Students in Field Entomology (ESPM 147) explore the Hastings Field Reserve. Image by Ap2il.

On March 15th, Graduate Assembly representatives attended a meeting of the Environmental Science, Policy and Management (ESPM) Graduate Students’ Association to discuss the GA’s advocacy efforts and projects.

One student remarked that the GA had not been as active this year in the protests against fee increases and budget cuts to higher education. It was noted that in the recent past, the GA had been focusing on lobbying rather than mobilization, and while the GA has been sharing information about actions happening on campus, it hasn’t been actively involved in organizing those actions.

Students in attendance also discussed the importance of a departmental and campus commitment to diversity at both the graduate student and faculty level. Elizabeth De La Torre, the GA’s Project Coordinator Liaison, mentioned that we have had difficulty obtaining relevant diversity statistics at the campus level, and we are currently working with Graduate Division to get access to those.

The issue of Benefits Decentralization (a proposed campus policy change whereby departments would now be responsible to cover the costs of fee remission for their Graduate Student Instructors) and its possible impacts on the availability of 25% and 50% GSI positions was also discussed. Both the GA and the UAW2865 (the GSI union) have been actively working on that question.

Finally, students were interested to know about any changes to the health insurance plan for next year. In March, UC Berkeley decided to join the UC-wide insurance plan in 2011-12, which would increase the level of benefits and provide an opt-in plan for dependents (i.e., spouse or children).

View from the Astronomy Department's Space Sciences Lab. Image by Ianan.

On March 1, Elizabeth de la Torre (GA Projects Coordinator Liaison) and Philippe Marchand (GA Internal Coordinator) met with Astronomy graduate students as well as a few guests from the neighboring Physics department. Topics discussed ranged from graduate student representation on campus to upcoming GA events and resources for students and student groups.

One student who had volunteered to serve as graduate representative on a campus committee mentioned potential communication problems between the campus administration, the Graduate Assembly and students serving on committees, and suggested that the GA systematically follow up on committee appointments.

Students in attendance also discussed the Lower Sproul revitalization project, and suggested the idea of a graduate student pub on campus or, if that’s not possible in the short term, instituting a regular graduate student event (“Grad Night”) at the Bear’s Lair.

Hearst Mining Building, home of the Materials Science and Engineering Department. Image by greenwithevil.

On Feb.24th, GA and UAW2865 representatives attended a meeting of the Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) Graduate Student Council. Discussion topics included funding and work conditions, both for GSIs and GSRs.

As in many science and engineering departments, MSE graduate students are primarily supported by external research grants, although there is no guaranteed funding package upon admission in the department. Externally-funded students rely less on Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) work and are less affected by campus budget cuts. This said, the students present were concerned about the existence and enforcement of regulations regarding graduate student work conditions. (In the words of one student: “Your research advisor controls all your life.”) They expressed interest in the idea of a UC ‘Graduate Student Bill of Rights‘ that would set standards and expectations for how graduate students should be treated by their department and advisor.

This is the first year in the recent past where MSE is represented at the Graduate Assembly. GA funding has been beneficial for this department’s social events. However, students have reported to us that they would like the GA to promote its own programs and events better to students who are not already involved.

“Around the campus in 80 days” continues this week with meetings in Astronomy (March 1st) and Chemistry (March 2nd).

Image by Christian Haugen

In order for the Graduate Assembly (GA) to be an effective advocate for graduate and professional student interests, it is crucial to maintain a two-way dialogue between students and their representatives. This is why the GA has launched a new initiative this semester to facilitate direct conversations between graduate students from all disciplines and GA officers and delegates. Through these discussions, you will have the opportunity to learn more about the current work done by the GA on behalf of UC Berkeley graduate students, and let the GA know which issues matter to students in your department.

The goal of “Around the Campus in 80 Days” is to organize such forums in as many departments as possible from now until the end of April 2011. This includes both departments that are currently represented by Graduate Assembly delegates as well as departments that are not currently active within the Assembly.

See the campaign calendar for the list of departmental forums scheduled so far. If your department is not listed and you are interested in having such a forum, please send a message to internal@ga.berkeley.edu .

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On February 11th, we held the first departmental forum in Earth and Planetary Science (EPS), with 15 students in attendance, along with representatives from both the GA and UAW2865 (the union representing Graduate Student Instructors). Here’s a brief report from this meeting:

• In EPS, students have a formal agreement with the department ensuring that they will be funded for the duration of their degree (through any combination of departmental grants, university grants, external fellowships, and GSI- or GSR-ships).
• Although GSI-ships are not EPS students’ primary source of funding, they still felt the impact of university-wide budget cuts on departmental resources (e.g., cutting office phone lines, relocation of administrative research support from the department to central campus).
• Students present at this meeting seemed favorable to the idea of a UC-wide “Graduate Student Bill of Rights” and suggested including it in information packets sent to incoming graduate students.

Launched on October 1st, the project to improve the efficiency of campus operations is currently in an initial six-month “diagnostic phase.” Bain & Company was hired at a cost of $3 million to conduct the project, which is supervised by a steering committee made up of administrators, faculty and two student representatives (the ASUC and GA presidents).

Answering a question from the assembly, the Bain & Company representative said that they measure efficiency from three types of criteria: cost, time and quality. According to Yeary, “Ideally, there’s tens of millions in saving we could achieve.” The Vice Chancellor added that these savings must be measured against the consequences for service and quality.

Most of the OE project seems to focus on administrative services with which students might have limited interaction (human resources, procurement, etc.). Nevertheless, graduate students present at the meeting made a number of suggestions to the speakers, many of them motivated by environmental concerns, such as energy-efficiency and waste reduction. One such idea was to create a “lab equipment library” to share resources across research groups and departments, and increase the use of equipment that would otherwise be idle most of the time.

One student at the meeting mentioned that in their previous work at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Bain & Company had recommended the centralization of libraries. This led to concerns about the academic impacts of the project. The Berkeley OE website states that “direct aspects of teaching and research that are under faculty governance, as well as options to increase revenue such as registration or education student fees” are out of the project’s scope, a point reiterated by Vice Chancellor Yeary, who said, “Our primary area of focus in on these activities that support teaching or research. [...] The goal is that the maximum resources go directly to teaching and research.”

Graduate students are invited to attend a brainstorming session with Bain & Company representatives on Tuesday, December 1st to share their ideas. It will be held from 5:30pm to 7:30pm in the Graduate Student Lounge in Stephens Hall.

Link:

• Operational Excellence project: http://berkeley.edu/oe

Banners outside Kroeber Hall during the study-in. The "cemetery" refers to a comment made by UC President Yudof in a New York Times interview

”We have an announcement … This is now our library,” said UC Berkeley senior Andi Walden to more than one hundred students, as well as a few professors and staff members, who gathered at the anthropology library in Kroeber Hall on Friday, October 9^th, shortly before the usual 5 pm closure time. During the next 24 hours, they would study for their midterms, participate in various ”teach-ins”, and even sleep over in the reclaimed space.

The principle of this action, organized in less than a week by an informal student group, was to respond to the University’s decision to close nearly all campus libraries on Saturdays. The library closures are the ”undeniable symptom of a dying university,” Walden said, reminding the attendees of the other impacts of this year’s budget cuts, including the unprecedented 32% tuition fee hike and the pay cuts imposed on UC workers across the board, even those already living under the poverty line.

While various actions were discussed to follow up on the September 24^th walkout against budget cuts, organizers of the “study-in” mentioned the importance of direct actions that create change by themselves — in this case, keeping a library open that should have been closed — in addition to putting pressure on legislators and administrators. For Daniel Nemser, a graduate student in Spanish and Portuguese and one of the organizers of the event, the goal was ”not only to demonstrate the problems” caused by the budget cuts, ”but also establish a place for public dialogue.” Some speakers pointed out that at a deeper level, keeping the library open was a symbol of the need for more openness (i.e., transparency and accessibility) on the public campus.

Anthropology Professor Paul Rabinow was one of the guest speakers on Friday evening.

Some of the lively discussions that took place in one half of the library – the other was reserved for quiet studying – covered such topics as non-violent resistance, the history of public education since the New Deal, and power and privilege within the student movement. On Saturday afternoon, Professor Bob Meister from UC Santa Cruz delivered a much-anticipated talk on his analysis of the UC budget and how tuition fee increases were used by the University of California to receive cheap credit for its building projects.

In the end, with the volunteer participation of dedicated library staff, students were able to remain in the space for the entire 24-hour period. That the University police were ordered not to intervene by the Chancellor, and remained outside the library as the result of negotiation with the organizers was also seen as a success, according to Nemser.

Related links:

• Professor Bob Meister’s article
• Reclaim UC Blog
• UC Solidarity: an online hub for groups organizing against the budget cuts
• A statewide conference to defend public education on Oct. 24
• President Yudof’s New York Times interview