AN OFFER YOU CAN’T REFUSE: UC Santa Cruz graduates demand amnesty for anti-Israel activists, hold grades hostage
‘We consider it in the campus community’s best interest for the administration to accept this offer,’ the graduate students wrote.
Roughly 5,000 grades remain unfinished due to the graduate students' behavior.
Graduate student workers at the University of California, Santa Cruz said they will fulfill their responsibility to finalize roughly 5,000 grades, but only in return for the university giving amnesty to anti-Israel activists who were arrested at the school during a disruptive protest.
The graduate workers at UCSC and several other schools in the UC system went on strike from May 20 to June 7 to show solidarity with anti-Israel demonstrators. Though a local court ended their strike, the grades backlog had grown in the meantime, and the grading deadline of June 18 had passed.
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The graduate student union responsible for the strike said that it is “prepared to make an unprecedented offer. We will complete and submit the unfinished grades by July 17, despite the conclusion of our service dates, if all legal and student conduct charges are dropped” against the more than 100 protesters detained at the UCSC anti-Israel protest.
“We consider it in the campus community’s best interest for the administration to accept this offer. It is undoubtedly the simplest, quickest, and most cost-effective path forward,” the union wrote.
Police arrested 112 students, along with some faculty members and others, at UCSC to disperse the school’s disruptive anti-Israel encampment.
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A spokesperson for the school said that “[a]mnesty for students, faculty and staff is not in alignment with the UC guidelines for determining disciplinary actions.”
The graduate students also wrote on X: “In order to make necessary arrangements to deliver this work in such extraordinary circumstances, grad workers require an answer from the administration as soon as possible. If we do not hear that our offer is accepted within the next week—by 5pm on Wednesday June 26 we will have to assume that UCSC’s administration does not share our earnest commitment to resolving the outstanding issues of spring 2024.”
Campus Reform has reached out to UCSC for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
