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 home page