A faculty survey conducted by the Council of University of California (UC) Faculty Associations—a larger agency for faculty organizations across UC campuses—reported professors are withholding about 40,000 fall semester final grades as of Jan. 11, an agency spokesperson told The Epoch Times.
The UC must now work out how it will return thousands of final grades for the fall 2022 semester in the aftermath of a six-week strike by 48,000 academic workers.
The strike ended Dec. 23 when UC ratified its contract with leaders of the United Auto Workers, the union representing the strikers. But because academic employees such as teaching assistants are often responsible for grading, the strike left many classes without teaching assistants to grade assignments and end-of-semester exams.
Additionally, some professors chose to leave fall grades unsubmitted out of solidarity with academic workers.
Leaders from several unions told UC labor officials in a Jan. 4 letter that neither their members nor faculty are required to complete the work assigned to strikers.
“Senate faculty members and lecturers have no obligation to volunteer to pick up labor struck by [academic student employees] employed in their classes,” the letter read. “Readers and teaching assistants in [the union] enjoyed legal protections during their strike, and their appointments for the fall quarter terminated on December 31 at the latest while the strike was active.”
If the UC needs additional labor to submit fall grades, it can hire people, the union officials said.
A UC spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment by press deadline.
Some campuses extended the deadlines for instructors to submit final grades—with UC Davis extending its deadline from Dec. 14 to Dec. 27, UC Berkeley extending it from Dec. 21 to Dec. 31, and UC Irvine extending its deadline from Dec. 16 to Jan. 19.
UC Davis Provost Mary Croughan said in a statement last month that not receiving a grade on final exams will not influence UC Davis students’ grade point average, financial aid, or eligibility for veteran benefits or visa status.
The ratified contract will raise the minimum pay for both academic student employees and graduate student workers from about $24,000 to $34,000, according to UC officials.
Other notable benefits include providing up to $2,025 in childcare reimbursements per semester and waiving supplemental tuition for nonresidents for up to three years for those who have advanced to candidacy in their graduate degree programs.
Meanwhile, the contract ratified Nov. 29 for postdoctoral scholars includes up to a 23 percent salary increase by October, up to $2,500 annual childcare reimbursement with annual $100 childcare increases over the next three years, two-year initial appointments, and a new paid leave program with 100 percent pay for up to eight weeks, according to union officials.
The contract for academic researchers includes a pay raise of 4.5 percent for the first year, 3.5 percent for the second, third, and fourth years, and 4 percent in the fifth year; eight weeks of 100 percent paid family leave; increased bereavement leave; and a new system to address workplace conduct and conflict resolution.
