Dear Chancellor Larive, Campus Provost/EVC Kletzer, and President Napolitano,
Throughout this campaign, graduate students have given testimony of their experiences trying to survive in Santa Cruz on the inadequate wages and funding we receive from this institution.
We want to give voice to these anonymous accounts to illustrate to administration and faculty how dire our situation really is. We also hope that by sharing these unedited stories, graduate students will realize that they are not alone in these experiences:
“Thank you all for sharing your stories. It has given me a space to reflect on my housing experiences, and how I have chosen to try and bury my housing memories because they were incredibly difficult times in my life. Because I do not want to contribute to any anxiety, I feel that a content warning here would be most appropriate. CW: homelessness, harassment, emotional manipulation, chronic illness, hospital visits, anxiety.
I am a first-generation, mixed (Native Hawaiian, Asian, and white), graduate student who heavily relied on funding from my undergraduate institution to be able to afford college and my field experiences. Upon accepting my offer at UCSC, I was aware that it would not be a “”luxurious lifestyle.”” While I am by no means asking for a life of luxury as a graduate student, I feel that housing security should not be something I worry about.
While I struggled to find housing last summer, I settled for rent that was about $1,000/ month for a single room, which is considered a good deal here. I wasn’t allowed to use the bathroom at certain times, couldn’t have guests (including my mother when she visited), and was told to buy a mini-fridge because there was “”no space for me”” in the house I rented. My landlady constantly harassed me, including gaslighting me and threatening to evict me without reason; this only escalated when I told her that I contacted lawyers at the California Rural Legal Assistance and was seeking housing elsewhere.
After leaving my lease early because I no longer felt physically and emotionally safe, I was financially devastated. Since the new place I was moving into wasn’t ready, I was houseless for two weeks. It took an incredible toll on my performance in school- I fell asleep during class and could not focus on completing assignments. If it weren’t for the compassion of the professors in this department, I would have left the program at that moment.
Since I was an undergraduate, a portion of my wage has been sent back home to my immediate family members to pay for necessities. I don’t want to see my family struggling, so I would much provide some money for them. My mother, who had a heart attack in February, was put on a seven-month leave from her job, and I had to provide more for my family at that moment. After more recent health issues, I have had to return home multiple times to physically help out, which means I am still paying rent on a space that I only spend partial time in (not including the airfare).
Honestly, I am incredibly privileged to be a graduate student at UCSC and honored that I have some secured funding through TA-ships. I cannot thank my department enough for giving me money to provide for myself and my family. However, the COLA would ensure so much more financial security for my family and me today and in the future. Although this response wasn’t meant to show you the struggles I am personally facing, I can assure you that I am not the only student going through these specific issues. I know that my story is complicated, but I feel compelled to share it for those who maybe do not feel as if they can speak out.”
These stories aren’t novel or surprising to most of us. And they shouldn’t be surprising to administration, who have completed multiple assessments of graduate student wellbeing. Administrators have ignored and dismissed their own findings, which demonstrate that it is impossible to survive on our stipends in Santa Cruz. We will not be ignored. We will not be dismissed. We will not wait. We will not submit.