Lack of action from the UC underscores negligence, irresponsibility
To the University of California Office of the President,
We, as a representative body for undergraduate students at UC Davis, are writing to express our utmost discontent over the forceful transition into the new UCPath payroll system. Over these past several weeks, a plethora of complaints regarding UCPath have been brought up. Since its initial rollout on the UC Davis campus in October of 2019, there have been persistent issues with hiring and processing payroll for our student employees. Many students have either not been paid or have been receiving incomplete amounts on their checks.
The Associated Students, University of California, Davis (ASUCD) employs upwards of 1,200 students, all of whom are vital to our daily operations and services. This means that our students — students who work at the Coffee House and serve our campus community on a daily basis, our workers at the Pantry who ensure folks don’t go home hungry and even our student bus drivers who, in addition to serving the city of Davis, make sure students are able to attend their classes — have all been severely impacted by the UC’s mandate to roll out UCPath.
These same students have mouths to feed and a roof to keep over their head. The lack of transparency with students about this situation is concerning and the fact that students have not been paid is absurd. Various other UCs that have been forced to transition over to UCPath faced similar issues over missing and inadequate pay. The UC decided to gradually roll out the UCPath system across the UCs. The fact that there are still issues with the system and no action from the University of California shows undergraduate student employees the negligence and lack of responsibility of their university.
Students are at the point where they can no longer stand waiting for the administration to take action. If the University of California is unable to provide a reliable system under UCPath, especially when the previous payroll system for ASUCD was functioning optimally and operated in-house, then there is no need for this transition. We demand that the University of California take responsibility for its actions and compensate monetarily for the delayed wages.
The transition to UCPath has caused many students undue stress. Students on our campus live paycheck to paycheck and rely on their timely wages to pay rent and afford meals. They rely on their jobs while simultaneously pursuing an education at UC Davis. This is unacceptable. As ASUCD representatives, we stand in solidarity with our student workers and demand action be taken immediately.
Shondreya Landrum, ASUCD Senator, Pro Tempore
Shreya Deshpande, ASUCD Internal Vice President
Victoria Choi, ASUCD Senator
Anna Estrada, ASUCD Senator
Justin Hurst, ASUCD President
Kevin Rotenkolber, ASUCD Controller
Sean Kumar, ASUCD Senator
Maya Barak, ASUCD Senator
Filip Stamenkovic, ASUCD Business and Finance Commission Chairman
Adam Hatefi, ASUCD External Affairs Vice President
Karolina Rodriguez, ASUCD Senator
Jose A. Sanchez, ASUCD Senator
Sahiba Kaur, ASUCD Senator
Peiyuan Chen, ASUCD Senator
Elena DeNecochea, ASUCD Gender and Sexuality Commission Chairperson
Jonina Balabis, ASUCD Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission Chairperson
Shelby Salyer, ASUCD External Affairs Commission Chairperson
