Some UC faculty members, staff, and students are calling for a strike to protest the proposed 32% student fee increase. The strike is to roughly coincide with the upcoming UC Regents meeting: November 18, 19, and 20. The DFA has been asked to forward to our members the URL for a form where faculty can pledge solidarity with the strikers — essentially promise not to punish students, TAs, etc. who participate in the strike. The meat of the pledge is:
“We the undersigned thus pledge to not penalize undergraduate or graduate students who will not be attending class during the strikes. If we have midterms scheduled or papers due during the strike, we will do our best to reschedule exams, to extend deadlines, to create alternate assignments so that students can respond to events on campus as part of their classwork, or to accommodate students in other ways. We also pledge to protect the rights of graduate students working as TAs and GSIs in the event that they face retaliation from the administration as a result of their participation in a work stoppage. We will call on our departmental managers to refuse to report graduate students who will not be teaching classes or performing other work, and on the campus leadership to likewise protect graduate students.”
The full pledge, with sign-up form, is at http://ucstrike.com/solidarity_pledge.php