International Scholars Demand Equity at UC

By Pengfei Liu, PhD Student in Sociology at the University of California, Davis.

As a young student in Shenzhen, China, where I was born and raised, the University of California seemed very much like a beacon — I saw the top minds from around the world gravitate there, drawn by the promise of a supportive, progressive institution. I can see now, as a first year PhD student at UC Davis studying Chinese immigrants’ political engagement and digital social movement, that my vision was short-sighted. UC’s failure to support a diverse workforce, particularly as it relates to international workers, makes working at UC close to impossible.

But I have since found a new source of hope. In my first year, I have been deeply inspired by the international workers who are organizing in our union, UAW, on different campuses to make UC the kind of place I imagined it to be. We have made strong proposals at the bargaining table to guarantee equity for international workers and dignified compensation, but progress is being thwarted by UC’s unlawful conduct. In fact, we have had to file numerous charges against UC to compel them to bargain in good faith.

Which is why, in the coming days, all 48,000 UAW-represented workers (which includes postdoctoral scholars, researchers, teaching assistants, readers, tutors and other academic workers) will vote on whether to authorize strikes if necessary to overcome UC’s unlawful conduct. I will be voting ‘Yes’ because I believe that demonstrating our unity through collective action is the only way we can compel the UC to bargain in good faith and act lawfully. When we have each others’ backs, we can make the University end discriminatory policies and truly value the contributions of international workers.

UC was the only school out of the seven I was admitted to that charges NonResident Student Tuition (NRST) — which runs up to over $15,000 more in annual tuition than California residents are required to pay. This has the troubling effect of discouraging international people to apply (we are also excluded from student aid to address this expense).

For those of us who do manage to pay, we struggle with the cost of living near UC and rush to finish our degrees, which reduces our ability to do our best work.

International scholars are also required to pay several onerous fees in addition to NRST, such as the SEVIS fee, that cut into our already-low wages. For some, these fees can run thousands of dollars a year. I know of no other institution that so dramatically penalizes workers based solely on the location of their birth.

Additionally, low compensation and high housing costs (even on campus) lower our quality of life, necessitate long commutes, and negatively impact the environment. In the past two years, rent for my modest apartment in Davis has grown by over 50%, and now exceeds the whole of my salary. UC, which is the largest landlord in California, has continued to raise on-campus rent during the housing crisis, driving up costs in markets across the state. There has been no effort to adjust our salaries to match these massive increases.

This fall, 48,000 UAW workers are ready to do whatever is necessary to overcome UC’s unlawful behavior in order to win contracts that fulfill UC’s promise as a progressive institution that sets the bar for research and education globally. I encourage all of my colleagues, across every campus and every job classification, to join me in voting yes.