Fears rise that UC strike could have long-lasting consequences on vaunted research, teaching and graduate school
(All times Eastern)
A month after a strike at UC Berkeley by graduate students, teaching assistants, and administrative staff that ended with the university’s police force shooting six people – including one police officer – a battle over class, tenure status and more is just getting started.
The fight over whether graduate students should be considered to be full-time employees or part-timers at the University of California, Berkeley – and whether they, as the strike committee says, belong on a path to tenure – could have far-reaching effects, experts warn, in academia, research and a key sector of the economy that is a linchpin in the state’s economy.
The debate has implications across the UC, from policy changes to student recruitment and retention to the future of the school’s research enterprise.
The University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley
Tumultuous days
The strikes began at 9:30 a.m., and had continued for two weeks at the time of this article’s publication. They resulted from a growing labor revolt over what the California Faculty Association argued was a “rigid” tenure system, that limited the university’s ability to hire and retain students and that led to the creation of an understaffed office of tenure protection. The school’s administration, faculty and graduate students union representatives have accused the administration of being “unresponsive,” “non-responsive,” and “unable to protect the interests of graduate students.”
The faculty association voted in August to decertify the school’s Office of the Chancellor, the office responsible for negotiating class action agreements with students in graduate and professional school, but those negotiations have not yet been reached.
At least one graduate student has been dismissed from her master’s program at the school, the faculty association said. A new dispute erupted over whether students should be allowed
