Quick Take
About 5,000 undergraduates at UC Santa Cruz are still missing at least one letter grade for fall quarter assignments that went ungraded during the graduate worker strike. The university is encouraging faculty to prioritize grading for students who are most affected.
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About 5,000 undergraduates at UC Santa Cruz are still missing at least one letter grade for assignments due in the fall quarter that went ungraded during the graduate worker strike.
UCSC spokesperson Scott Hernandez-Jason said about 90% of all grades have been submitted and most of the remaining 10% will become letter grades over the next several weeks.
“We want to make sure that our students get grades for the work that they did in fall quarter and we’re looking to provide the support and resources to departments to make that happen,” he said, adding that students should reach out to instructors if they haven’t received a letter grade in the next few weeks.
Last quarter, about 48,000 UC academic workers and graduate student employees went on strike for up to six weeks as they demanded — and won — better pay and working conditions. The workers, including more than 2,000 at UCSC, walked off the job leaving a backlog of ungraded assignments.
As a result, thousands of students were left without grades, which eventually became “pass” grades. A pass grade, however, is insufficient for several categories of students who need a letter grade, such as athletes who are required to have grades in order to compete and students who aren’t meeting academic progress, among others.
Hernandez-Jason said the university is encouraging faculty to prioritize grading for students who are most affected, such as those who are at UCSC on a short-term basis and students who request that their grade be prioritized.
Steve McKay, co-chair of the UCSC Faculty Association, said the university is providing some financial support for faculty who need to hire graders and readers. However, based on what some union members with large class sizes have told McKay, some faculty find the support “woefully inadequate.”
McKay said the university will be providing support only to classes with more than 50 students, and that he didn’t know what amount of money it is offering. He said he was informed that the university is providing up to 12 hours of financial assistance for classes with between 50 to 99 students, and for classes with over 100 students the university is offering a maximum of 20 hours of support.
Hernandez-Jason said he didn’t know if this was the offer the university provided and promised to confirm with Lookout; he didn’t know how much money was being offered.
For faculty who need more assistance than what the university is offering, Hernandez-Jason said they should speak to their department chair.
“I would encourage them to work with their department chair and that the concerns would get elevated and we would collaboratively work to find any solutions,” he said. He added that he didn’t know if that means that departments will provide that supplemental funding and promised to confirm.
McKay said the resources the university is providing are helpful, but some faculty have told him they need many more hours of additional paid support from graders and readers.
“People really do want to turn in their grades — they’re already teaching other classes, and they’d love to get it in their rearview mirror,” he said. “I think there’s a fear [that] it’s going to fall on the faculty to pick up anything — the grading — that is needed to do above that amount. It’s the right intention, but it’s not enough.”
