While we are all rightly occupied with confronting the pandemic spread of COVID-19 we cannot forget our more local emergency: the Graduate Association strike that has entered its third week and has recently confirmed that it will continue in the Spring.
The SBFA board would like to inform faculty–to the best of our knowledge–of what we are likely to confront in the weeks to come–along with the challenges of remote teaching.
The COLA campaign is proceeding in the Spring quarter with two levels of strike: full and grading.
Grading Strike : Some instructing TAs will attend online lectures, hold online office hours, facilitate and grade assignments, but withhold submission of final grades except for those students with an immediate need for grade records for the duration of the strike.
Full Strike : Other instructing TAs will continue to withhold teaching labor for sections (when applicable) and course administration labor. TAs will continue to grade assignments in conversation with the instructor of record. TAs will be responsible for grading their own students as originally assigned, but withhold submission of final grades except for those students with an immediate need for grade records.
Given the shift to remote teaching in response to the COVID-19 health crisis, and as striking TAs and readers move to a digital picket, faculty understandably have many questions about how they will teach large classes online without the labor of teaching assistants to run discussion sections. Although we recognize that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the many complications this poses, we recommend the following steps, whether or not you are supportive of the strike:
• Communicate with your TAs about their intentions with regard to their TA responsibilities. Ask how they are choosing to participate in the strike so that you can make arrangements accordingly. We recommend that you do not disclose, voluntarily or involuntarily, their names or level of participation, and therefore suggest you communicate with them over the phone or videoconferencing rather than university email.
• There are three questions you should resolve: Discussion Sections, Office Hours, and Final Grades: Given TAs’ varied levels of participation in the strike as above, we suggest that you work with your TAs as a unit to come up with a single collective decision on teaching responsibilities. The following options, all of which ensure that undergraduates will receive the same amount of instruction from TAs across sections and thus parity across the course as a whole, may help you navigate that discussion:
1. All TAs hold their discussion sections as usual.
2. If some TAs are striking from teaching labor, the other TAs might agree to take on their students.
3. If others are not willing to take on extra students, then TAs should seek agreement that they all teach their sections.
4. All TAs agree to run discussion sections on a rotating basis, so that each discussion section meets only fortnightly, once every three weeks, or less (depending on the number of TAs).
5. All TAs agree to cancel discussion sections entirely for the duration of the quarter.
Although the Faculty Association as such has not taken and will not take a position of official endorsement of the strike, we close by affirming our support for all of the graduate student TAs and readers of UAW Local 2865 at UCSB who are demanding greater compensation for the essential work they provide to students, staff and faculty at UCSB. While many faculty are feeling the increased demand on our workloads as we juggle a range of commitments-from organizing social care for family and friends to shifting to remote instruction-we also recognize that our graduate students continue to face fundamental challenges to their livelihoods as they struggle for a cost-of-living adjustment. Their dire situation is made even worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. The intense forms of insecurity facing graduate students are exacerbated under a healthcare crisis that heightens anxiety and uncertainty for those in precarious living conditions. We ask faculty to show solidarity in these times where it is most needed.
The UCSB Faculty Association Board