11 ms·
I'm an undergrad at UCSC right now and have found the entire strike to be more detrimental to their cause. They've lost so much undergrad support after disrupti
by valid4life 7y ago
I'm an undergrad at UCSC right now and have found the entire strike to be more detrimental to their cause. They've lost so much undergrad support after disrupting a STEM midterm and shutting down campus causing us to miss the classes we have paid for. I even lost my grades last quarter as my TA was fired ( of the 54 ) and he has refused to hand them over post firing. What it has done to the undergraduates is a little ridiculous and I felt for them in the beginning, but the strike has made me be a supporter against them unfortunately.
- awinder 7y agoWhat happened with your grades in those classes? I read the university systems release and this article and couldn’t glean the details. Is that course’s grades still just up in the air?
- valid4life 7y agoFor many classes, grades were withheld and then released as the TAs did not want to lose their jobs. My TA was not one of them. For a class that needs tests graded, this isn't as much of an issue, but in my case, the class is a Distributed Systems course and the projects we built are quite extensive. My professor reached out to me and other high scorers in the course requesting us to recreate the grading infrastructure as he believes our true grades will never be received from our fired TA. I took the course as a letter grade class, but currently it is marked as a Pass/No Pass which conveniently is not allowed for major courses. It will be a fun time talking to the advising people on campus.
- saagarjha 7y ago> My professor reached out to me and other high scorers in the course requesting us to recreate the grading infrastructure as he believes our true grades will never be received from our fired TA. Correct me if I'm wrong, but he's asking you to work on grading infrastructure?
- valid4life 7y agoMe along with other students who did well on exams + assignments that were graded and given out before the strikes really gained traction.
- asdff 7y agoI hope you kindly email the professor and ask him or her to to their job and grade their course.
- valid4life 7y agoI did turn the offer down because I didn't feel comfortable with it. I may not be 100% for this strike, but I would not want to be apart of that. I really appreciate your responses here as it is illuminating many things I hadn't originally considered. The TA's clearly have way too many responsibilities for the pay they receive. I just feel like undergraduates are really getting screwed when there has to be other methods... Of course, I have never considered them so what good is it for me to say that lol.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- anonsivalley652 7y agoStriking when it's convenient is worthless. Perhaps if the students weren't so entitled, they'd understand that solidarity is important and that grades should be handled. Furthermore, you have to realize the university is punishing you to turn you against the grad students... and it appears they have succeeded. If I were an ugrad there, I'd be right there with the grad students. I was an ugrad at another UC where 2/3 of my classes were cancelled because lecturers got jobs at startups in the dotcom times, and they made a habit of not scheduling upper-div major classes frequently enough to stay full-time for the year. haha.
- CamperBob2 7y agoEh, sounds like the grad students are doing the punishing. Their cause is noble, I'm sure, right up until it interferes with my education (and thus my career path). They need to find a way to exert leverage on the people who can satisfy their demands -- meaning the University -- and not on people who are basically innocent customers.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- valid4life 7y agoI agree that striking when its convenient is worthless, but at the same time, I have various emails from my direct TAs and the COLA organization as a whole mentioning the intent is to not harm undergrads, but here we are... Additionally, I'm not sure where youre getting the students are "entitled". I work and take loans out in order to go to this school, takes classes, and receive my grades. Am I entitled for wanting what I pay for? The administration is not withholding grades, the graduates are. I understand that they're doing it as a result of the administration, but why are we (undergraduates) sitting in the middle taking heat from both sides? I'm happy you would be out there striking as thats your right, but to call me entitled is a tad bit much no? The response on the UCSC subreddit is similar - youre either entitled or a bootlicker if you don't join the cause. I am unsure how that is supposed to make me support the cause?
- gyrgtyn 7y agoYou paid a bunch of money, then the school provided you with instructors that have to worry about where their next meal is going to come from.
- cycrutchfield 7y agoHyperbole is not really helpful for this discussion.
- gyrgtyn 7y ago“I’m struggling for basic needs such as toilet paper, buying my son milk,” said Arjona, who pays about $1,700 a month in rent out of the $2,200 she receives
- cycrutchfield 7y agoA cursory examination of Craigslist shows that you can easily rent a nice 4 bedroom house for $4000/month in Santa Cruz. Get a couple of roommates to split the rent and you're only paying $1000/month. Perhaps Arjona should consider that she could have more money for living expenses if she was more economical with her housing choices. After all, she was the one who chose to sign a lease for $1700/month on a $2200/month salary, when cheaper options exist.
- saagarjha 7y agoAre you seriously telling this graduate student (with a child!) that she should find more roommates when she apparently has some already?
- cycrutchfield 7y agoNobody forced her to make these living arrangements that consume such a large percentage of her monthly salary. While it is regrettable, it's not the responsibility of the university to make sure that its students make good life choices.
- readhn 7y agonow is not the time to back down. teaching is hard. teaching and doing research is even harder. this whole problem would be solved by everyone grad and undergrads walking out for a few weeks. Throw in a hunger strike in there too. Only a big disruption at this point will get things done. Now is not the time to back down. The School admins will not understand any other language unfortunately.
- daguava 7y agoTeaching needs a large pay-bump. If you only hire the lowest common denominators you're going to get the lowest result. I've seen so many teachers move on to other jobs just because it doesn't have the pay needed for basic living. Stop calling things like this socialism, futures depend on good education.
- daguava 7y agoWow, your university treated their staff like shit and you're mad that the associated materials are gone. Open up your brain a bit.
- valid4life 7y agoI don't think it is that simple. Associated materials that I am paying for? Additionally, as another commenter mentioned there is an administration aspect no doubt about how crazy it is TAs even have this power in the first place. _Mad_ is not the word I'd use in this situation. Ive been here long enough to just roll with the punches through every strike. I am just trying to talk about it, but it seems its easy to assume how others are acting. The aggressive rhetoric this topic brings out like "open up your brain a bit" really is helping no one, including the strike and its cause.
- ip26 7y agoThere seems to be a history of strikes at UCSC alienating the rank and file. Strikes are supposed to squeeze the employer, e.g. because their factory isn't producing and the employer is losing face & sales to competitors. All the strikes at UCSC seem to wind up squeezing the student body, which 1) doesn't call the shots and 2) is paying fixed costs. Last one I remember was a transit strike where the strikers closed all entrances & exits to the campus. That did not win them many supporters.
- bsder 7y agoCongratulations, you have both fallen into the position that the University wants you to. UCSC can easily marshal the resources to get your grades, get you graduated, etc. The fact that UCSC chooses not to in order to divide you from the strikers is intentional. People don't go on strike because it's fun or popular. And strikes are not meant to be convenient.
- kortilla 7y ago> UCSC can easily marshal the resources to get your grades Unless UCSC is hiring water boarding specialists, no they can’t. The TA refused to give them up.
- saagarjha 7y agoWhat would the college have done if the TA had decided to quit?
- davrosthedalek 7y agoWhat would the college have done if 54 TAs had quit... It's much easier to fix one missing TA, be redoing the grading work if necessary, than for 54. And if a TA quits, I would expect the TA to release the grades as far as they have been determined at the point of quitting.
- bsder 7y ago1) A TA can get hit by a bus tomorrow. What do you do in that case? You can just do that here. 2) Waterboarding and torture have been demonstrated over and over to be ineffective. That mere idea that they might ever be a useful tool is pernicious and needs to be denounced even when said in jest.
- voxl 7y agoAs a grad student myself, lets just say that many graduate students and faculty are suggesting that grad students never apply to your school. I wouldn't call that very detrimental to there cause.
- thescriptkiddie 7y agoAt the risk of getting banned for this comment, fuck this. I was an undergrad as UCSC and I supported the strikes then, and I support the strike now. Yes the strike interferes with undergrad education, but that is the entire point. I never went to class when a strike was on, just like I would never cross a picket line. Professors deserve to be paid well, and grad students in teaching or TA positions deserve to be paid well too. With the absurd tuition the UC system charges, that is the least they can do.
- baryphonic 7y agoGood for you? But consider that GP is also paying "absurd tuition." Returning grades is the least UC can do. Not everyone goes to school to become an activist. No one should begrudge you of your means and desire to skip class in solidarity with the oppressed grad students at probably the top public university system in the world, but not everyone has such privileges.
- genuinealgerian 7y agoSeriously, fuck this. Disrupting the revenue stream IS THE POINT.
- ip26 7y agoA good strike hits the employer in the pocketbook. How much revenue did UC lose? Zero. Student fees are fixed. It's the undergrads getting bent over the barrel, not UC, which is IMO why these strikes don't seem to have much public support.
- downerending 7y agoI would be completely on the grad students' side if they weren't withholding materials necessary to produce the grades. That, though, sounds a lot like extortion, and it's hard to have any sympathy whatsoever with someone doing that. It'd be one thing for me to walk off my job. It'd be another thing entirely for me to run off with the only copy of business-critical data. IANAL, but I wonder if there might not end up being criminal charges in some cases.