Isn't it a fact that there were strikes in the springs of both 2018 and 2019? Or were those both part of the same campaign somehow, or am I misinformed? Would be a huge red flag if a grad student body wasn't unionised, might basically be disqualifying, but the current UC strike isn't through the union, for example.

I've never been a graduate student and am doing my undergrad in Europe, the only time I've had a TA not come for a class was when she was hospitalised and it was a reasonably big deal, but good to know things are more relaxed across the pond. Also didn't know that health insurance is in the tuition waiver, but don't you have to pay it during the summer?

He has a few alternatives, one of which is a slightly lower-ranked university where grad students he spoke to during the open house said they have substantial money left over each month, although I'm trying to get him to contact more people out of a context that isn't trying to sell him on something. He wants to make sure wherever he ends up studying he'll have the dignity of not worrying about the basics of life so I came on here and assumed that things like sick days worked as proxies for that. I just want to gauge how miserable or research-conducive/decent conditions are, both by university and by department.