Thursday, 5/29/97 SAGE causes traffic jam to gain awareness
PROTEST: Public paper-grading session aims to show amount of work
graduate employees do
By A.J. Harwin Daily Bruin Contributor A group of UCLA teaching
assistants, readers and tutors caused a minor traffic jam on Circle
Drive East, just in front of Murphy Hall Wednesday afternoon – in
order to grade papers. Twenty members of the Student Association of
Graduate Employees (SAGE) held banners around a group of four
teaching assistants (TAs) grading papers in an effort to call
attention to their demands for collective bargaining rights. Campus
police took 15 minutes to respond in order to disperse the
protesters. No arrests were made. SAGE members said they put on the
street theater to bring attention to their contributions as
academic student employees. "The majority of papers written and
exams written at this university are graded by graduate student
employees," said Joanna Brooks, a fourth-year English graduate
student. "The university has said that is not work. Basically, they
say it is something that we do for our own benefit. But believe me,
when you’re grading 200 blue books, it feels like work." While
SAGE’s actions drew the wrath of some late for class, most people
standing near the protest enjoyed and supported the demonstration.
"They have a right to organize," said Susan McPherson, a former
UCLA instructor watching the demonstration. "The longer the
university takes, the more time and money it’s going to cost the
students, the faculty and the taxpayers. They should sit down and
negotiate." Even the slowdown in campus transit, causing numerous
delays in campus busing didn’t seem to faze the UCLA Campus Transit
bus drivers. "I think it’s good. I believe it’s wrong to treat the
students less, and different than the other employees here on
campus," said UCLA bus driver Glenn Shepherd. "They’re people just
like everybody else, and they’re entitled to their rights just like
everybody else. (They) got my attention, my supervisor’s attention,
now let’s hope they get the chancellor’s attention." According to
SAGE executive board member Susan Conrad, the group believes they
got their point across, and that SAGE would be interested in doing
more to put pressure on the administration without directly
affecting the educational process. "We wanted to stop business as
usual to let folks know this is the work that we do on campus,"
Conrad said. "This work is crucial to the educational mission of
this university, and I think we made our point." JAMIE
SCANLON-JACOBS Members of SAGE instigated a small traffic jam
Wednesday, when they moved a table into the street in front of
Murphy Hall and began grading papers. Previous Daily Bruin Stories:
Strike opens with general support, May 22, 1997 Related Links: UAW
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