Quick Take
Graduate student workers say they want amnesty for the more than 100 people arrested at UC Santa Cruz's pro-Palestine encampment May 30-31. They say they will then finish grading of their undergraduate students. UCSC says it won’t negotiate. What’s likely: “pass” grades for those ungraded.
With thousands of grades left unfinished for the spring quarter at UC Santa Cruz, recently striking graduate student workers have offered to finish grading them – in exchange for amnesty for the more than 100 people arrested at the UCSC Gaza solidarity encampment last month.
The grad student workers at UCSC and six other University of California campuses had walked off the job between May 20 and June 7, in support of pro-Palestine protesters and opposing the arrests at encampments at several campuses. However, the Orange County Superior Court granted the UC’s request for a temporary restraining order against the union on June 7 effectively immediately, and they returned to work. The return meant that workers had much grading of their undergraduate students to do. As they approached the June 18 grading deadline, about 5,000 grades needed were unfinished, according to the United Auto Workers (UAW) 4811 unit chair at UCSC, Rebecca Gross.
Now, the union, as it announced on Instagram, has made an offer to UCSC administrators to have union members finish the grading in exchange for UC administrators granting the arrested protesters amnesty. Such an amnesty would apply to more than 100 people that police arrested at the UCSC encampment on May 30 and 31.
Gross said the union has given administrators until Wednesday, June 26, to respond.
UCSC officials said they didn’t have an estimate of the number of unfinished grades.
So what will likely happen with those grades? By UC Santa Cruz policy, missing grades would be converted to pass/not pass grades.
All grades that have not been submitted by July 17 become pass/not pass, according to a policy passed by the UCSC Academic Senate in November 2023. “Any missing grades will be converted to pass grades 30 days after the grade submission deadline, after the instructor, course sponsoring agency, and the supervising dean have been informed in a timely manner,” the policy says.
“To address these worrying problems in good faith, we are prepared to make an unprecedented offer. We will complete and submit the unfinished grades by July 17, despite the conclusion of our service dates, if all legal and student conduct charges are dropped,” the union wrote in its offer. “We consider it in the campus community’s best interest for the administration to accept this offer. It is undoubtedly the simplest, quickest, and most cost-effective path forward.”
Campus spokesperson Abby Butler didn’t directly respond as to whether or not UCSC administrators were considering the offer. She said via email, “UC Santa Cruz does not negotiate with our local UAW – all negotiations are systemwide.”
As for the request for amnesty, she said university members must go through the “applicable review process. Amnesty for students, faculty and staff is not in alignment with the UC guidelines for determining disciplinary actions.”
UAW 4811 and the UC are scheduled for a hearing on Thursday on the lawsuit that UC had filed against the union for breach of contract.
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