United Campus Workers at the University of Virginia is hosting a budgetary town hall on December 6, once again calling for UVA to cut the checks and improve payment systems for graduate workers. Despite promises made by the university following talks with UCW-UVA leaders earlier this year, graduate workers continue to report issues with timely payment.
In December 2022, UCW-UVA launched its Cut the Checks campaign when dozens of grad workers experienced delayed payment. Months of calls for action resulted in meetings between union and UVA leaders, and the creation of a task force focused on ensuring prompt payment. In its final May 4 report, the task force issued a multitude of short-, medium-, and long-term recommendations “to improve the processes for administering graduate aid.”
Speaking to C-VILLE Weekly about her experience as a graduate worker, third-year history student Olivia Paschal outlined the importance of continued action to ensure timely payment and fair compensation.
Paschal is one of the more than 100 graduate workers whose pay was delayed last December. The TA says this was particularly insulting following the November 13, 2022, shooting, which made her job more emotionally and mentally intense. Devin Chandler, one of the three victims killed in the on-Grounds shooting, was a student in the Intro to American Studies lecture that Paschal TAed for.
“I had students who were on the bus, I had students who were supposed to be on the bus, and, by kind of a miracle, were not on the bus. I had students who were really close with people who were killed and people who were hospitalized,” says Paschal. “My role, and all of the TAs roles, changed from being a teacher … to just being there for students, and trying to figure out how to walk with them through the worst thing many of them had ever experienced in their lives.”
“It felt so insulting and frustrating to have poured my heart out for students,” she says, “and … to just kind of scrape together things, to hold space for them in whatever ways they needed to. And then for the university to not only not pay us, but then not really be able to explain why.”
Despite UVA’s promises to graduate workers in the spring, Paschal had to “chase down payment” this semester. “The reason that the paychecks are so important, that they come on time, is that grad workers don’t make a living wage,” she says. “Many of us are living paycheck to paycheck. And if we don’t get that check on time, folks are going into credit card debt, people have children, and bills to pay.”
In a statement to C-VILLE Weekly, UVA Deputy Spokesperson Bethanie Glover said the university is “unaware of any systemic delays associated with graduate student stipends and funding” and that “a variety of measures have been put into place to ensure the timely distribution of graduate aid.” Measures taken by the university include a new auditing system, the development of a new report identifying in-process reimbursements, and clearer communication around important aid package deadlines. In combination with launching a website detailing the graduate worker financial aid system, Glover said the measures have “been effective in preventing delays in payments.”
Beyond timely distribution, Paschal says issues with graduate worker payment extend to adequate compensation for expected work. “As soon as I began TAing, before I even started teaching, we were told, ‘Oh, you get paid to work 10 hours a week for TA wages, but really, you’ll be working an average of like 14 or 15,’” she says. “That wasn’t explained at all.”
The UCW-UVA budgetary town hall will be held at 4pm at the downtown library on Market Street and on Zoom.