Department ignores grad students’ needs

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Nothing can replace the value of good working conditions, but
budget constraints have forced the UCLA history department to think
saving money might be an attractive alternative.

Since bringing in department manager Doris Dworschak to create a
more efficient environment almost a year and a half ago, the
department has managed to aggravate many of its graduate students
to the point of submitting a petition to administrators regarding
their deteriorating relationship with department oversight.

The petition, submitted to Chancellor Albert Carnesale as well
as various faculty members in the history department, lists
grievances that include what are believed to be the wrongful
termination of graduate student employees and the reduction of
teaching assistant resources without consultation. Other factors
include the alleged harassment and forced resignation of popular
graduate student adviser Sheila Patel, cutting pay to graduate
student readers, refusing to provide students with copies of the
department’s constitution, cutting funds from graduate
activities to pay for excessive improvements like refurbishing the
department’s conference room, and prohibiting staff from
discussing changes with students.

History department chair Brenda Stevenson attributed the the
belt-tightening to demands on their budget ““ UCLA has asked
the department to cut back by 10 percent. According to Stevenson,
cutting from smaller areas is the best and easiest place to start
for a long-term solution.

But while the department may have had legitimate needs for
moving toward efficiency, the large percentage of angry graduate
students is an indication of a serious problem that will have
far-reaching effects on members of the UCLA community. The primary
effect is the projection of a negative image to prospective UCLA
history graduate students who will no doubt find the eroding
conditions for graduate students unattractive. If competitive
students are not willing to come to school here because other top
schools offer a better environment, the future quality of the
program will decrease. The effects of this will trickle down to
undergraduates as well ““ if graduate students are unhappy
with the university and their working arrangement, it will likely
be reflected in the quality of their work.

An additional blow to undergraduates, and professors as well, is
the reduction of pay for graduate students who act as readers (or
graders) for larger classes with no sections. For undergrads, it
means less attention will be paid to the grading of their
examinations. For professors, it means there will be fewer of them
willing to work for them, and more students coming to office hours
to complain about expediently and poorly graded work.

But perhaps the most important effect of the debacle is the
injured relationship between the current graduate students and
their management. It’s important that these students feel
supported by UCLA, and vice versa. Both sides support the long-term
success of their department, so it is futile for their progress to
be stymied by negative relations. With even more constrictive
budget cuts in the university’s future, the situation will
only be put further to the test ““ not only with the history
department, but perhaps with other large departments on campus.
It’s imperative that both sides begin speaking openly about
their concerns, and begin collaborating on ways in which they can
all advance the program given the inevitable financial hardships to
come.

University and state officials should take this situation as an
example of the local damage a tight budget can have on a
university, and keep it in mind as they make funding decisions for
the next fiscal year in May. Quality academics start with a quality
work environment, and maintaining quality should always be the
university’s ultimate objective.