We call on the UC administration to end misclassification of Undergraduate Student Instructors (UGSIs) as “Course Coordinators.” We support Cal undergraduate Quinn Tran in her efforts to be correctly classified by the SCET / IEOR department as a UGSI in recognition of her student instruction duties in IEOR 135 (Applied Data Science with Venture Applications) and her valuable pedagogical contributions to the course. Misclassifying UGSIs as “Course Coordinators” – a position that makes $10+/hour less than UGSIs and doesn’t include fee remission – creates serious hardships. UGSIs who are misclassified as “Course Coordinators” work long hours providing one-to-one student instruction, have less power to improve their classes, and are forced to choose between quality of education for their students and receiving a living wage elsewhere. This undermines the working environment and quality of education at the University of California. We demand that UC immediately classify Quinn Tran and other Course Coordinators who have performed teaching duties as GSIs and provide all associated pay and benefits.
Why is this important?
My name is Quinn Tran and I'm an undergraduate major in Computer Science at UC-Berkeley. I started this petition because of the way I've been unfairly treated by the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology and the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research. First I was misclassified by the Department as a low-paid "Course Coordinator" when I was, in fact, doing Teaching Assistant duties, and when I raised this fact through a union grievance, the University retaliated against me by taking away many of my duties, excluding me from staff meetings, and discouraging contact with the IEOR department to resolve the issue. Retaliation is never okay and UC-Berkeley has a responsibility to ensure its undergraduate student-workers are correctly classified. Please sign on to support me. Thank you for your solidarity.
