Top Stories

Graduate Dean Carol Genetti writes with further information on UCPath – the new payroll system that is being rolled out across the University of California – and its impact on graduate students.

By Graduate Division Staff
Tuesday, October 30th, 2018 - 9:00am

A message from ​Graduate Dean Carol Genetti:

I am writing with further information on UCPath - the new payroll system that is being rolled out across the University of California - and its impact on graduate students.

As previously communicated, various aspects of the rollout on the UC Santa Barbara campus have been problematic, including the timing of the launch during the heaviest month for hiring students. This has not been an easy transition, and we anticipate that problems will continue, given the complexity of the new multi-campus system. It will all get ironed out eventually (and then it will be in place for decades), but it will clearly take significant time and effort to reach that point.

We are almost to November 1st: the first monthly payday after we've been in UCPath for the entire month. Employees can view their paycheck statement in the UCPath Portal 48 hours in advance of payday. We anticipate problems, so I strongly advise you to check your pay statement by logging onto UCPath. If your pay is incorrect, report it to your department staff. For more information, see the attached FAQs​.

I wish to express my sincere appreciation to the Graduate Student Association for providing us with crucial information and input. I look forward to continuing to work in partnership with the GSA in the months ahead.

I also wanted to inform you of what the campus administration has done to help mitigate the negative impacts of this transition:

  • More than 400 staff members across campus are spending countless hours troubleshooting problems with individuals' pay and determining the appropriate fix.

  • Graduate Division staff have combedlists of hundreds of students whose tuition, fees, and health insurance had not ​been paid to determine which students were in this situation because of problems with UCPath (the vast majority). They then manually paid their fees even if problems with their UCPath appointments persisted, in order to move students into paid status as quickly as possible.

  • BARC, the Office of the Registrar, and the Graduate Division worked together to ensure that no student was dropped from fall classes or charged late fees.

  • The Office of Instructional Development provided temporary access to GauchoSpace for hundreds of students who were unable to access it due to UCPath problems.

  • The Office of Housing and Residential Services has agreed to waive late fees and work out payment plans for students unable to pay their rent due to problems with UCPath.

  • The Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships has been providing emergency loans.

Please note that many members of the staff and administration are putting in countless hours of frustrating work as we go through this transition. Although they may be largely invisible to students, the efforts of these staff members have been truly heroic. Express your gratitude if you get a chance.

This is a dynamic situation and more work will be needed. Patience, kindness, humor, and understanding will go a long way in helping us all get through this. Thank you.