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This post was updated Oct. 28 at 10:43 p.m.
The UCLA Department of Mathematics eliminated paid graders and limited working hours for teaching assistants after UCLA cut its budget for the 2025-26 academic year.
Mario Bonk, the interim chair of the mathematics department, said the department can no longer afford to employ TAs at their previously contracted levels. The department cut its budget for graders – who read and grade students’ exams and homework – reallocating those funds to support the TA budget, Bonk added.
The Department of Mathematics limited TA teaching appointments from a guaranteed 50% – which amounted to 20 hours a week – to 25% for the current academic year, said Ely Jrade, a mathematics doctoral student. The department removed TAs and discussion sections from most upper-division courses, said William Conley, the sole professor of teaching in the math department.
The UC enhanced packages for members of United Auto Workers Local 4811, a union representing academic student employees, graduate students and academic and postdoctoral researchers, after the union struck in 2022. The strike – which led to canceled exams and classes across the UC – was the largest labor stoppage in the country since 2019, according to the Washington Post.
[Related: UC academic workers walk out in largest US strike since 2019]
The new contract increased union members’ pay by up to 80% from the previous contract, offered childcare benefits and gave remission for three years of nonresident tuition for international student workers. The contract is set to expire Jan. 1, and negotiations for a new contract between the union and the UC are ongoing.
Three years ago, the department could employ teaching assistants at the 50% level, Bonk said. But to achieve that now, the department would need a $5.5 million teaching budget – nearly three million more than its current budget, he added.
[Related: Research and public service professionals vote to form new UC union]
UCLA has faced heightened financial pressures this year, with the California state legislature deferring a $129.7 million payment – and a $240.8 million general funding increase – to the UC until July 2026. The National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and United States Department of Energy also suspended about $584 million of UCLA’s research grants in July, citing university practices allowing antisemitism, affirmative action and “men to participate in women’s sports” as reasoning for the funding freeze.
Rita F. Lin, a California federal district judge, temporarily reinstated the majority of UCLA’s federal research grants, filing two injunctions in a case brought by UC researchers against the Trump administration. The injunctions – issued in August and September – will hold while the lawsuit moves through the courts.
[Related: FEDERAL FUNDING CUTS TO UCLA]
Terence Tao, a professor in the Department of Mathematics and the James and Carol Collins Chair in the College of Letters and Sciences, said that in addition to the TA hour cuts and the elimination of graders, the department has refrained from offering research positions and funding to its graduate students. The UCLA administration has communicated that research grants could be in jeopardy in the future despite the temporary reinstatement, Tao added.
The competitiveness and enrollment of the Department of Mathematics’ graduate programs may dwindle if budgetary issues persist, Tao said. Bonk added that he believes the math department’s graduate program will shrink without additional funding.
Tao said he believes the UCLA administration’s lack of communication has created difficulties for the math department to adapt to budget changes, causing confusion and dysfunction.
UCLA Media Relations did not respond in time to a request for comment on how or when the university communicated the budget cuts.
“We’ve been put into crisis management mode and are just making sure we can keep the lights on,” Tao said. “We’re too busy mopping the floor to turn off the faucet.”
Jrade added that neither the math department nor the UCLA administration communicated the cut in teaching appointments to TAs until right before fall quarter began.
“Helping us to live within the city that we’re studying and researching and teaching in is the utmost important way that they can communicate to us that they want to support us,” he said. “Our ability to keep afloat is just being eroded and eroded – and how long can you maintain that?”
Jrade said he has struggled to afford housing since his teaching appointment was slashed.
“Landlords in LA often expect you to make around three times the rent in order for them to accept your applications,” he said. “It’s basically impossible with a 25% appointment to make this three times rent, and as a result, we’ve been rejected from a lot of our housing applications. … Right now, I’m actually just staying in a friend’s garage.”
Jrade alleged that the unilateral changes in labor conditions – while UAW Local 4811’s negotiations with the UC remain ongoing – were illegal. UAW Local 4811’s bargaining committee filed an unfair labor practice charge Sept. 17 to challenge UCLA’s allegedly “unlawful changes during contract bargaining.”
The math department does not control budgetary changes, Bonk said.
Neither UCLA Labor Relations, UCLA Media Relations nor the UC Office of the President responded in time to a request for comment on the union’s unfair labor practice charge or the changes in TA working hours. Ronke Epps, the chief administrative officer of the Department of Mathematics, did not respond in time to a request for comment on the state of the math department’s budget and the ongoing negotiations with the union.
UAW Local 4811 did not respond in time for a request to comment on the state of the unfair labor practice charge and whether UCLA has responded to it.
Paige Greene, an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics, said she only received notice of the elimination of her graders and hour cuts for TAs two days before the start of fall quarter. Greene added that the delayed communication forced her to shift her syllabus last minute and explain the changes to students after already posting different information on the class website.
Conley said professors of undergraduate courses are offering more quizzes in place of homework since they do not have the capacity to grade homework without graders. As the person in charge of training new TAs and instructors, Conley added that he believes TAs are also missing out on valuable teaching experience.
“That really negatively impacts students because they don’t get as much feedback,” he said. “I’m really worried that it’s detrimental to our students.”
Greene said she cut the grade value for homework in her class from 20% to 5% due to not having graders. The change concerns her because homework gives students an indication of how much they understand the course material before exams, she added.
“I’m worried that the first midterm will come up, and they won’t realize that they don’t really know the material as well as they should,” she said.
Tao also said his TAs inform him of the concepts that students are struggling with, adding that he is worried he will not be able to help students understand material until it is too late.
Raphaël Rouquier, the graduate vice chair of the Department of Mathematics, said discussion sections serve as a space for TAs to answer additional questions and provide support for students.
“The TA was there to provide some more individualized contact with a few students or so,” Rouquier said. “That’s something that’s going to be lost.”
Hundreds of students and faculty have signed a letter and petition calling on UC President James Milliken and Chancellor Julio Frenk to restore TA and grader appointments and pay student workers at a full-time rate.
The UCOP and UCLA Media Relations did not respond in time to a request for comment on the petition’s demands.
David Quintana, a third-year mathematics student, said his math professors teach quickly in lecture, He added that he is concerned about not having TA support to help clarify concepts that professors may not have time for.
“The university seems to be, honestly, in opposition with what its goals are, which is to educate its students,” Jrade said. “The only understanding that we can have of what’s going on is that our education and our students’ educations are not the most important thing at this university.”
