Strike News: Additional Developments - Part 4

Thursday, December 08, 2022

EdSource recently ran an article about delayed grading due to the student worker strike and its possible impact. We remind readers of our suggestion early on in this dispute that impasses can sometimes be settled through some form of arbitration.* Excerpt from EdSource:

The strike by University California academic workers may soon hit some undergraduates in a vulnerable spot: their grades. With the strike in its fourth week and no end in sight, faculty across the system are now planning to withhold tens of thousands of grades this fall in solidarity with those workers. That could have significant and dire implications for some undergraduates, such as those who need a certain grade point average to maintain federal financial aid and students planning to graduate this fall or soon apply to graduate school...

UC officials say very few students — maybe less than 1% of its 230,000 undergraduates — might have aid withheld if grades aren’t submitted on time and that the university is taking steps to mitigate those possible impacts. As of Tuesday, UC faculty have committed to withholding more than 30,000 grades until the strike ends. That number is based on self-reported information that faculty organizers have collected using an online form...

UC leadership has urged faculty to submit grades on time, even threatening to withhold pay if they don’t. In a recent letter to UC administrators, UC Provost Michael Brown wrote that faculty have the “responsibility to maintain course and curricular requirements,” including the “timely awarding and submission of grades.” He added that UC could “withhold their compensation” for faculty who “choose to withhold their labor during the strike.” ...

When it comes to financial aid disbursement, UC says fewer than 2,300 or so of its roughly 230,000 undergraduate students would be impacted. UC also plans to help those students in the event aid is withheld, including by offering UC-administered aid when a student can’t get federal aid...

Full story at https://edsource.org/2022/students-fear-losing-aid-as-grades-are-withheldduring-strike/682232.

* https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2022/11/the-strike-if-it-drags-on.html.

To hear the text above, click on the link below:

https://ia601402.us.archive.org/25/items/big-ten/additional%204.mp3