Two years after the pepper spray incident, it is time to gather on the Quad at noon to confront the reality of our university. In the past years, the largest unions at UC have been active in trying to preserve quality of education and service at UC in the face of increasing inequality and police repression. Although each union’s demands are specific, they have in common an opposition to the privatization of the UC, the raising of its tuition, the lowering of its standards and the stark difference in pay between those at the bottom and those at the top.
In short, the same struggles that played out in the quad two years ago as part of Occupy UC Davis continue to haunt our campus. Two years ago, the focus of protest was a massive increase in tuition. This Nov. 18, with a former law enforcement official with no educational experience now at the helm of the UC system, we must gather to oppose police repression and defend quality education at UC.
The UC depends on the work of TAs, readers and associate instructors, who are the frontline educators in most departments. And yet, even as administrators get paid more and more, and tuitions go up and up, TA wages have been stagnant (dropping, if one calculates for inflation). Class sizes have gone up, and the ability of these educators to earn a living and provide a quality education has deteriorated — even as the students they serve pay more for that education!
Monday Nov. 18 and Tuesday Nov. 19, the UC Student-Workers Union UAW 2865 will be bargaining with UC Administration here on the Davis campus for a new contract, one that pays us fairly and guarantees a quality education for our students. Join us in the Quad at noon on Nov. 18, and join us at the bargaining sessions, to show support for your frontline educators.
Steve Cox
Department of History
University of California, Davis
