Editor’s Note: Some sources in this article have chosen to remain anonymous. City on a Hill Press has verified the identities of all such sources.
Longer response times, larger classes and fewer appointments. Changes are already happening to the UC Santa Cruz campus and they all trace back to the same source; UCSC is in a budget deficit, and if it isn’t already, it will be affecting you.
Nearly 20 students experienced this firsthand as they sat in a Zoom meeting on Jan. 13, waiting for someone to speak. Some knew what was coming, others were completely unaware. But by the end of the meeting, the writing program advisors confirmed: Due to the budget deficit, the decades-old UCSC writing tutoring program had been cut and each of them could lose their jobs as tutors by the end of the quarter.
“They brought us into the Zoom call, explained that there’s just general budget cuts happening and that they’ve been trying to work to save the program but it looks like that’s not going to happen,” said an anonymous tutor for the writing program.
Writing tutors have mentored countless students for over 20 years. Each quarter, newly hired and continuing student tutors are assigned to Writing 1 and 2 professors. These tutors, having taken the classes they are tutoring for, are experienced in what is required of the students who enroll. This quarter, there are 20 undergraduate tutors assigned to up to three core writing courses each.
But as of the Jan. 13 announcement, the writing program will cut its tutoring program in the upcoming spring quarter. This means, unless the program can secure funding, those undergraduate workers will be out of a job, students will lose a valuable resource and lecturers’ workloads will likely increase.
Each fall, thousands of new students begin their undergraduate journeys at UCSC. They come from different places, enroll in different majors, and reside at different colleges, but each and every one of them are required to satisfy the entry-level writing requirement.
“Writing 1 and 2 are mandatory classes that everyone at UCSC has to take, including students who have no interest in writing or feel they aren’t strong writers. If you’re going to be mandating students take classes, why not make it the best kind of learning experience for them?” said the writing tutor who chose to stay anonymous.
On average, there are 80 Writing 1 and 2 courses held each quarter to accommodate the first and second years who need the course to graduate, according to Amy Vidali, chair of the writing program. This winter, that number grew to more than 100.
Over the last two decades, these courses have utilized an embedded tutoring model. Unlike generalized drop-in tutoring, these embedded tutors work with faculty to understand each lecturer’s assignments and expectations. Through individual and group sessions, they help students navigate assignments and understand feedback to succeed in the course. While exact numbers differed between tutors, some tutors told City on a Hill Press that they provided writing support for anywhere from 20-50 students per week.
Joy Hagen, a writing program faculty member, has been teaching courses and working with the tutoring program for over 20 years. In her course, students are expected to have at least five sessions with their class’ tutor per quarter.
“In these writing courses, you’re working on reading, you’re working on critically examining text and decoding what it means, you’re looking at audience expectations, you’re analyzing a range of expectations, and genres and learning the language of academia,” Hagen said. “So having that time working with peer mentors, it’s hard to overstate its importance.”
Without the additional support of embedded tutors, lecturers will be the only writing resource outside of generalized drop-in tutoring for up to 75 of their students per quarter.
“A lecturer teaching a course is already working more than they’re getting paid to work, there’s not enough of us to fill in for the students who need extra assistance,” Hagen said. “It’s a cut that’s gonna be felt by students, and it’s gonna be felt by instructors.”
Outside of sessions mandated by their course, many students seek out additional support from their class’ tutor through individualized sessions. One tutor noted that a significant portion of students they meet each week are dealing with unique circumstances that make navigating a new university an even greater challenge.
“I think an individualized approach is necessary, especially in cases where there are international students, students learning English as their second language, or students who experience learning disorders,” said another anonymous writing tutor. “A professor can only do so much and typically will only meet with students outside of class for an hour or two in office hours. These students are already struggling and now not getting the support they deserve.”
With lecturer support often limited to office hours and the elimination of tutoring resources, students will now face additional challenges in their mandated writing courses.
“[The cut] is awful for future students,” said Vicky Jiang, a first-year business management economics major who took Writing 1 in the fall. “The reason that I did as good as I did in that class was because I went to these mandatory tutoring sessions.”
Breaking Down the Budget: Why are Cuts Necessary?
The lack of funding for writing tutors is more than just a trickle-down effect of the budget deficit.
“Last year we got this new Fresh Academic Instructional Resources (AIR) budget model, which has all kinds of problems, isn’t well thought out, and was rolled out too quickly,” said Vidali. “When we moved into this Fresh AIR budget model, that’s when … our tutoring program [funding] changed.”
The Fresh AIR model, a budget restructuring effort created with the help of Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Lori Kletzer last spring quarter, radically changed how funds are allocated to divisions across campus.
Before the model went into effect, divisions and their departments had discretion over their own general funds and carryforward saved from prior years. The previous system allowed the writing program to have more control over tutor funding.
Now that these funds are centralized within administration, departments have much less discretion over changes in their budget.
While the budget deficit means cuts are inevitable, where and how those cuts are made could vastly change how the crisis affects students and staff.
Several community members suggested that before cuts are made, the university should examine which resources are the most important to students.
“We’ve never done a good job as a campus [when] auditing, and by auditing I don’t mean for budget reasons, I mean for impact,” Hagen said. “[We should ask] ‘Is this getting used by students, yes or no?’ We’ve always instituted this idea of austerity and that’s our auditing technique — and so what happens is nobody does anything right, we just do it cheap.”
How do UC Students Ensure They Get What They Paid For?
As programs experience cuts across the university, many members in the writing program find themselves frustrated by the lack of accountability and transparency surrounding how decisions are made and executed by higher ups. Some, however, weren’t surprised by how the change was communicated.
“I just knew that even if I had asked, there was no way they were gonna be transparent about who was orchestrating this decision or why,” said a tutor who wished to remain anonymous. “We’re just left in the dark.”
A lack of transparency surrounding the budget is not novel. While public universities are required to disclose their budget, finding an answer to specific questions about funding decisions can be nearly impossible.
“We’ve never had a transparent budget on our campus, ever,” Hagen said. “We’re a public university, but I have never been able to find answers to any single budget question that I’ve had in 20 years.”
The impacts of the budget deficit will not end with the writing program. Whether in the form of layoffs, larger classes, reduced resources or program cuts, students and faculty can certainly expect to feel the effects of the budget crisis on their UCSC experience.
So what can be done?
“It would be really helpful if students understood that when they want to apply pressure, the writing faculty, humanities faculty and division faculty would all like to see the tutoring program funded. They’re not the problem,” Vidali said. “The real problem is budget mismanagement at upper administration levels.”
The elimination of a resource being attributed to a generalized “budget deficit” and blamed on the elusive “administration” can seem difficult to tackle. However, Hagen noted there are concrete steps that can be taken to demand the “quality education” every student is already paying for.
“Don’t just think ‘Oh, if I can’t get the chancellor’s ear, there’s nobody to hear me’ and don’t think ‘Oh, well I already let my professor know, so that’s all I can do,’” Hagen said. “Advocate on all levels. Advocate to your deans, advocate to your state senators, your local assembly members — a lot of whom have UC degrees.”
She further emphasized the importance of uniting with those over the hill regarding the quality of public education.
“Call on your families, your friends and those younger than you who are hoping to go to universities like ours. [Together] you have the power to demand from the State of California quality higher education for our future leaders,” Hagen said. “Students have all the power so it’s up to students to say, ‘What we’re getting is no longer what you promised us — what we paid for — so we’re gonna demand it.”
