January 6th – Lori Kletzer & Quentin Williams Further Threaten and Intimidate Striking Grads

Jan. 6, 2020

To: UC Santa Cruz community

From: Lori Kletzer, Interim Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor

Quentin Williams, Acting Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies

Subject: Information about fall grades and guidance for students and faculty

Eighty percent of fall quarter grades have been submitted. Grades belong to the students who earned them, and we will continue to work toward full grade submission. Students with missing grades are advised to contact their instructors and/or teaching assistant and are not required to disclose the reason for the request.

The lack of affordable housing in the Santa Cruz area is a major challenge for our students and for our community as a whole. We are actively working on short- and long-term solutions to address our students’ housing needs, and look forward to working together on creative solutions. However, unauthorized labor actions (such as withholding grades) slow processes and close communication paths. This unauthorized action has made meeting and working together impossible, as described in this communication to graduate student organizers, and has delayed the implementation of plans to better support graduate students.

While we recognize the importance of free speech and the exchange of ideas, students involved in the unsanctioned work stoppage have engaged in potential misconduct and may be subject to disciplinary action. Once fall quarter grades have been submitted, we will be able to share plans developed over the past quarter to better support graduate students. We will then also meet with graduate student representatives and other members of the campus community, including the Graduate Council and the Graduate Student Association, to discuss the ways in which we can better support graduate students, including through multi-year packages, additional fellowships and a re-examination of the resources and allocation process used for graduate student financial support.
Information about fall grades and guidance for students and faculty can be found at ucsc.edu /grades.

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.