The Residential Housing Association writes this letter in support of the UCSB 4 COLA movement, as UC Santa Barbara now joins UC Santa Cruz as the second University of California campus striking for a cost-of-living adjustment.

1. STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF UC SANTA BARBARA GRADUATE STUDENTS
The Residential Housing Association writes this letter in support of the UCSB 4 COLA
movement, as UC Santa Barbara now joins UC Santa Cruz as the second University of California
campus striking for a cost-of-living adjustment.
At UC Santa Barbara, teaching assistants on average spend over half of their wages on housing.
This exceeds the 30% threshold for rent burden as defined by the United States Department of
Housing and Urban Development and has resulted in poor working conditions for many graduate
students, as they struggle with issues such as housing and food insecurity.
The movement for a cost-of-living adjustment began at UC Santa Cruz in September 2019;
graduate students at UCSC are currently striking and are being met with heavy police presence.
On Feb. 15, UCSC threatened the firing of graduate students on strike if grades were not
submitted. The majority of graduate students involved have continued to strike and on Feb. 21,
graduate students at UCSB occupied Cheadle Hall for 16 hours to rally for COLA and to demand
that Chancellor Henry T. Yang supports Santa Cruz grad students. On Feb. 24, UCSB graduate
students voted in favor of escalating to a full strike, stating that “graduate students at UCSB are
severely burdened by high rents and low wages. Work must not continue until graduate students
can afford to live here.” The system as it stands is not sustainable — you cannot continuously
ignore the needs of those who underlay the foundation. A cost-of-living adjustment is not just a
raise: it is a commitment by the University of California to improve working conditions and
acknowledge the contributions of graduate students, without whom the UC would not and could
not run.
The Residential Housing Association at UC Santa Barbara believes in the invaluable and
immeasurable contribution of graduate students to education and research in the University of
California system. We are inspired by the bravery of our graduate students in their fight for a
living wage despite risk of retaliation and in the stance they have taken to support their
colleagues in Santa Cruz.
The members of the Residential Housing Association stand in solidarity with UCSB graduate
students and are immensely proud to be students of this campus.
“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change .... I’m changing the things I cannot
accept.” — Angela Davis