates, staff, and underrepresented junior faculty.

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• Graduate students’ teaching conditions are undergraduate learning conditions! �

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Why Should Undergrads Support a Grad strike?

• Graduate students recognize that many undergraduates struggle with cost-of-living expenses as well, and your hourly pay as university employees often isn’t enough to cover them.
• The graduate employee strike is not meant to undermine this fact or draw attention away from it.
• Graduate employees encourage and offer our support to undergraduate organizing concerning the rising cost of living, tuition hikes, and the need for higher wages.
• Graduate students are bargaining for a contract because it will help to alleviate some of the financial strain that prevents us from doing our jobs to the best of our abilities. Many graduate students work multiple jobs in order to support themselves (and partners, children, parents, or other dependents).
• International students: your faculty and graduate students are working to make sure that you are not unduly affected. Any grade disruptions will not affect your credits or Visa status.

Debt and the Erosion of Public Education�

• These costs have far outstripped rises in median incomes
• The long-term negative socioeconomic impacts of educational debt on inequality are dramatic
• These negative effects disproportionately hurt black and POC graduates and their families

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• The public mission of public universities has been eroded since the 1960s as the result of an overtly ideological project to equate public education with socialism and communism
• Student debt is at record levels
• The costs of public university education has increased dramatically

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The 1960 California Master Plan for Higher Education�

• Clark Kerr, UC President 1960
• Tuition-free access to higher education in public universities
• University of California
• California State
• Community Colleges
• Guaranteed transfer from�CC to universities for�bachelor’s completion

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The 1960 California Master Plan for Higher Education�

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Ronald Reagan, Governor 1966

• Virulently opposed to Civil Rights and Anti-War Movements on US Campuses
• “Red baiting” Cold War politics of fear and division

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Platform as CA Governor (1967-75)

• Reduce taxes
• Reduce regulation
• Reduce social welfare policies
• Disinvest from public education, which he saw as a creeping form of socialism

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https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/from-master-plan-to-no-plan-the-slow-death-of-public-higher-education

Rising Costs of Education�

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Mehta and Bleemer (2019); data from:  UC Information center, UCSB planning and databook.

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State Disinvestment from the University of CA

Rising Costs of Education�

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https://www.credit.com/personal-finance/average-student-loan-debt/

Rising Costs of Education�

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https://wolfstreet.com/2019/11/08/the-state-of-the-american-debt-slaves-q3-2019-paying-the-university-corporate-financial-complex/

Rising Costs of Education�

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https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2016/03/01/why-college-is-so-expensive-and-how-to-fix-it/#181f0fcd252f

Rising Costs of Education�

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https://www.brookings.edu/research/black-white-disparity-in-student-loan-debt-more-than-triples-after-graduation/

Racial disparities in Student Loan Debt Four Years After Graduation

Rising Costs of Education�

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https://www.brookings.edu/research/black-white-disparity-in-student-loan-debt-more-than-triples-after-graduation/

Racial disparities in Student Loan Debt Four Years After Graduation

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https://patch.com/new-hampshire/nashua/how-are-you-paying-for-college-tuition

250% Increase in Public Education Costs

Rising Costs of Education�

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/01/18/student-debt-has-kept-home-ownership-out-reach-young-families-fed-reports/

Student debt has kept home ownership out of reach for 400,000 young families, Fed reports

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Rising Costs of Education�Grad school loans: a “good investment”�

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https://www.credit.com/personal-finance/average-student-loan-debt/

• In many large classes, graduate students can sometimes be undergraduates’ most direct mentors in the classroom. They do most of the grading in classes with TAs
• As undergraduates, you should have the right to decide what your tuition fees support: right now, they support administrative salaries, faculty salaries, buildings, and programs, but they barely support paying the people who teach, educate you, and assess your work.
• Undergraduate education is harmed when TAs are tired, hungry, rent-burdened, and unable to afford medical care.

So given all this, aren’t undergraduates being harmed by the strike?

• Undergraduate students are being harmed by the administration, who have effectively extended the strike by consistently refusing to negotiate in good faith with graduate students
•  If the administration were to fire TAs, it would lower the quality of undergraduate education by forcing departments to
• 1) reduce total enrollments in classes that are required for undergraduate degree completion;
• 2) hire inexperienced course assistants; or
• 3) suspend sections, preventing undergraduates from accessing the small-scale discussions that are integral to their learning.

Are undergraduates being harmed by the strike?

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• Graduate students have consciously worked to mitigate any deleterious effects of the strike on undergraduate students

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• They have committed to releasing grades to any student who requests them; holding sections and office hours on the picket line, or other alternative locations/formats; meeting with undergraduate students to answer their questions and address any concerns about the strike. �
• Graduate students have also used the strike as a teaching opportunity to talk about the history of labor movements, the university, social and economic justice, active citizenship, and civic participation. 

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• The strike is a learning opportunity! Learning happens in lots of places outside the classroom!

Are undergraduates being harmed by the strike?

What about staff? Aren’t they underpaid too?

• Yes, staff are underpaid, and it is shameful.
• We should be organizing with them, too!
• We live in a society that pits us all against one another.
• Denying graduate students a cost of living adjustment/housing stipend/etc. will not improve the material circumstances for staff.
• But, a cost of living adjustment/housing stipend/etc. for graduate students may improve the bargaining position for staff in future negotiations. 

But where will the money come from?

• The UC’s annual budget is $46 billion
• Salary for Michael Drake, President of the UC, is $849,792
• In 2021, 1268 employees across the 10 UC campuses earned at least $500,000 in gross pay. This far exceeds other major public school systems in the US
• In 2017, a state audit found that UC president’s office paid excessive salaries to top staff and mishandled budget money
• The 2021 annual budget of UCPD was $156 million and the cost of police presence to monitor the 2020 protests cost $300,000 a day�
• The money exists! The question is where it is allocated.

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• Budgets always reflect a set of values and priorities. In the current context, it would make sense for funding to come from the UC Office of the President, as the problem is a system-wide one, involving graduate student survival across the UC system.
• The 2015-2016 “Bird’s Eye View” operating budget report shows $722 million dollars of annual income, a very small percentage of which is spent on graduate student salaries. 
• The “66 Percent Fix” is one analysis of what it would cost to address the financial challenges facing higher education in California. Just $66/year in additional taxes for the median-income family in the state would solve the financial challenges of California’s higher education system.

But where will the money come from?

UCSB Student Activism, Past and Present

• UCSB--rich, deep student, activist tradition. Examples:
• 1968 Black Student Union North Hall computer center take-over
• 1969 El Plan de Santa Barbara Conference, MEChA formed
• 1970 student anti-war movement, Bank of America burned down
• Reagan declares martial law

Student Activism Continued

• 1989 hunger strike, MCC and Asian American Studies dept. Created
• 1994 Chicanx/Latinx student hunger strike
• 2000s undocumented student activism
• 2010 students protest 32% tuition increase passed by Regents
• 2010s BSU, PAN, Congreso activism
• A.S. Living History website

What can I do to support the strike?

• If you can afford to wait, tell your instructor that you support the strike and consent to having your grades withheld. Write it on your assignments and tests.
• Show up to the picket line
• Spread the word! Talk to your classmates and friends. Ask them what they think about their tuition and rent
• Use social media for updates: Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @UCSB4COLA

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