U of California Grad Students Strike

[the_geneticist]

The biggest disruption is in the lower level STEM courses.  Nearly all labs and discussions are taught by graduate TAs.  It's a mess of classes that are canceled, moved online, being taught by TAs (some volunteering, others too afraid to know they aren't supposed to be teaching during the strike), etc.  The undergraduates are confused and upset.  They are worried that they won't be graded fairly or if grades are delayed they won't be able to register.
Lots of faculty rely on TA opportunities to pay for their graduate students due to not enough grant funds.  There are GTAs who have needed to be a TA 9+ quarters. 
And the UCs rely on the graduate student labor rather than hiring qualified instructors for labs or discussions.
So, it's a big complicated mess.

[the_geneticist]

The strike is continuing.  Now the concern isn't "how do we finish out Fall?", instead it's "What do we do if the strike continues into Winter quarter?".

[marshwiggle]

The strike is continuing.  Now the concern isn't "how do we finish out Fall?", instead it's "What do we do if the strike continues into Winter quarter?".

The strikers should pause and think about this. If the institution figures out how to run indefinitely without ANY grad students, it very much undermines their bargaining position.

[Parasaurolophus]

The strike is continuing.  Now the concern isn't "how do we finish out Fall?", instead it's "What do we do if the strike continues into Winter quarter?".

The strikers should pause and think about this. If the institution figures out how to run indefinitely without ANY grad students, it very much undermines their bargaining position.

I wouldn't worry about that. The institution (and individual faculty members) has a strong vested interest in the prestige that MA and PhD programs bring. Nor are faculty going to want to start doing their own grading, or increase their teaching loads; let's not kid ourselves that they're going to decide to farm all that out to adjuncts or postdocs or something.

[the_geneticist]

The strike is continuing.  Now the concern isn't "how do we finish out Fall?", instead it's "What do we do if the strike continues into Winter quarter?".

The strikers should pause and think about this. If the institution figures out how to run indefinitely without ANY grad students, it very much undermines their bargaining position.

I'm not worried about that at all.
The universities have already learned the hard way in the last 3 weeks that they absolutely need graduate student TAs to teach & grade.

And the PhD and MA programs do not exist without graduate students.  No way to do any substantial research without graduate students.

The big concern is can you START a class with no TAs - just cancel/excuse all labs, discussion, & writing groups?  For how long?  At what point are you simply not able to offer a class?

[Ruralguy]

It would mainly be the scholarship and the progression of graduate programs that suffer, because for classes, they can probably get adjunct labor or overload existing faculty, undergraduate help, etc.  Of course, they'd have to be breaking a strike, so I am not sure how many would be willing to do that. Its theoretically possible, but of course we'll only know how doable it is going into next semester.

[mleok]

And the UCs rely on the graduate student labor rather than hiring qualified instructors for labs or discussions.

The UCs do this because it cross-subsidizes the research program using instructional funds, not because it couldn't replace lab or discussions with either full-time or contingent lecturers instead.

Cynically, at the end of the day, for lower-division general education classes, most undergraduates care more about their grades than the quality of instruction, so there is a lot which can be done by simply dumbing down the requirements, and focusing resources on the classes which actually feed into upper-division classes for majors.

[mleok]

I'm not worried about that at all.
The universities have already learned the hard way in the last 3 weeks that they absolutely need graduate student TAs to teach & grade.

If that were true, the university would have been forced to capitulate already. As it is, the university has already made a "final offer," and at least the students in my department are seriously considering accepting what is being offered. Admittedly, they are much better off as our GTAs are appointed at Step 6, instead of Step 1 in the humanities, for example.

[mleok]

And the PhD and MA programs do not exist without graduate students.  No way to do any substantial research without graduate students.

The big concern is can you START a class with no TAs - just cancel/excuse all labs, discussion, & writing groups?  For how long?  At what point are you simply not able to offer a class?

But, it's precisely because it's important to have graduate students and TAs that the university and faculty cannot afford to capitulate to the ridiculously high wage demands that would make it fiscally impossible to support graduate students moving forwards on grants or teaching. The same "short term pain for long term gains" argument for having a strike also apply to the university's position as well. Most STEM students just want to get back to their research, finish up as soon as possible, and move on with their lives. They're not going to strike indefinitely, because it's not ideological for them, and they could make much more post-graduation.

[Parasaurolophus]

Admittedly, they are much better off as our GTAs are appointed at Step 6, instead of Step 1 in the humanities, for example.

Oof. What explains that disparity?

[mleok]

Admittedly, they are much better off as our GTAs are appointed at Step 6, instead of Step 1 in the humanities, for example.

Oof. What explains that disparity?

Market forces. The reality is that if the graduate students secured what they initially asked for, humanities graduate students would get paid more as TAs than what they would command post-graduation for a full-time job. I also think the argument that the ask is based on cost of living is weakened by the fact that there is no location adjustment for Merced vs. Berkeley.

[the_geneticist]

It would mainly be the scholarship and the progression of graduate programs that suffer, because for classes, they can probably get adjunct labor or overload existing faculty, undergraduate help, etc.  Of course, they'd have to be breaking a strike, so I am not sure how many would be willing to do that. Its theoretically possible, but of course we'll only know how doable it is going into next semester.

Adjuncts and undergraduate workers are part of the same union.  Can't hire in new ones until the strike ends.

Existing (tenured) faculty won't agree to teach an overload, at least not in my department.

Honestly, much of this could have been avoided if UC campuses had dedicated, low-cost housing for graduate students. 

[mleok]

Adjuncts and undergraduate workers are part of the same union.

The Unit 18 lecturers have a separate union from the ASEs (including TAs) and GSRs. In fact, the Unit 18 lecturers have a no sympathetic strike clause in their contract.

[Parasaurolophus]

Admittedly, they are much better off as our GTAs are appointed at Step 6, instead of Step 1 in the humanities, for example.

Oof. What explains that disparity?

Market forces. The reality is that if the graduate students secured what they initially asked for, humanities graduate students would get paid more as TAs than what they would command post-graduation for a full-time job. I also think the argument that the ask is based on cost of living is weakened by the fact that there is no location adjustment for Merced vs. Berkeley.

I'm sorry, I don't quite understand. What market forces make it so that students in one faculty start at a higher step on the ladder than those in another? Is it that your students come in with a lot more teaching and research experience that gets counted towards ladder progression or something?

Faculty here are laddered. It's nice insofar as it equalizes pay and eliminates the pay gap (although it also means we're among the worst paid in the country). But there's a limit to how high on the ladder you can be placed initially, and it isn't at step 6 (out of 10)!

[mleok]

Admittedly, they are much better off as our GTAs are appointed at Step 6, instead of Step 1 in the humanities, for example.

Oof. What explains that disparity?

Market forces. The reality is that if the graduate students secured what they initially asked for, humanities graduate students would get paid more as TAs than what they would command post-graduation for a full-time job. I also think the argument that the ask is based on cost of living is weakened by the fact that there is no location adjustment for Merced vs. Berkeley.

I'm sorry, I don't quite understand. What market forces make it so that students in one faculty start at a higher step on the ladder than those in another? Is it that your students come in with a lot more teaching and research experience that gets counted towards ladder progression or something?

Faculty here are laddered. It's nice insofar as it equalizes pay and eliminates the pay gap (although it also means we're among the worst paid in the country). But there's a limit to how high on the ladder you can be placed initially, and it isn't at step 6 (out of 10)!

Surely you understand the concept of market forces. We just use a higher step in lieu of having a formal method of adjusting for the market. The CSE/ECE graduate students are placed at Step 8, which might explain why they're generally not striking.

In our faculty salary scale, there are different scales for medical/business/engineering, as well as market offscale components. That's the reality if you want to be competitive for faculty in certain fields.