This post was updated Feb. 22 at 11:10 pm

Around 100 UCLA community members gathered Wednesday afternoon at Murphy Hall to protest reports of administration-backed cuts to graduate student admissions in light of recently won wage increases.

The protest comes two months after a nearly six-week strike across the University of California, in which a coalition of United Auto Workers unions representing more than 48,000 academic workers called for more equitable salaries, better working conditions and increased benefits. The strike drew participation from various academic employees, including student researchers, teaching assistants and postdoctoral scholars. It ended in late December with historic increases in wages for multiple bargaining units as well as improved workplace protections, alongside other benefits.

[Related: UAW ratifies contracts for graduate student workers, ends historic UC-wide strike]

However, some academic departments across UCLA and at other UCs have recently notified their members that they will be admitting fewer graduate students to accommodate the increased wages, said protest organizer Jacqueline Perez, a social psychology doctoral student and member of the UAW Local 2865 union – which includes teaching assistants and graduate student instructors.

Protest leaders demanded that the UC maintain current enrollment and staffing levels, ensure departments have enough resources to support the new contracts’ wage increases, and create a general fund supporting lab workers. They delivered a letter to Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Darnell Hunt’s office, walking from Murphy Hall to Haines Hall around 1:30 p.m. The letter was signed by UAW Local 2865 and UAW Local 5810, the latter of which represents postdoctoral scholars and academic researchers.

Protesters also chanted various slogans such as, “No cuts today at UCLA,” “What’s outrageous? Poverty wages,” and “UC, UC you’re no good, treat your workers like you should.”

Speakers at the rally also expressed concern with the UC’s handling of funding from the state legislature.

The UC Office of the President has not provided campuses with any overall guidance or instruction to reduce student enrollment in the upcoming 2023-2024 budget year, said Ryan King, a UCOP spokesperson, in an emailed statement. At a hearing with state lawmakers Tuesday, UC President Michael Drake was presented with messages sent by UC Davis’ leadership suggesting cuts to graduate enrollment. He said he was not aware of these messages in the hearing.

“There is an expected period of implementation where issues are brought to our attention and appropriate processes and procedures are put in place,” King said in the statement. “We will continue our conversations with each location to understand where there are needs and how best UCOP can support the implementation of this vital contract.”

King declined to comment further on the impacts of the proposed budget on enrollment.

Juan Pablo Gatica, a physics and astronomy doctoral student, said during a speech at the protest that departments across the UC could be pushed to cut enrollment of teaching assistants and other graduate students, further burdening enrolled graduate students. He said his own department has given notice of plans to cut graduate student recruitment for the next academic year.

“How does a public university that is supposed to provide world class education come to this decision? Don’t they know that larger class sizes hurt student learning?” Gatica said at the protest. “Aren’t they aware it’s their duty as a public institution to serve the community to the best of their ability?”

More than 400 signatories, including the UCLA Faculty Association and UCLA’s chapter of the UC-American Federation of Teachers, have criticized the university and its handling of the contract’s implementation post-strike in a January letter. The letter – signed by UCLA faculty, staff, postdoctoral fellows and researchers – said various departments across UCLA have indicated that increased costs from the new contract will be passed onto the departments, leading to a decrease in graduate enrollment and a reduction in education quality.

Perez said her department, psychology, has already cut enrollment for next year’s graduate student admissions, citing a lack of funding due to increased wages. They have said they will also be hiring one-third fewer graduate students this year in her department, she added.

Perez added that this decrease in enrollment will further burden currently employed and enrolled graduate students, who will have to take on more work. The UC’s implementation of the contract signed with UAW could go against the values the unions fought for, she said, adding that the administration’s current actions harm efforts to make higher education more diverse and equitable.

“All we were asking for was to have our labor dignified and acknowledged through a livable wage,” Perez said. “Now every single step of the process, … we’re being met with pushback.”

Bineh Ndefru, a materials science doctoral student and a union member, said the protesters’ main demand was to maintain current staffing levels throughout all academic departments rather than continue with cuts.

“As graduate students (and) graduate workers, we make up, like, 2% of the total budget,” said Ndefru, who is also a protest organizer. “For them to say that, what I consider to be meager wages, … that that’s too much and that their budget can’t handle that – I think it’s greedy.”

UCLA spokesperson Katherine Alvarado declined to comment on the protest. She pointed to three committees announced by Hunt on Jan. 30 designated to determine short-term budgeting and planning and longer-term questions about graduate education that came about because of the strike.

Contributing reports by Constanza Montemayor, News editor.