Grad students demonstrate against leave of absence policy revisions
By Amanda Schallert
May 10, 2013 4:48 p.m.
As part of an ongoing push back from graduate students against UCLA’s revised leave of absence policy, about a dozen graduate students demonstrated in Murphy Hall earlier this afternoon.
In the fall, UCLA cut the maximum number of quarters a graduate student can take a leave of absence for family, military, medical or emergency reasons from six to three quarters. UCLA also stopped allowing graduate students to take leaves of absences to write dissertations.
A group of students stood outside a UCLA Graduate Council meeting today, holding signs and reading quotes from students who have been negatively impacted by the policy change.
A few minutes after the protesters called for the Graduate Council to let them into its meeting, Joseph Nagy, the council’s chairman, stood outside the doors of a room in Murphy Hall to talk with the graduate students.
But the students had not made an appointment to present at the meeting, which is closed to the public, and were not allowed to enter the room.
Nagy said the protesters should either wait for the meeting to adjourn at 3:45 p.m. and talk to administrators then, or email the Graduate Council and ask to be invited to their next meeting.
The students insisted that they enter the meeting immediately.
“We would like to go in now,” said Courtney Cecale, a graduate student studying anthropology and the head steward of the University of California Student-Workers Union.
Nagy refused to let the students into the room.
“We’re already running late,” Nagy said. “I can’t invade your meeting.”
Members of the protest yelled back “Yes you can!” and said Graduate Student Association meetings are open to the public.
Nagy told the graduate students that he was trying to help them and that he was not against their cause.
“We’re all on the same side,” he said.
Matthew Sandoval, a graduate student in the world arts and culture/dance department, was one of the protesters. Sandoval said he plans to take a leave of absence in the future and the policy changes are harmful to him.
“I think I felt left down by my faculty, the people who are supposed to help me with my research and help me get through,” Sandoval said. “It was easy for (Nagy) to say that, but hard for him to prove that.”
Graduate students have also tried other ways to ask UCLA to change the leave of absence policy.
In the recent graduate student government elections, graduate students voted on an advisory referendum that asked for their opinions on the changes to the leave of absence policy. About 70 percent of the students who cast ballots voted in disapproval of the policy changes.
The students have also garnered support from faculty in recent months, Cecale said.
After being turned away from the meeting, the protesters left Murphy Hall singing “We’re gonna roll, we’re gonna roll, we’re gonna roll the union on” while banging drums and tambourines.
The UC Student-Workers Union will continue to build solidarity and gather faculty and student support before presenting at the next Graduate Council meeting, Cecale said.
