By Marcelle Richards
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The last time history graduate students checked, they belonged
to a department, not a business.
But the tides have changed in light of a changing management,
some say.
Morale is plummeting as purse strings tighten, according to
grievances submitted to Chancellor Albert Carnesale and other top
administrators Wednesday in a letter denouncing the
department’s push for “professionalization,” or
financial efficiency.
The letter, signed by 109 graduate students who account for a
significant portion of one of UCLA’s largest departments,
states:
“The climate of the department has significantly hindered
our ability to both study and teach. Without some real change in
the atmosphere and communication in the department, we fear the
situation will only worsen.”
History chair Brenda Stevenson said the department is trying to
meet university requests to cut departmental spending by 10
percent.
Stevenson hired Doris Dworschak as manager in April 2001 to
carry out the department’s goals to cut corners.
The department has accomplished this over the last six months,
Stevenson said, but what the department calls success is what has
riled up so many graduate students.
As of last week, the department is enforcing its limit of 400
photocopies per quarter, an amount which must last each teaching
assistant 10 weeks even if they have more than 40 students.
A new reader contract was also sent out to graduate student
union members in September 2000. The contract now pays graduate
student readers by an hourly rate, which does not account for
overtime.
Also under Dworschak’s tenure, the department conference
room received a university-funded face lift with new tiles and
interior fixings. The graduate student lounge and reading room were
also included in the renovation.
Stevenson did not disclose the amount spent.
Graduate students say the plans are being carried out at the
cost of morale, which has further suffered due to rifts in
department relations.
Dworschak called the following points “unfounded
accusations.”
One major contention raised was the “wrongful”
termination of graduate student employees, who Stevenson
acknowledged were rehired because the department did not follow the
correct dismissal process.
Additionally, the letter stated that the department has
“created a negative work environment for both staff and
graduate students, one result of which has been the resignation of
the graduate student advisor, Shela Patel.”
Patel confirmed the reasons for resignation from her eight-year
post with the department. “By and large I have really loved
the department, but it’s time for me to resign,” she
said. “The atmosphere has changed.”
For some, Patel’s resignation marked the breaking point
when a letter was needed to take department issues to a higher
level.
“What really precipitated it was Shela Patel’s
resignation but it’s been going on for about a year,”
said history graduate student Christopher Bates, also management
information systems manager for Student Media, which includes the
Daily Bruin.
“It makes it much harder to be a happy and productive
graduate student and it certainly makes it harder to recommend the
department to others who may consider coming here,” he
said.
Students will meet with administration, management and faculty
members Friday to address the listed issues.