For the past two years,
diligently served as an undergraduate teaching assistant for the mathematics
department, working alongside graduate students, leading discussions, holding
office hours and grading exams.
So after the University of California and the United Auto
Workers — the union representing TAs systemwide — agreed to contract provisions
outlining quarterly fee remissions for undergraduate TAs last October, Kommemi
eagerly approached his boss with a simple question: When would he be eligible
to receive his fee abatement?
Kommemi was told that the contract did not apply to him
because he did not, in fact, serve as a TA. Rather, he was hired as a tutor, so
he would not be offered a remission of educational and registration fees, which
amount to more than $2,200 per quarter this year.
Kommemi’s case is not unique.According to UCSD Labor
Relations Director Lori J. Trofemuk, the contract does not apply to
undergraduate TAs at UCSD because of a simple discrepancy regarding job codes
drawn by the UC Office of the President under which TAs on this campus are
hired.
Rather than hiring undergraduate TAs under codes 2311 or
2310 — titles that are contractually mandated to receive remission — UCSD
employs them under a tutor code, 2860, which is not granted a fee exemption.
“It’s tradition at UCSD to hire undergraduate teaching
assistants under [2860],” Trofemuk said. “I don’t know why.”
The contract, hailed by UAW as “nationally
precedent-setting” for undergraduate TAs, came after months of negotiations.
But currently, according to UCSD spokeswoman Dolores Davies, only UC Davis and
UC Berkeley employ undergraduate TAs under the codes specified for remission.
Both Davies and Trofemuk said that UCSD never hires
undergraduates through codes 2311 or
2310, but Scott Rollans, the undergraduate program officer for the mathematics
department, said that as recently as Fall Quarter 2007 he noticed several
undergraduates had been grouped under 2310, mostly by the biology department.
“I was surprised that there appeared to be some hired under
that category,” he said.
Mark Whelan, a student affairs officer in the biology
department in charge of hiring teaching assistants, refused to comment, and
instead referred all inquiries to Trofemuk.
Kommemi said he is outraged that UCSD has refused to offer
fee relief for all qualified undergraduate TAs simply because of “tradition,”
and that he feels his work should be recognized as equal to that of graduate
students’, who receive fee remission and are paid about four times as much for
doing the same type of work he does.
Currently, Kommemi teaches two MATH 10C sections, and three
graduate students split the remaining eight sections. In the past, Kommemi has
led four sections to a graduate student TA’s two.
“To call their behavior shady would be an understatement,”
Kommemi said. “Not only do I feel cheated out of the spirit of the contract,
but every UCSD undergraduate TA should as well.”
According to UCSD’s policies that govern the hiring of
academic student employees, TAs are responsible for “conducting discussion or
laboratory sections that supplement faculty lectures and by grading
assignments” in addition to holding office hours and proctoring exams. Tutors,
however, are charged with providing assistance to individual or small groups of
undergraduate students who require extra help to understand course materials.
Kommemi said he clearly performs the duties of a TA rather
than a tutor.
“I can provide the same quality education as any graduate
student, and if the department truly doesn’t believe so, maybe the department
shouldn’t be in the business of hiring undergraduate TAs,” he said.
Trofemuk refused to comment on why UCSD could not simply
switch the codes through which it currently employs undergraduate TAs, instead
saying that UAW representatives should have addressed the issue before the
contract was ratified.
“They never came back and requested any other language,” she
said. “We knew that this would not have any effect at UCSD.”
UAW Vice President Christine Petit, a graduate student at UC
Riverside, said the union would keep fighting to force the UC system to
standardize its undergraduate TA coding practices.
“They need to recognize our work as equal and not make
differentials about the work that we do based on specific campuses,” Petit
said.
