Two Easy Ways to Raise Awareness of Rent Burden at UCSC

This season, UCSC will look to recruit new graduate students while attempting to hide the conditions of living here. As our visiting season gets underway, we want to let prospective graduate students know about the severe issues of rent burden faced by graduate students at UCSC.

Below are two steps graduate students can take today to raise awareness of this issue. First, calculate your own rent burden by dividing your annual salary by your annual housing cost. 

TAs make $21,906 each year before taxes. At this rate…

  • If you pay more than $550 per month for housing, you are rent burdened, spending over 30% of your income on housing.
  • If you pay more than $925 per month for housing, you are severely rent burdened, spending over 50% of your income on housing.
  • If you pay more than $1275 per month for housing, you are obscenely rent burdened, spending over 70% of your income on housing.

1. Add Rent Burden to Your Directory Listing

To edit your entry in the campus directory…

  • Go to campusdirectory.ucsc.edu
  • Search for your name and open your listing
  • Click “edit this entry” at the bottom
  • Sign in to CruzID  with your gold password
  • Edit the “Biographical Information” section and hit Save.

Copy/paste or adapt the sample text below. Use some or all:

Rent Burden: 56% (what’s this?)

Graduate students at UC Santa Cruz face severe rent burden, often spending over 50% of our income on housing. We are precarious, but we are indispensable.

[You could also add, say, “I work 7-14 hours a week at an off-campus job that does not contribute to my degree progress.”]

I stand in solidarity with the COLA campaign.

2. Add Rent Burden to Your Email Signature

To edit your email signature in Gmail, click the gear icon near the top right, select “Settings,” and scroll 3/4th of the way down the page to “Signature.”

Add a line sharing your rent burden or solidarity. See below for examples.

Daniel Copulsky
Pronouns: he/him
Rent Burden: 56% (what’s this?)
University of California, Santa Cruz
PhD student in Social Psychology

Bristol Cave-LaCoste
Pronouns: she/her 
Rent Burden: 60% (what’s this?)
University of California, Santa Cruz
PhD Candidate in History

Tony Boardman
Pronouns: he/him
Rent Burden: 50% (what’s this?)
University of California, Santa Cruz
PhD candidate in Literature

Alexandra Macheski 
Pronouns: she/her
Rent burden: 63% (what’s this?)
University of California, Santa Cruz
PhD student in History of Art and Visual Culture