$1.5 million. That’s the value of all the overwork that EECS/DS TAs provide to the university each academic year, according to our recent survey of ASEs. It’s a staggering number that underscores the continued importance of ASEs to place pressure on the university to resolve the EECS/DS staffing crisis as we enter into the fifth week of negotiations to increase staffing within the departments.
As a solution to the $1.5 million TA overwork problem, faculty on the university’s side of the bargaining table have continued to push the idea of making all undergraduate ASEs—including those doing TA work—hourly employees. According to Professor John DeNero, such a system would pay ASEs for the actual amount of time they spend working, whether that is over or under their appointed hours. At bargaining, ASEs noted the value of the stability of these salaried positions and that already existing measures could be enhanced to address overwork of salaried employees. ASEs also expressed skepticism at the idea that a switch to hourly position would adequately address overwork, as many current hourly workers—sometimes under explicit instruction—do not log their work overages on time cards.
ASEs will continue to emphasize that the best solution to overwork is to increase staffing with a commitment from central campus to fully fund instruction within the EECS/DS departments. However, despite these concerns, ASEs will fairly consider any proposal from the university regarding future staffing models.
If you’re an ASE with thoughts on the university’s proposal to make people doing TA work hourly workers, please come to the bargaining session on Tuesday or Wednesday (information at the end of this email) so that we can hear your perspective on it.
In bargaining sessions on last Wednesday and Friday, ASEs passed the university one supposal, and the university passed ASEs two. You can read the entire history of bargaining at our bargaining tracker, which will be regularly updated to reflect what has been supposed at the bargaining table. Although progress is being made, the university has been reviewing ASEs’ March 6 supposal for approximately one week now. We expect to see a major response from the university at Tuesday’s bargaining session.
Key points:
- Budget updates: Professor John DeNero shared updated budget numbers from the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost’s office regarding the temporary academic staff budget—which funds ASE wages and remissions. According to DeNero, the figures show that the EVCP TAS budget would increase by 16% for the college of engineering and by only 3% for the Division of Computing, Data Science, and Society. These funding increases, which are being provided to departments across campus, are inadequate to address the staffing crisis unique to EECS/DS, and in the case of CDSS is actually a decrease in funding when inflation is taken into account. DeNero estimated that a combination of factors would result in an approximately $3 million reduction in EECS and data science spending on undergraduate ASEs, although final budgets have not been set yet. ASEs will continue to emphasize that a large investment in instruction will be necessary to resolve this crisis.
- Bargaining authority: Professor John DeNero shared that he met with several administrators and discussed the bargaining process, emphasizing the need for direct feedback. Prof. DeNero will now have the ability to negotiate on behalf of the university and to agree to language under parameters given to him by campus administrators.
- Workload management: ASEs and the university continued to mutually develop measures to mitigate overwork among ASEs. The university has agreed in principle to a notice provided to ASEs that warns that overwork is not “encouraged or expected,” but has pushed back on language saying that overwork “does not confer any advantage in hiring, re-hiring, or promotion.”
- Hiring procedures: ASEs had proposed language that would 1) require the university to mitigate the personal biases of ASEs involved in hiring and 2) explicitly make the representation of underrepresented minorities in hiring a priority. The university pushed back on these provisions, suggesting language that would 1) require hiring procedures to adhere to university policies and 2) emphasize the university’s commitment to an environment that promotes “equal opportunity” and “a diversity of backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences” among employees.
- Modeling: Professor DeNero continued to develop his model for ideal future staffing. He also presented numbers detailing the costs of the model under our supposal compared to current compensation rates. We will continue to emphasize that we are offering significant cost savings from the union contract, and that a significant investment in education will be necessary to any reasonable resolution to this crisis.
We have also been preparing data from the staff and student surveys we sent out some time ago:
Overwork report: We have released an overwork report based on our anonymous staff survey that reveals the striking realities behind overwork in the EECS department. (This is where the $1.5 million figure above came from.) Here’s a summary of the key results:
- 55% reported being overworked.
- 38% of all respondents reported being overworked by 2 or more hours per week
- 13% of all respondents reported being overworked by 5 or more hours per week
- The average overworked ASE works 30% over their appointed hours.
- In total, overwork is equal to approximately 15.85% of appointed hours.
- The net surplus of worked hours over appointed hours is equal to 10.68% of appointed hours. (This accounts for the fact that some people are underworked.)
Student experience survey results: We have also released the results of our course quality survey here. The results of the survey show that students overwhelmingly believe that the quality of instructional support from ASEs would increase if more staff were hired. They also revealed that the average office hours wait time in an EECS/DS course is over 40 minutes long—with many students reporting wait times in excess of one or two hours.
Upcoming bargaining sessions:
- Tuesday, March 14
- Pre-caucus: 3:30-4:10 p.m. in Soda 606
- Bargaining session: 4:10-5 p.m. in Soda 606
- Post-caucus: 5-6 p.m. in Soda 606
- Wednesday, March 15
- Pre-caucus: No room available :'(
- Bargaining session: 4:10-5 p.m. in Soda 320
- Post-caucus: 5-6 p.m. in Soda 380
- Thursday, March 16
- Pre-caucus: 9:30-10:10 a.m. in Soda 380
- Bargaining session: 10:10 a.m.-1 p.m. in Soda 380
- Post-caucus: 1-2 p.m. in Soda 380
- Friday, March 17
- Pre-caucus: 9:30-10:10 a.m. in Soda 373
- Bargaining session: 10:10 a.m.-11:30 a.m. in Soda 373
- Post-caucus: 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in Soda 511
You can also join the bargaining sessions via Zoom at https://berkeley.zoom.us/j/95216694463. Caucuses are not accessible via this Zoom. If you are an ASE who would like to join the caucuses virtually, please let me know and we will send you a special Zoom link.
In solidarity,
Gabe Classon
CS 61A uGSI