UC Davis graduate students ‘can’t survive’ on pay, so they’re refusing to grade work
Graduate students at the University of California, Davis will join Santa Cruz university students Thursday on a wildcat strike demanding higher wages as rent continues to rise in Davis.
Participating graduate students plan to withhold students’ grades for winter quarter until the university increases its housing supplement for graduate students who work as teaching assistants.
The wildcat strike, which means the student union did not endorse the strike, is intended to “disrupt the everyday functioning of the university,” read a statement from the grassroots student-run movement, UCD4COLA. The UC system has a current labor contract with UAW that covers all campuses.
According to a report compiled by the UC Student-Works union, UAW 2865, UC Davis academic student employees would require $1,553.20 per month to relieve them of rent burden. The average rent for an apartment in Davis is $2,150, a 7 percent increase from last year.
The University of California said affordable housing has been a top priority, and 17,000 beds have been added to campuses throughout California since the start of President Janet Napolitano’s tenure since 2013.
UCD4COLA is asking for the additional housing stipend year-round in addition to their wages. Graduate students who work 20 hours per week are paid on average $2,200 for their work before taxes, with no guarantee of summer funding.
On Friday, more than 400 graduate students and supporters met and decided to move forward with the grading strike, and said they could possibly move forward to a full teaching strike if the University of California doesn’t address their concerns.
TP Coughlin, a graduate student joining in on the grading strike, said students are living in constant precarity.
“While the university is taking on enormous amount of wealth, we have all found ourselves spending 60 to 70 percent of our month’s wages towards our rent, and we can’t survive,” they said. “And our students are standing alongside with us. They are being exploited by the same system that we are, and they are being burdened by tuition.”
Coughlin said one of the main steps UCD4COLA is taking is to ensure the undergraduate population is not harmed by the strike. If students need a grade released, graduate students will make sure grades are accessible for time-sensitive circumstances such as applications or future courses.
“We work for them and with them, rather than working in opposition,” Coughlin said.
UC officials say wildcat strike negatively impacts undergraduates, whose “hard-earned grades and progression to the next course level are being inappropriately leveraged,” according to a statement from the University of California Office of the President to The Sacramento Bee.
UC officials said their four-year contract with the UAW includes fair pay that increases 3 percent for four years, benefits, and $3,300 in child care per year.
“Reopening the contract now would defeat the purpose of a signed agreement and would be unfair to all the other UC unions as well as nearly 90,000 represented employees who do adhere to collective bargaining agreements,” read the UCOP statement. “The University has honored the contract, and we expect teaching assistants to do the same.”
UC officials added that the graduate students on strike are violating the current contract.
But members of UCD4COLA state they are separate from their union. The group chose to join UC Santa Cruz students’ initial strike out of deep concern that UC is using “force, coercion and threats” against students.
At least 17 people were arrested at UC Santa Cruz when they went on strike earlier this month. As part of their strike, about 85 graduate students are withholding fall quarter grades and are being threatened with termination. Earlier this week, UC agreed to give a $2,500 stipend to students after the strike, but graduate students said the decision is not legally enforceable.
UC Santa Barbara graduate students are also beginning a full teaching strike Thursday.
“We foresee our movement continuing and growing, with the support of faculty and students, until the university takes us seriously,” Coughlin said.
At UC Davis, grades for winter quarter are due immediately after finals week ends March 20.
A spokeswoman for UC Davis said the university continues “to welcome further dialogue about how our graduate students here at UC Davis can best be supported.”
This is not the first time in recent months where there has been strife between UC Davis students and leadership.
In November, hundreds of student employees at the university were not paid on time due to a payroll processing problem, prompting walkouts on campus. UC Davis Chancellor Gary May acknowledged that about 500 university faculty and staff, including 300 undergraduate student employees, reported a delay in their payment. Many students had not been paid since September.
This story was originally published February 27, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "UC Davis graduate students ‘can’t survive’ on pay, so they’re refusing to grade work."