COLA Call for Proposals, Coastal Campus “work-in,” wildcat shirts, and more

Dear graduate students,

In this email you will find a Call for Proposals for talks, performances, workshops, etc. for the picket line, more details about the Coastal Campus “work-in,” and where to get your own wildcat COLA shirt and buttons. Please distribute the Call For Proposals widely.

1) We are soliciting art, performances, talks, workshops, events, and services to be shared on the picket line starting February 10. Graduate students are fighting for a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) and a truly PUBLIC university that is run by students and workers. We want to pull our collective creativity and expertise to build a picket line curriculum that we actually want to learn and engage in.

We have already received proposals to make buttons, screenprint wildcat t-shirts, read tarot, give massages, facilitate yoga sessions, and perform music at the picket line (this list is not in any way exhaustive, and is only meant to give you ideas for your proposal). Let’s share our talents, knowledge, skills, and expertise with each other as we demand a COLA.

Please fill this form to suggest an activity you want to bring to or see at the picket. Share the Call for Proposals widely with other grads, faculty, staff, workers, and community members! The call is open to EVERYONE (except cops, landlords, and admin)!

2) This Friday graduate students will congregate on the Coastal Campus of UCSC for a joint “work-in.” Bring your laptops, books, notepads, and other things you need to do your work, your research. Let’s work together! We will also share a meal, print wildcat shirts, make COLA buttons, and build community with our COLA comrades in STEM. More details in the flyer attached.

3) You can make your own wildcat COLA shirt and strike paraphernalia at First Friday in the Graduate Student Commons (GSC) from 5:00pm-7:00pm. Bring your own shirt, bandana, or any fabric you want to print the wildcat on. You can also get a red UAW 2865 shirt at First Friday. Come through!

Whose University? Our University!

Always and forever in solidarity,

Striking Graduate Students

Mission

We are TAs, GSIs, Tutors, Readers, Student Researchers, Fellows, Postdocs, and Academic Researchers at UCSC. We are represented by our union, UAW 4811 (Formerly UAW 2865 and UAW 5810). In 2019/2020, workers at UCSC withheld labor for a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA), and in 2022, our statewide union struck for 6 weeks over a COLA, arguing for a 54k base wage for all academic workers with the goal of raising the living conditions of academic workers across the state. Now, we are on strike for Divestment, Disclosure, Transitional funding for researchers, & Amnesty for all protestors.