�鶹��ý

Dateline �鶹��ý spoke with two campus officials about the concerns of a group of academic student employees (graduate students who work as teaching assistants) who declare on a website () that their “material situation is untenable” and are demanding, among other things, a cost-of-living adjustment of $1,553 a month and affordable housing for all graduate students.

The �鶹��ý action sprang up in support of some UC Santa Cruz graduate students, who in their own efforts to secure a COLA, started a wildcat strike in December, refusing to teach their classes and withholding grades.

Officials close to the situation at �鶹��ý include Jean-Pierre Delplanque, vice provost and dean of Graduate Studies; and Mike Sheehan, Student Affairs associate vice chancellor responsible for Student Housing and Dining Services.

How do you respond to graduate students who are having trouble making ends meet?

Vice Provost Delplanque: We certainly value the work of our graduate students — they are essential to our mission of teaching, research and public service — and acknowledge the difficult financial situation many of them find themselves in.

Our university has been making strides over the past decade to bring in graduate students who are representative of the changing population of California, so that if they elect to move into academia, we can have a faculty that can serve the needs of our student body. In fact, we are seeing more first-generation students coming here as grad students, many of whom may not have the privilege of family resources to back them up financially. We are actively working toward increasing the housing supply and taking other steps to help students with their basic needs to maintain equitable access to graduate school.

�鶹��ý 4 COLA has asked for a cost-of-living adjustment. What is the university’s response?

Delplanque: The University of California supports collective bargaining with its employees, and it’s a mischaracterization to say we are refusing to negotiate with the union (United Auto Workers) that represents our teaching assistants. In this case, the UC Office of the President — which handles collective bargaining — already negotiated a contract that the TAs approved in June 2018 and has about 2½ years to run. It provided a tuition waiver plus a $300 campus fee remission, 3 percent annual wage increases in line with other university employees, child care subsidy of $3,300 per year unique to TAs, one-time signing bonus and complete remission of health care premiums. See more information below on pay and benefits.

Do you know if our teaching assistants will join UC Santa Cruz TAs in withholding grades?

Delplanque: It’s difficult to tell at this time whether some of our TAs are withholding grades or plan to do so. But we have received emails from undergraduates expressing concern. It’s important to acknowledge the significant individual impact that such an action, even if it affects only a small number of graduate students, would have on some of them — those who are graduating, those who are applying for scholarships and fellowships, and more.

We are working with the Academic Senate, department chairs and other units on contingency plans to minimize the impact of grade-withholding on our undergraduate students.

But grade withholding should not be how we have a “conversation” with our graduate students.

What does the contract say about a strike?

Delplanque: In exchange for the pay and benefits I’ve already described, the university received a contractual promise that the TAs would not strike while the collective bargaining agreement was in effect through June 30, 2022. This is why �鶹��ý is focusing on other strategies to address the financial needs of our students.

And one of those strategies is housing, correct?

Delplanque: Yes, in particular, the housing situation in Davis is compounded by the low vacancy rate and the higher rents that go with that.