Campus Impacts

Undergraduates

It has been said that the grade strike is a “victimless” action. However, when students do not have grades, it can have a profound, and perhaps unexpected, impact on student success including:

Loss of Financial Aid

The Department of Education (DOE) requires verification of student academic progress. If the Financial Aid and Scholarship Office’s (FASO) cannot verify a student’s eligibility, financial aid must be adjusted (decreased) and funds returned leaving students responsible for the difference. Moreover, while the FASO will make all attempts to reinstate a financial aid award once the grades are submitted, in some cases, depending on individual factors including the type of aid involved, the reduction in aid may be irreversible.

Enrollment Difficulties

Missing grades, and the resulting lack of credits, can impact a student’s prerequisites, academic standing, and even their ability to enroll in a course restricted to their class level (i.e., senior seminar). Likewise, a lack of credits—resulting from missing grades—can impact a student’s position during enrollment possibly impacting their ability to get into more popular classes.

Ability to Apply for Graduation

Without grades, some students may not be able to successfully apply for graduation. The Office of the Registrar may not be able to grant a degree for a student who is missing a grade. Additionally, missing grades prohibit the determination of whether a student qualifies for any academic honors.

Ability to Declare a Major

Students with missing grades may not be able to declare a major by the February 7 deadline.

Timely Transcript Receipt

Without grades, the Office of the Registrar will be unable to provide a complete transcript which may impact applications to transfer, graduate school, external programs or external scholarships.

Students who want any missing grades should reach out to their course instructor.

Graduate Student Wildcat Strikers

Our graduate students play an important role in the educational mission of UCSC, however, their strike action— unsanctioned and unapproved by their own union—is having a significant impact on our undergraduate students and undermining the very mission of our campus.

Background

Grades were officially due December 18. At every step along the way from that date until today, Chancellor Larive has made extremely clear that she cannot and will not take action to open a negotiated systemwide contract to meet demands for a 60 percent increase in salary. However, she did commit in January to provide $7 million annually to launch, two new programs to provide our doctoral and MFA students with the greater financial security and a predictability that has been missing for many of them. At the same time and in good faith, the deadline for submitting grades was extended to February 2nd. At the time, students were informed that should they miss that deadline they would receive a letter of warning as part of the employment discipline process.

Needless to say, it was extremely disappointing when the striking students responded not by ending their grade strike but by escalating it to full teaching strike. This is a situation that is no longer tenable.

Continued Withholding of Grades / Teaching Strike

The campus is giving these students one final opportunity to fulfill their teaching responsibilities and demonstrate that they can meet future responsibilities. All students who have continued to withhold fall grades following the receipt of warning letters have until 11:59 p.m. on Friday, February 21 to:

  • submit all missing grades
  • to end the strike, and
  • to fulfill their contractual obligations including resuming teaching and submitting winter grades

Those who choose not to comply will not receive spring quarter appointments or will be dismissed from their spring quarter appointments. This is not a step we have taken lightly. Contingency plans will be developed to mitigate the issues this will create once we understand who has returned to work and who has not. We understand that this is going to result in challenges but believe at this point, it is our best option.

Grade Deletion

A number of students in addition to withholding grades have also appeared to have deleted previously entered grades from the system. Due to the seriousness of this action, students alleged to have deleted grades have received student conduct summonses.

Staff

Dedicated UC Santa Cruz staff members across campus have gone above and beyond to mitigate the consequences of the grade strike.

In response to the unsanctioned strike, staff members have:

  • Waived some late fees and provided some emergency loans to students in specific financial aid situations.
  • Launched a labor-intensive process for the partial posting of grade rosters.
  • Worked on class prerequisite issues to ensure students could enroll in the most appropriate class, and worked with the Senate to develop new procedures for prerequisite assessment where needed.
  • Provided temporary waivers from satisfactory progress for some student athletes for whom missing grades indicated a lack of credits in official records.
  • Modified the approach to students on academic probation.
  • Reached out to many instructors individually for grades desperately needed by students for financial aid, prerequisite, graduation, major declaration, graduate school applications, internship applications, scholarships.

Cost of Safety

UC Santa Cruz has 10,000 people living on campus which includes students, families with children, and people with medical conditions. The campus has a responsibility to make sure that its community members and emergency vehicles can enter and exit the campus safely. The campus heard from many people who were blocked from entering campus because of the picketing.

UC Santa Cruz police officers and those who come in to provide aid are well-trained and work to de-escalate situations whenever possible. UC Santa Cruz is committed to the safety of everyone in our community including the students who are currently choosing to disrupt access to the campus. The police presence is not meant to be threatening or to cause distress, but to ensure safety for everyone.