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Chemical engineering graduate student T.A., Vladan Jankovic, watches over Eric Armstrong, a fourt

In yet another response to the current budget crisis, the university is proposing to cap fee benefits received by academic student employees.

Currently, graduate students who are teaching assistants, readers or tutors can have their educational and registration fees waived. With the current proposal, the university would no longer fully cover these fees.

The Graduate Division is very concerned with the effects of reducing funds available to students, said Claudia Mitchell-Kernan, dean of the Graduate Division and vice chancellor of graduate affairs.

Each year about 22 to 23 percent of the graduate student population is appointed as teaching assistants and readers. Capping fee remissions would force students to take on more loans or find other jobs to finance their education, she said.

“If students need to work more hours, that means time away from their studies,” she said.

The university is in the process of bargaining with the Student Association of Graduate Employees/United Auto Workers local chapter 2865, a union representing student academic employees, said Lynne Thompson, manager of labor relations in the Campus Human Resources Office.

Thompson – who is involved in negotiations with the union – added that she would not be able to comment any further on details of the bargaining due to prior agreements between the two parties.

Leah Beck, unit chair for the union at UCLA, said they are also negotiating to hold an orientation for students to make them more aware of the rights the contract gives them.

“A lot of people don’t know that they only have to work a certain number of hours. Some don’t even know they get fee remissions as benefits for their T.A.-ships,” she said.

Beck added that the union is committed to working for the benefits of its members, and that the university “risks losing top researchers if it doesn’t offer fee remissions.”

Many teaching assistants said having to make up for the unmet amount in their fee benefits next year would slow down their progress through the programs.

“If all you’re doing is focusing on your research, then you can certainly make much faster progress,” said Erin Templeton, an English doctoral student.

Templeton said it would be more difficult to finance her education especially since she had no alternative sources of income unlike during her undergraduate years.

“At this stage, asking your parents to pay for your education is just no longer an option,” she said.

Other students said they were disappointed with the proposal, especially since they had entered the programs believing they would receive full coverage for their mandatory fees.

“It’s terrible to change this policy when we’re halfway through the programs,” said Cesar Zucco, a political science doctoral student.

He added that he is wholeheartedly supporting the union in its bargaining with the university on the issue.

Some students said they were not surprised by the university’s proposal to place a cap on fee remissions.

Political science doctoral student Stephen On said he realized everyone is affected by the budget cuts and that sooner or later “teaching assistants would also have to take a hit.”