Grad TAs ‘teach out’ for recognition
SAGE members hold outdoor classrooms,
office hours in protest
By Phillip Carter
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
In an effort to gain recognition for their fledgling union, UCLA
graduate students are holding classes and office hours outside this
week in a "non-militant" protest against the university.
Leaders of the Student Association of Graduate Employees (SAGE),
which is organizing the outdoor classrooms, said that this type of
demonstration publicized their cause while also continuing to teach
undergraduates.
"It’s a non-militant way of demonstrating to the university that
we are important to UCLA," said history graduate student Tony
Iaccarino, a volunteer organizer for SAGE. Holding their sections
outdoors "also reminds the faculty and undergraduates of the
important role we play."
Iaccarino added that in light of the large contribution that
graduate students make to UCLA, the least they could get in return
was a "voice at the bargaining table."
In response to SAGE’s "teach-out," university officials issued a
statement denying the student union’s legitimacy, saying that "a
collective bargaining agreement is not desirable," because it would
"run contrary to the promotion of academic excellence in the
university’s graduate programs."
Collective bargaining is the catch-all phrase for the process
that unions go through to negotiate their contracts. Several such
unions exist on campus, including ones for faculty and staff Â
but student employees are not covered by any such organization.
"Graduate students at UCLA are covered by a university document
which specifies their rights, hours, pay scales and other
policies," said Kathleen Komar, associate dean of the graduate
division. That document, the Academic Apprentice Personnel Manual,
combined with individual departments’ policies, constitutes the
contract the graduate students work under.
"(Working conditions are) worked out between the faculty and
students, and we don’t think that the United Auto Workers (UAW) is
better at doing that than the individual faculty and students." The
UAW is the nationwide union which supports SAGE here at UCLA, as
well as the graduate students at UC Berkeley. SAGE is comprised of
3,400 UCLA’s graduate students.
Komar added that this type of protest did not conflict with
university educational goals, and that no action would be taken
against it so long as students’ instructions remained
unaffected.
"If their activities escalated to the point where it was
interrupting education, we’d have to take action. It looks to us
that it’s not disrupting the educational process," she said.
Several undergraduates who were being taught outside said they
sympathized with the graduate students’ plight, and did not mind
having their classes taught outside  especially in this
week’s good weather.
"It’s got to be hard work to read through all of our exams,
especially in some of the 400-person lectures like Biology 40,"
said Jennifer Hawley, a second-year biology student. "If professors
teach and they have a contract, TAs should have one too because
they also teach."
Adding to Hawley’s comments, another student said that many
professors rely on students’ assistance to give them time to do
important research that benefits UCLA.
"Professors are always saying ‘Publish or perish,’ but how can
they publish if they also have to grade exams and hold discussion
sections?" asked third-year history student Katrina Huang. She
added, however, that the graduate students shouldn’t protest in
ways that disrupt education.
"Teaching out is fun, because I like to learn about Greek
society on the grass," she mused. "But I hope they don’t strike,
because that will really hurt my academic progress."
Iaccarino emphasized that the graduate students had no intention
of hurting undergraduate student’s classroom experience but they
wanted to make sure their message was heard.
"We feel we have a right, as the people who do most of the
teaching at UCLA, to have a place at the bargaining table," he
said. "This is a way of publicizing our concerns without negatively
affecting undergraduate education."