Campus News
Following up on the UAW strike and new contracts
The new labor agreements between the University of California and the United Auto Workers reflects the important role that these student employees play and the University’s dedication to support them.
Dear Colleagues:
The new labor agreements between the University of California and the United Auto Workers (UAW) underscore our continued commitment to supporting our graduate students. It reflects the important role that these student employees play and the University’s dedication to support them. Under the terms of the new contracts, these workers will be among the best supported in public higher education in the country.
The increased compensation and other changes have generated many questions from faculty across campus, and I acknowledge that it has been difficult to not have answers or more information about what’s happening. Though we have newly agreed upon contracts, the implementation details are still being worked out, and, as a result, the information environment has remained fluid. I write to share an update based on the best information available.
I want to start by acknowledging that this time has been a challenging period for all of you. Continuing to work in the wake of the strike, and the uncertainties that followed, has drawn energy and attention. I am grateful to you for your many efforts on behalf of our students – all of our students – at a time when the challenges of the pandemic and our winter storms remain. I am deeply appreciative of you and all you do, especially so in these trying times. I know there are and will continue to be disagreements about decisions and actions taken during and after the strike, all based upon different perspectives on how best to achieve our shared purpose of advancing the University’s mission. I also know that we need to find ways to work together and to acknowledge and work on repairing rifts in our community.
I want to address two main areas of concern.
Financial implementation of the new UAW contracts
I have heard from many faculty concerns about financial implications for your research and teaching. Here’s what we know now:
Funding our teaching mission: for the remainder of the 2022-23 academic year, central funds will cover the increased costs of academic student employees (ASEs). Deans have been apprised of these costs and more details will be provided soon.
For the 2023-24 academic year, we are now working with divisions on the centrally-funded teaching assistant (TA) allocation and on the dollars allocated for instructional support (mostly the hiring of lecturers and graduate student instructors, GSIs). We have been working with deans and their staff for many months, and this regular engagement has facilitated our ability to share the impact of increased ASE and lecturer salary costs. The total number of quarter TAships to be allocated to the campus for the 2023-24 academic year will not only equal the TA allocations in recent years, including 2022-23, but will likely exceed them by approximately 30 quarter TAships. While the increase in the number of quarter TAships is relatively small, the estimated dollar value of the TA allocation will be at least 30% higher than the 22-23 allocation, quite possibly more, and most of that increase is due to increased ASE salary costs. We currently estimate our TA salary costs for the 23-24 year will be at least $5 million higher than for the 21-22 year. For lecturers, we estimate a $2 million increase in salary costs for 23-24, compared to 21-22.
Funding our research mission: the new contracts with the UAW on behalf of academic researchers, postdoctoral scholars and graduate student researchers have several salary and benefit provisions that may impact funded research. As you know, historically, increased costs to research have been borne primarily by principal investigators (PIs) and secondarily by deans and departments. Our overall financial situation dictates that we not deviate significantly from that approach of relying on external funding to support our research community. At the same time, we recognize that for many PIs, grant funding levels are already established while salary and benefit costs will increase.
With these new contractual agreements it is likely that PIs will need to reallocate funds on approved project budgets and, when possible, to increase requests on future non-competitive and competitive proposal budget requests. Together with the Graduate Division and the Office of Research, I am working to address the long–term impacts of the new contracts. In the meantime, I am pleased to announce a program to address short-term financial impact in the spring 2023 quarter.
For faculty that have graduate student researchers (GSRs) supported from funded grants, faculty start-up, or federal, state or foundation fellowships, the Office of Research will provide $1000 in support of a GSR where there is financial need. If a PI supervises multiple GSRs, multiple requests can be made.
Examples of scenarios that would qualify for financial need:
- A grant is at the end of a funding cycle and there are insufficient funds to cover the increase;
- The increased costs will limit the ability to carry out the proposed activities in a funded grant;
- A student is on a fellowship that does not cover the additional cost and the faculty advisor does not have sufficient unrestricted funds to cover the difference.
Please use this link to submit a request.
Recruiting and Offers for Fall 2023 Graduate Admissions Cycle
I have heard from many faculty concerns about how the new UAW contracts and salary commitments will affect the funding for current students and the recruitment and funding for new students. Our five-year funding package for doctoral students (two years for MFA students) remains our commitment; importantly we have approached fall ‘23 graduate admissions by first working with each department and program to make sure we have funding for our current students. Working first from that commitment, we are taking a conservative approach to admissions, particularly doctoral admissions.
Because the way departments and programs fund and support doctoral students varies, we have not dictated numbers for admission. As in the past, VPDGS Peter Biehl and the Graduate Division staff meet with each department/program to discuss available funding levels, student success metrics, and program size, in order to set targets for each admission cycle. Consistent with the higher level of salary and other compensation support that are a result of the new UAW contracts, we are taking a conservative approach to admissions for the entering fall ‘23 cohort, calibrated to the varying situations of programs.
There are many outstanding issues, including implications for instruction and instructional resilience, addressing frayed relationships from the time period of the strike, and the future of graduate education. Regarding the future of graduate education, Envisioning Graduate Education of the Future is one of the pillars of our strategic planning initiative (Leading the Change), and I anticipate that our conversations about the future will be advanced by the efforts of that committee and their report. The Implementation Task Force for Inclusive Excellence in Graduate Education has submitted a report, and that too will be part of our efforts to consider the future of graduate education. I remain deeply committed to graduate education and these two reports and recommendations offer an opportunity to move forward productively with that commitment.
I look forward to working with you collaboratively to explore solutions and provide answers. And I thank you deeply for all you do.
Sincerely,
Lori
Lori Kletzer
Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor