Over 100 people with the UT chapter of FED UP — Field Education and Development Undergraduate/Graduate Placements — rallied in front of the Steve Hicks School of Social Work Tuesday morning, continuing calls for pay rate and field hours improvements for social work students.

“Our work is important; we have to live. And we deserve to be paid for what we do,” FED UP organizer Beth Wagner said during the protest. 

Several organizers, students, Austin locals and Social Work Dean Allan Cole spoke in front of the Social Work School. Cole and administration hosted a community conversation with organizers afterwards. 

During the community conversation, Cole said he has no intentions of dissolving the working group between FED UP and social work administration; instead, he wants to create a new working group with a wider array of voices while having more conversations with FED UP organizers. 

Organizers said they hope the school will create a fund to pay them for their field hours at rates of up to $20 an hour. Cole said social work agencies are responsible for paying students for their field work — not the University. 

“We cannot pay students for educational experience, which is what field work is,” Cole said. “We can (continue to) strongly encourage agencies to pay as much as they can … we can encourage faculty to submit brands that have funding components for students in (the) field.”

During the rally, FED UP organizer Miranda Best Campos said the group is also advocating for the passage of Texas Senate Bill 1796, which would provide fair pair stipends for all social work interns.

In a statement emailed to the Daily Texan, a University spokesperson said the University supports students amidst the rising cost of living in Austin via financial aid, scholarships and student support funds. 

“There are plenty of FED UP folks graduating this spring, but that doesn’t mean that FED UP is done,” said Best Campos, a social work graduate student. “We’ve had lots of wins, but we’re not going to stop until everyone has a universal fair pay stipend.”