Michael Gutperle, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, UCLA, gave the following speech at the Faculty Solidarity rally on December 2, 2022.
My name is Michael Gutperle and I am a professor of theoretical physics in the department of Physics and Astronomy. I am here today to show my solidarity with the striking graduate student teachers, researchers and postdocs.
Graduate students are essential for the research and teaching at UCLA and play a big part in making UCLA one of the top universities and research centers in the world. In my department I can’t think of any lab or research group which would be able to function and be successful without the essential work of graduate students and postdocs, and I am sure this is true throughout the whole university.
In Physics and Astronomy discussions and labs are very important and in fact in many cases they are the place where most of the learning happens. Undergraduate students solve problems and do experiments under the guidance of TAs, who interact with undergraduate students closely. TAs understand the struggles and problems of undergraduates better than professors (old codgers like me), since often they were undergraduates themselves only a few years ago. So the excellence in teaching at UCLA is also dependent on the hard work of graduate students.
I have been at UCLA for over twenty years, and for most of the time I have witnessed that the financial support of graduate students through TA and GSR appointments is not sufficient to live in Los Angeles. Financial hardship creates a lot of stress, which is detrimental to the success of the graduate students in their studies and research and therefore detrimental to the success of UCLA as a whole. This has become much worse in the last couple of years due to diminishing state support of the university, misplaced priorities of the university administration, the pandemic, the enormous increase in the cost of living and rent, and the high burden of student loans. As faculty we told ourselves many times that something needed to be done, but sadly nothing was really done. That is why I support the strike of graduate students, who with this strike are doing something to finally bring about change.
What can faculty do to support the strike ?
First, support the striking students. You can donate to the strike fund. Speak up on behalf of the strike in your department. Sign petitions and letters to the administration. Talk and educate your colleagues and undergraduate students in your classes!
Second, do not give failing grades or unsatisfactory grades in independent study and doctoral research classes like 596, 599 or such. The separation of paid research and academic research work is arbitrary and used to pressure graduate students to stop striking.
Third, do not pick up struck work and resist the push by the university administration to force faculty to replace TA work, do the grading of the TA, and submit grades by the grading deadline. Refuse to use outside-hired replacement work for grading or proctoring.
A university is a community of scholars which should treat all their members with dignity and respect. I urge the University of California to do exactly this and treat their graduate students with dignity and respect and agree to fair contracts.
Thank you and let’s all keep up the good fight.