Dear all, (we’ve bcc’d faculty so they’re aware of this communication)
Today, academic advisers contacted undergraduate students whose grades for Fall quarter were not submitted stating that:
- Students who suspect they may have failed a class in Fall and want to repeat the class in Winter won’t be able to enroll in it until a grade below C is reported;
- Students whose Fall classes were a prerequisite for a Winter course may be assessed by their Winter instructors and in some cases “be administratively dropped out of winter classes.”
That email (see below), while accurate, lacks certain information, and therefore has the effect of inducing anxiety in students and compelling them to push back against their TAs. We want to use this as an opportunity to re-engage with our students and remind them that we are in this struggle together.
- For any student who contacted you saying they need their grade released urgently, inform the instructor of your intention to submit grades for those students, and submit the final grades for those students only to your instructor as normal.
The Registrar’s Office has now sent instructions to instructors of record on how to submit individual grades. 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. We have advised striking grads to submit grades for any student who says they need their grade urgently, no questions asked (see email, 12/20/19).
- We can use this moment to contact all of our Fall quarter undergrads to reiterate the following message (feel free to copy this template to send to all of your students):
We are sending this email because some of you have received emails from your academic advisers that lack certain information that we want you to have.
Since the beginning of our grading strike, the administration has repeatedly refused to meet with us. Instead of resolving this issue, they are hoping to break our strike by sewing confusion and fear amongst undergraduate students and faculty.
It is not our intention to hurt undergraduate students. The university administration will do everything to pit undergraduates against graduate students—to drive a wedge of anger and confusion through our solidarity. We cannot allow this to happen! The university that doesn’t pay graduate students enough to live here is the same university that shackles you in student debt. The university makes its profits off of your student loans and our unjust wages.
UCSC, which calls itself a public university, charges you exorbitantly high tuition, which most of you can only meet by taking on huge amounts of student debt with high interest rates. Your tuition is rising and your debt is rising, while the product you are indebted for—your education—is decreasing in quality. Your learning conditions are our working conditions. Your TAs cannot adequately do the work we do if the university refuses to pay us enough to live here. In short: your struggle and our struggle are the same.
Graduate students, faculty and staff across UCSC have taken measures to mitigate the potential negative impacts of the strike to undergraduates. These measures include:
1) No students will be disqualified or barred from enrolling next quarter as a result of missing grades. Graduate student strikers received the following message from college provosts: “After much consideration, the Council of Provosts, which oversees Academic Standing Review, has decided to waive academic review for Fall 2019. This means that students will not be reviewed or subject to barment this quarter and thus, we do not need TAs to inform us of student grades.”
2) No students will be dropped from or barred from enrolling in courses due to a missing grade in a prerequisite taken in Fall 2019. According to the FAQ published by UCSC Public Affairs, “Students with missing grades will not be dropped from future courses that require completion of the course as a prerequisite. Satisfaction of prerequisite courses is not verified until after a final grade has been assigned.”
Although students will not be dropped due to missing grades in a prerequisite course, if you failed the prerequisite, you will be dropped from the next course in the sequence once this failing grade is submitted. We don’t want any students to be surprised by being dropped after the quarter starts due to receiving a failing grade. If you are concerned that you may have failed the course you took with me in the Fall, please contact me. If you fill out and email me a FERPA waiver (attached to this email with instructions provided on payusmoreucsc.com website; click here to read them), I will then be able to email you your grade directly.
3) For students in extenuating circumstances (e.g. financial aid probation, graduating and urgently need their graduation processed), striking graduate students have offered to submit individual grades at the students’ request. Students do not need to disclose their reason for needing their grades urgently in order to have their grades submitted – we have advised striking grads to submit grades for any student who says they need their grade urgently, no questions asked. The Office of the Registrar has made a process available for submitting partial grade rosters, so these students will have their grades officially processed, and will not suffer any consequences as a result of the strike. This process is outlined in an email sent out to instructors by the Registrar and also on the COLA campaign website (https://payusmoreucsc.com/).
Solidarity,
Tony
———- Forwarded message ———
From: UCSC Academic Advising <advising@ucsc.edu>
Date: Fri, Jan 3, 2020 at 4:23 PM
Subject: Missing grades
To: ——-
Dear —-,
Since one or more of your grades have not yet been reported for fall, your academic advisors want to be sure you’re aware of the following:
- If a grade for one of your courses has not been reported, the graduation requirements associated with the course (general education, credits, major requirements, etc.) will not be posted to MyUCSC. Be sure to take this into account when viewing your academic advisement report and other information in MyUCSC.
- If one of your grades has not been reported and you suspect you may not have passed the class with a C (or P) or higher:
- MyUCSC will not allow you to enroll in the class in winter as a repeat until a grade below C is reported. If you would like to repeat the class, you may contact the instructor to ask that they report the grade so that you can re-enroll, or you may choose to wait until a future quarter.
- If a fall class with an unreported grade was a prerequisite for a class you’re taking in winter, you will not automatically be dropped from the class. However, the teacher from your winter class may want to assess your preparation to ensure you’ll be successful in winter. In some cases, students who are not prepared may be administratively dropped from the winter class.
Thanks for your patience! Additional information is available on the campus website.
Best wishes for a happy and successful winter quarter,
Your Academic Advisers