On June 12th, teaching assistants and other members of UAW Local 2865 held a grade-in at the Baytree Plaza at UC Santa Cruz as part of a statewide action to highlight the UAW's demand for better protections against excessive workload. The action turned out over a thousand TAs, readers, and tutors across seven UC campuses. In the bargaining session that took place June 18th and 19th, progress was made towards adding protections against discrimination on the basis of pregnancy or gender identity.

Over the past decade, the University of California has steadily increased enrollment by more than ten thousand students statewide. As a result, many class and section sizes have ballooned. In one example, the UC’s own Committee on Preparatory Education has argued that writing classes are often 10% to 25% larger than the national standard. Education experts are in wide agreement that larger classes have a negative effect on the quality of education. Read More and View Photos

see also: Graduate Students Rally at UCSC to Defend Health Care