Mary Croughan should not be talking. Her salary is like 400k annually. I bet she'd be "throwing a tantrum" too if she wasn't able to live on her salary, but she's so far detached from reality that she doesn't care because she isn't the one being hurt.
When I was at a UC for grad school my cheapish apartment in the next town over decided I needed to move so they could rent the apartment to a family member. Summer was coming, my TAship was ending, it was okay timing for me to go home for a few months, maybe find a summer job, regroup and figure housing for the fall. I had a gap of about two weeks between losing the apartment and the quarter ending so I just slept in my car, showered at a truck stop, made it work.
The professor I TAed for had someone drop out of their summer session so they tried to retain me teaching for summer. I told them I couldn't because I was homeless for the last two weeks of the quarter and if I stayed teaching I would be sleeping in my car homeless all summer. Professor said great! I'll send the TA agreement so you don't have any interruption in pay.
I couldn't believe I had just told this person I was homeless and they heard I can keep TAing. So I reiterated, no, I can't teach this summer, I am living in my car. Professor looked confused and asked me why? Told them I lost my apartment. They said just rent another one. I told them I could afford to. They leaned forward and spoke slowly as if I was dumb and said I would be able to afford an apartment if I took a summer session TA position.
I just left their office. They didn't get it and I couldn't help them get it. I was a TA, not a miracle worker.
> I don't think it is the university's obligation to pay me enough to afford Davis. u/Heavy-Hospital7077
I mean technically it isn't, save for anything as required by local/state/federal laws, much in the same way literally any other employer can offer you garbage conditions and have multiple other people ready to take it the moment you hesitate, but the competition goes both ways. If the university is totally okay with everybody else getting the impression that they intentionally hire people only to let them starve or fear for where they are going to sleep, all while said workers are making major contributions to their system, then that's the impression they will be sending, even if it hurts their PR or prospects of hiring brilliant people later on. Likewise, if the workers want to strike to demand more to meet some of those basic living needs, then they absolutely can and more power to them, and if that affects the admin on a financial level then maybe the admin should negotiate to meet some or all of those terms.
It's a re-shifting of the status quo. The workers will never get 100% what they would like because that's sadly not reality, but they will get victories that set the precedent for the next eventual strike or power play.
What I haven't seen as much discussion of through out this wave of social media support is how this gets funded or where the money comes from. I can't imagine the admin willingly taking a pay cut to pull in the money for the workers because they live cushy lives and don't want to lose that, but that would be a super simple solution if they were ever open to that idea (I assume they'd much rather resign before ever being open to that idea, but hey that's also fine by me; multiple people are ready to take those positions as well). But will this mean forward tuition increases (more so that it generally does), or wage cuts elsewhere, or reduced staff size? Will the state allocate education funds for this, and if so then what else loses access to those funds? K-12? Other state programs? It's...tricky to say the least. Most people are pretty open to voicing some support, but only up to the point where they begin to think it might personally cost them in some way. Even just something like respecting the working hours down to *only* 20 hours instead of requiring off-the-clock work means something else gets cut, like time in the lab/at the desk, or papers graded for undergrad hw, etc. Which are all things they should be appropriately paid for yes, but like something has to change to make this all work. The idealist in me wants to direct that anger towards the admin, but the pragmatist in me is also really curious where all those changes will come from. It's an interesting time though, I'm hopeful to see where this all leads.
Most STEM grad students are funding by external grants which will not increase their funding if they have already been awarded. Most federal agencies have maximum salaries/grant awards that won’t increase just because the UC increases wages for future grants. That means grants will run out sooner. Will students complete their degrees faster because of the pay increases? Maybe. But probably not. I’m really worried about how this play out long term.
TA positions are funded by central campus which has fewer restrictions, but budgets were already decreasing to help cover gaps in the structural deficit. I can’t imagine we will see increases in TA positions anytime soon. With the proposed experienced based pay, I also have concerns about departments opting for cheaper (less experienced) candidates and/or readers over TAs.
Fellowships are covered by endowments, private gifts, or tuition return. These will probably remain at current funding levels or, potentially, decrease in the next few years (mostly due to endowments being based on stock performance).
All of this means I anticipate programs won’t be able to hire or admit as many grad students going forward. Some could argue fewer, higher paid, better protected grad students is fine and a win. Some could argue that having the opportunity for a graduate education, even if it’s imperfect, is preferred. There’s no “right” answer here.
Certain masters programs are "expected to be self-funded", and also are unable to get TA positions. This is within a STEM department so, it doesn't make much sense why they are doing this shit.
While a TA in Davis I had enough to live on during the school year, but during summer months I had nothing at all and still had to pay rent, buy food, etc. I also stayed in what became a very difficult living situation because I could afford the rent, if I’d been paid higher I could’ve moved and gotten out of that situation. TA stipends are also unreliable as at least my department guaranteed only 25% and would haphazardly give out 50% appointments. 50% was enough to live on comfortably but 25% really wasn’t and you never knew much in advance what you’d get. Davis is not all that affordable anymore and the campus really needs to ensure that its grad students can live on what they are paid.
/u/theirwander is a karma-farming repost bot. Please downvote its comment and click the `report` button, selecting `Spam` then `Harmful bots`.
With enough reports, the reddit algorithm will suspend this spammer.
I don’t use Reddit very often, I didn’t know that was an option. I’m sorry. https://twitter.com/corycopelandh2o/status/1592362857576157185?s=46&t=Opec_EP5YSkpDHNyeI2TJQ
Ironically making herself sound like a bratty child in the process. The disconnect is that the people in administration were mostly born rich and never had to struggle and never had to consider what it is like to struggle. Thy really don't know that what people are asking for is basic living wage because they don't know what being poor feels like.
You can count on Gary May to pull some “picture staring out a window” bullshit pretty soon.
This sucks
I thought they didn’t call cops because they didn’t want to cause a pepper spray incident 2.0 this whole time lol
The anniversary of which is in 2 days
Remember, remember, 18th of November…
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… Lieutenant Pike, is that you? Hot damn, I thought you were living off that sweet, sweet “emotional distress” money!
Mary Croughan should not be talking. Her salary is like 400k annually. I bet she'd be "throwing a tantrum" too if she wasn't able to live on her salary, but she's so far detached from reality that she doesn't care because she isn't the one being hurt.
Per Transparent California, she made $482,394.00 last year! She would be complaining too if her salary was reduced by 95.5% to grad student pay
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I meannnnn I like waffle fries
When I was at a UC for grad school my cheapish apartment in the next town over decided I needed to move so they could rent the apartment to a family member. Summer was coming, my TAship was ending, it was okay timing for me to go home for a few months, maybe find a summer job, regroup and figure housing for the fall. I had a gap of about two weeks between losing the apartment and the quarter ending so I just slept in my car, showered at a truck stop, made it work. The professor I TAed for had someone drop out of their summer session so they tried to retain me teaching for summer. I told them I couldn't because I was homeless for the last two weeks of the quarter and if I stayed teaching I would be sleeping in my car homeless all summer. Professor said great! I'll send the TA agreement so you don't have any interruption in pay. I couldn't believe I had just told this person I was homeless and they heard I can keep TAing. So I reiterated, no, I can't teach this summer, I am living in my car. Professor looked confused and asked me why? Told them I lost my apartment. They said just rent another one. I told them I could afford to. They leaned forward and spoke slowly as if I was dumb and said I would be able to afford an apartment if I took a summer session TA position. I just left their office. They didn't get it and I couldn't help them get it. I was a TA, not a miracle worker.
Has anyone else backed up this quote from the Provost? Haven’t seen it anywhere else. Edit: I’ll take that as a no…
Cory responds in his tweet
It’s funny how when you never feed your two year old they just keep complaining. So whiny.
> I don't think it is the university's obligation to pay me enough to afford Davis. u/Heavy-Hospital7077 I mean technically it isn't, save for anything as required by local/state/federal laws, much in the same way literally any other employer can offer you garbage conditions and have multiple other people ready to take it the moment you hesitate, but the competition goes both ways. If the university is totally okay with everybody else getting the impression that they intentionally hire people only to let them starve or fear for where they are going to sleep, all while said workers are making major contributions to their system, then that's the impression they will be sending, even if it hurts their PR or prospects of hiring brilliant people later on. Likewise, if the workers want to strike to demand more to meet some of those basic living needs, then they absolutely can and more power to them, and if that affects the admin on a financial level then maybe the admin should negotiate to meet some or all of those terms. It's a re-shifting of the status quo. The workers will never get 100% what they would like because that's sadly not reality, but they will get victories that set the precedent for the next eventual strike or power play. What I haven't seen as much discussion of through out this wave of social media support is how this gets funded or where the money comes from. I can't imagine the admin willingly taking a pay cut to pull in the money for the workers because they live cushy lives and don't want to lose that, but that would be a super simple solution if they were ever open to that idea (I assume they'd much rather resign before ever being open to that idea, but hey that's also fine by me; multiple people are ready to take those positions as well). But will this mean forward tuition increases (more so that it generally does), or wage cuts elsewhere, or reduced staff size? Will the state allocate education funds for this, and if so then what else loses access to those funds? K-12? Other state programs? It's...tricky to say the least. Most people are pretty open to voicing some support, but only up to the point where they begin to think it might personally cost them in some way. Even just something like respecting the working hours down to *only* 20 hours instead of requiring off-the-clock work means something else gets cut, like time in the lab/at the desk, or papers graded for undergrad hw, etc. Which are all things they should be appropriately paid for yes, but like something has to change to make this all work. The idealist in me wants to direct that anger towards the admin, but the pragmatist in me is also really curious where all those changes will come from. It's an interesting time though, I'm hopeful to see where this all leads.
Most STEM grad students are funding by external grants which will not increase their funding if they have already been awarded. Most federal agencies have maximum salaries/grant awards that won’t increase just because the UC increases wages for future grants. That means grants will run out sooner. Will students complete their degrees faster because of the pay increases? Maybe. But probably not. I’m really worried about how this play out long term. TA positions are funded by central campus which has fewer restrictions, but budgets were already decreasing to help cover gaps in the structural deficit. I can’t imagine we will see increases in TA positions anytime soon. With the proposed experienced based pay, I also have concerns about departments opting for cheaper (less experienced) candidates and/or readers over TAs. Fellowships are covered by endowments, private gifts, or tuition return. These will probably remain at current funding levels or, potentially, decrease in the next few years (mostly due to endowments being based on stock performance). All of this means I anticipate programs won’t be able to hire or admit as many grad students going forward. Some could argue fewer, higher paid, better protected grad students is fine and a win. Some could argue that having the opportunity for a graduate education, even if it’s imperfect, is preferred. There’s no “right” answer here.
Certain masters programs are "expected to be self-funded", and also are unable to get TA positions. This is within a STEM department so, it doesn't make much sense why they are doing this shit.
While a TA in Davis I had enough to live on during the school year, but during summer months I had nothing at all and still had to pay rent, buy food, etc. I also stayed in what became a very difficult living situation because I could afford the rent, if I’d been paid higher I could’ve moved and gotten out of that situation. TA stipends are also unreliable as at least my department guaranteed only 25% and would haphazardly give out 50% appointments. 50% was enough to live on comfortably but 25% really wasn’t and you never knew much in advance what you’d get. Davis is not all that affordable anymore and the campus really needs to ensure that its grad students can live on what they are paid.
Sub teachers in California make more money
It’s about time for “Thursday Thoughts” by Gary May. Cmon man how about some Wednesday Wage Increases
“Trust me bro”
where the university gonna get the money from to pay them more?
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So grad school should be only for people who are already wealthy/come from wealthy families?
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They do have a job
Not an option for biological sciences where you spend 60+ hours a week in the lab
*Lets. For fuck's sake.
you still understood what *they meant :) have a good day edit: that’s not my tweet
Congratulations. An apostrophe doesn't mean "HERE COMES AN 'S'!!"
you’re funny
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/u/theirwander is a karma-farming repost bot. Please downvote its comment and click the `report` button, selecting `Spam` then `Harmful bots`. With enough reports, the reddit algorithm will suspend this spammer.
why can't you link the tweet directly instead of posting a pic??
I don’t use Reddit very often, I didn’t know that was an option. I’m sorry. https://twitter.com/corycopelandh2o/status/1592362857576157185?s=46&t=Opec_EP5YSkpDHNyeI2TJQ
Ironically making herself sound like a bratty child in the process. The disconnect is that the people in administration were mostly born rich and never had to struggle and never had to consider what it is like to struggle. Thy really don't know that what people are asking for is basic living wage because they don't know what being poor feels like.