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April Fool’s letter seen favorably on campus

By Daily Bruin Staff

April 4, 1996 9:00 p.m.

Friday, April 5, 1996

SAGE makes stir, but university still opposes grad unionBy
Michael Angell

Daily Bruin Contributor

What began as the delivery of a prank letter ended in the
anomaly of actual discussion between the Students Association of
Graduate Employees (SAGE) and the university administration.

Two representatives of the organization went to Chancellor
Charles Young’s office to ask him about a prank letter that had
been written by the union as an April Fool’s stunt.

The letter, which supposedly came from Young’s office, stated
that the Young had reversed his position on union recognition. The
official UCLA letterhead had been altered and the letter was signed
"Charles "Union Yes" Young."

The letter was distributed to faculty and administrators.
Claudia Mitchell-Kernan, the vice chancellor of academic affairs,
said she did a double take when she saw the letter.

"It took me a minute to notice the letterhead," Mitchell-Kernan
said. "It was a bit odd."

The Student Association of Graduate Employees hoped to stir up
campus-wide sympathy for its cause through the letter. Mark
Quigley, an association executive board trustee, said that the
letter had been warmly received by members of the university.

"SAGE is surprised at the enthusiasm on campus about the
letter," he said.

Quigley and executive board member at large Lynn Bricker went to
Young’s office to thank him for the "recognition letter." While
they had hoped to speak to Young directly, they were informed he
was out of town for the week.

Undaunted, the two asked Mitchell-Kernan for her opinion about
the letter. She led Quigley and Bricker to Young’s plush waiting
room where they discussed graduate student grievances and the lack
of collective bargaining at UCLA.

While the association had hoped the letter might make Young
change his position, Mitchell-Kernan simply reiterated the
university’s anti-recognition position.

"I do know that (Young) is concerned about graduate student
welfare, such as workload issues," Mitchell-Kernan said. "He is
very cognizant of the significant role of graduate students in
research and teaching positions."

To illustrate her point, Mitchell-Kernan cited Young’s support
for lower tuition rates for graduate students who work as teaching
and research assistants.

"Despite a 20 percent budget cut, the university has supported
fee offsets for T.A.s and R.A.s," Mitchell-Kernan said. "And
completely protected apprentice personnel from pay cuts."

Yet Quigley quickly countered the claim that it was purely
university munificence which provided the reduced fees. He said
that at UC Berkeley, their academic employee union was directly
responsible for getting fee offsets.

"Fee remissions were a direct result of AGSE (Association of
Graduate Student Employees) agitation," Quigley said.

For graduate students employed in academic positions, such fee
remissions are not guaranteed by contract. UCLA’s graduate employee
union is hoping to get the university to sign a contract which
would guarantee such benefits as fee remissions. But the university
is reluctant to guarantee benefits due to a constantly changing
budget.

The union also claims that its members have not received
adequate assistance from the university. While the university
maintains that academic employees are apprentices learning from
professors, those professors often leave teaching assistants to
their own devices, Quigley said.

"How am I an apprentice when I have to design course, syllabus
and test materials on my own?" Quigley asked.

But Mitchell-Kernan said that her office is trying to address
those issues.

"Our apprentice employees should reflect support for graduate
student education," Mitchell-Kernan said. "I think cases like these
are more the exception than the norm."

While the meeting allowed both sides an opportunity to air their
thoughts, the union is still preparing more actions in the near
future. Mike Miller, the union’s lead organizer, said that larger
labor actions will be decided at an April 14 meeting of academic
student employee unions across the state.

"We’re going to have a statewide recognition convention to
deliver an ultimatum to the University of California," Miller
said.

UCLA’s graduate employee union is hoping to get the university
to sign a contract which would guarantee such benefits as fee
remissions.

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