February 2nd – [COLA] Response to January 31st Financial Aid Email, Affecting 50 Undergraduates

On Friday, January 31st, Financial Aid sent out a form email to certain TAs and GSI claiming:

“_______ is among a group of about 50 students for whom the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office is required to retroactively reduce or eliminate fall quarter aid on Monday, February 3. This aid is from the U.S. Department of Education and/or the California Student Aid Commission with regulations which require us to take this action. This action will likely cause a bill to the student” (see screenshot for full email below)

We still maintain that the UC does not have to, should not, and potentially will not harm undergraduate students in this way, but we believe that continuing to have their grades withheld poses a substantial risk to the undergraduates who were listed on this email.

To clarify: this only concerns the 50 students mentioned in the January 31st email, not earlier emails from Financial Aid. For the students included in earlier emails, you can still use the template below. See our earlier communication about these students.

If you have received this email (Jan 31st), we strongly suggest contacting the affected students with this information to ask them how they would like to proceed (those students should have received an email directly from the Financial Aid Office about this issue as well). You should only continue to withhold these students’ grades in the event that an undergraduate responds to you today stating affirmatively that they understand the risks and they still want their grade withheld. If students respond saying that they want their grade submitted, or do not respond at all by the end of the day today, their grades should be officially submitted.

You can submit individual grades by logging into MyUCSC and submitting a partial grade roster. Instructors should save the grades they wish to submit in the grade roster, then email the Registrar’s Office from their UCSC email address with their request to submit a partial grade roster. Requests should include the course subject and number and be sent to registrar@ucsc.edu, CC regsys@ucsc.edu and cpsanger@ucsc.edu. If you are a TA, your instructor should do this. If you are a GSI, you should do this yourself.

After you have submitted the requested grades, consider reaching out to affected students and let them know that you have responded to the situation. While undergraduate students have been generally understanding and supportive, their direct experience of the administration’s callousness and incompetence may provide yet another opportunity for building solidarity.

Solidarity,

Striking graduate students

———

Dear UCSC Financial Aid Officers,

I confirm that [STUDENT’S NAME, STUDENT ID NUMBER] completed [COURSE NUMBER AND TITLE] in Fall 2019 with a passing grade (C- or higher).

[NAME’S] actual grade will be sent to the Registrar once graduate students’ demands for a cost of living adjustment have been met.

Sincerely,

[YOUR NAME]

[TEACHING ASSISTANT or INSTRUCTOR OF RECORD] for [COURSE], Fall 2019

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.