From Joe Klein
February 13, 2020
Dear Colleagues,
I wanted to write again with some updates from today’s strike.
Hundreds of graduate students, undergraduates, faculty, staff, lecturers, and others rallied for a fourth day at both entrances to campus. Energy was incredibly high all morning, and for the fourth consecutive day, metro bus service to campus was disrupted due to the picket. Faculty again marched to join the picket in support of the strike and against Chancellor Cynthia Larive and EVC Lori Kletzer’s use of police force against undergraduates, graduates, and supporters.
Around 2:30 pm, a huge group of STEM graduate students wearing their lab coats marched down to the base of campus to join the main picket. In a joyful show of power, the strikers then peacefully closed down the main entrance to campus and marched in a massive picket line around the intersection of Bay and High, led by STEM graduate students, effectively closing down the intersection. The main entrance to campus remained closed for the rest of the day. Strikers continued to picket, hold teach-ins and workshops, dance, and organize.
As of today, UCSC has spent approximately $1.2 million on the police presence at the picket line. Meanwhile, all of the students who were arrested yesterday are facing 14 day suspensions and being blocked from returning to campus, even if they pay rent to live there.
In a direct rebuke to administrations claims of undergraduates being harmed by the strike, today UCSC’s undergraduate student government unanimously voted to support the strike for a COLA for all graduate students. The exact phrase used by an undergraduate student government representative in today’s general assembly was that “Lori Kletzer is a lying snake.” Undergraduates will be convening their own general assembly tomorrow at 12pm at the Quarry Amphitheater to continue to organize.
Indeed, there is a significant amount of false information being put out by UCSC administration, including that they are unable to negotiate with our union to meet our demand; this is plainly false–such negotiations happen all the time, including to resolve the 2018 West Virginia teacher’s strike. Our statewide union is attempting to set up a meeting with UCSC administration, but as of the time of writing, administration has not responded, nor offered anything substantial, so the strike continues!
Today’s action items:
- Join strikers on the picket line, beginning tomorrow at 7:30am. Please bring friends! You can also bring supplies: sunscreen, hand sanitizer, healthy food, and large containers of drinking water are always in demand.
- Cancel your classes and sections, and do not ask your students to cross the picket line.
- Lecturers should consider holding their classes at the picket.
- Push back the dates of midterm assignments, or as some instructors have done, cancel them.
- Write to the administration about how you feel about Lori Kletzer and Cynthia Larive arresting and suspending your students for peacefully supporting the strike.
- If you were a faculty member or student who witnessed or recorded video or photographs of police violence today, please 1) write to your colleagues about what you witnessed and 2) write a description of what you saw and send footage to: mas1218@gmail.com.
- Share media coverage of the strike:
As always, thank you so so much for your support, and extra special thanks to our undergraduates and to the faculty who came out to support strikers today–we are so grateful.
See you tomorrow!