Strike Day One

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Strike Day One

The first day of our grading strike is here, and it's as exciting and nerve-wracking as the first day of school. Here's a meme to calm your nerves:

A shiba inu dog shaped like a loaf of bread with the words "#COLA4ALL" on the side. Surrounding text says, "Good morning comrades, let's get that bread!"

Feel better? Me too. So what exactly is going on and how can you get involved? Below is a quick, handy guide to the UCD COLA grade strike.

Image says, "What is a grade strike? What do you need to know? 1. A grading strike is the withholding of grades by teaching assistants (TAs) designed to disrupt the everyday functioning of the University. 2. This simply means that TAs do not submit grades through official channels. However, they do continue to grade, hold sections, and office hours. 3. The University of California only spends 0.6% of its total budget on teaching assistants, without whom the UC could not function. TAs are struggling to meet our basic needs and deserve a living wage." Below the text is series of links: ucd4cola@gmail.com ucdcola4all.org and @ucd4cola on twitter and instagram.

So that's it, that's what we're doing! We'll be striking until we get our demands met, which you can see below.

Demands
A Cost of Living Adjustment.*** (Details included below)
Drop all charges against students and workers arrested at UCSC and UCI for their involvement in the COLA strike and organizing activity.
Cease all efforts of retaliation against striking ASEs.
End threats of deportation against international and undocumented students.
Create enough affordable housing for all students, including students with dependents, and provide accessible housing for disabled students.
Disarm the UC Davis Police Force.
Invest in safeguarding the future of the UC Davis Ethnic Studies program by increasing tenure faculty lines and full-time staff, and committing to funding programming to support Indigenous students and students of color.
Divest endowment funds from policing, surveillance, militarization, and occupation, specifically in alignment with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israeli apartheid.
***A Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) is to be understood as an ongoing stipend to every graduate student that would bring them out of rent burden. At current rates, in Yolo County, this amounts to $1,553.20 per month.