Berkeley students fear UC workers strike will impact upcoming finals
BERKELEY -- It was quiet at a UC Berkeley student community room Saturday evening. Everyone was focused on their work.
No one's touching the nearby pool or ping pong table.
"Just nice studying with a group of people, gives you more productivity," said Cal freshman Michael Karezin, a double major in applied math and theater.
He and two of his friends, Owen Ye and Joshua Song, were studying in what's known as dead week. No lectures in the next seven days. But there is a lot of book reading, researching, and going over notes to prepare for finals, which start on December 12th.
"Definitely, the workload is a little bit harder because I'm not getting the extra assistance," said Ye, a freshman who majors in computer science.
As the UC strike enters its fourth week and nearing finals, many students worry it'll harm their grades.
About 48,000 post-doctoral scholars, graduate students, and researchers went on strike on November 14th.
Earlier this week, the UC system struck a tentative agreement with one group of workers. But out of solidarity, those workers say they won't return to work until everyone has a fair contract.
"All the discussions I've had are cancelled," said Song, a freshman and a double major in psychology and legal studies. "Everything that's been taught by a graduate student has been cancelled."
He said his classes are hard enough even with help from graduate student instructors or GSI's. But the strike has wiped away much of the assistance for Berkeley and UC students across the state.
"Really just going to talk to people and study with other people," Song said. "I'm going to make game plans with people, like schedule study events at libraries or in dorms."
Ye has a computer science class that's got over 1,000 students. He said much of the learning really happens in the smaller group sessions led by the GSI's. The cancellation now forces him to rely on friends and classmates for help.
"Sometimes, if I'm on my own, I'll just get stuck, and then won't really learn too much from that day," Ye said.
Karezin said it's been a tough transition from high school to a very competitive university. He said the strike made it more challenging as they prepare for final exams.
"In my math class, they've had to shift the entire grading structure to weigh the final more because they have not been able to grade the quizzes for the second half of the semeter," said Karezin.
Even though the strike has been very disruptive, most students said they support their GSI's as they demand a better wage. The unions said many of the GSI's make around $23,000 a year.
"It would be great if it could be resolved sometime soon to bring things back to normal," said Karezin.
The students said they're mindful that a higher wage for the graduate students could lead to higher tuition. They hope the state can provide more funding.