STATEMENT OF SUPPORT FOR UC GRADUATE STUDENTS FALL 2022

November 16, 2022

The faculty and staff of the UCLA Department of African American Studies stand in support of our Postdoctoral Scholars, Academic Researchers, Academic Student Employees (ASEs-TAs/Readers/Tutors), and Graduate Student Researchers in their ongoing contract negotiations with the University of California. In a discipline that was created on the shoulders of student activism in pursuit of equity and social justice, we ask that the University of California negotiates in good faith in response to the aforementioned workers’ demands, for most notably livable wages, affordable housing, child care subsidies, and support for international and disabled scholars. In an effort to recruit and retain talented graduate students, postdoc fellows, and academic researchers both nationally and internationally to the University of California, it is imperative that they are provided competitive financial packages that will further incentivize their efforts as researchers, teachers, and students. Graduate student labor is fundamental to our pedagogical and scholarly enterprise, which cannot be sustained without improving their living and working conditions. We solemnly affirm these academic workers’ legal right to strike and unequivocally pledge not to retaliate against any participants in such an action.

In solidarity,

The Staff and Faculty of the UCLA African American Studies Department