Spring Break
Grad students renew union efforts
Lindsay Kalter
Issue date: 9/4/07 Section: News
GSG President Laura Moore once again cited her plan to unionize graduate students as her top priority, she said in her inaugural speech Friday.
If accomplished, the union could lead to more feasible workloads and higher stipends for graduate students, Moore said. But under Maryland state law, universities are not required to acknowledge concerns brought by such unions and so far university administrators have not taken a stand on the issue.
A graduate student labor union could be costly to the university, leaving less room to negotiate stipends and other benefits.
The Graduate Student Government unanimously passed a resolution in February proposing that the state allow graduate students collective bargaining rights, Moore said. The next step is continuing to garner as much support as possible from students and local politicians, she said.
Though graduate stipends rose 4.55 percent this semester, some graduate students saw a nine percent rent increase leading Moore to pursue additional stipend increases, she said.
"Some [teaching assistants] are getting paid for 20 hours a week, but working 40," she said. "This is an ethical issue, and it's bad for the teachingand research we do and, therefore, it adversely affects the university."
In the past, cries for unionization at universities nationwide have been met with concerns that the entire graduate student body would be able to influence specific departmental issues. University of Pennsylvania Linguistics Professor Donald Ringe addressed this in a 2004 letter to graduate students.
"We do not want a decision that will have a major impact on our program to be made by non-linguists," he wrote. "We can't do anything about the fact that voting graduate students in some other programs are much more numerous - that's just the breaks."
But James Douglass, an Ohio State University graduate student, disagreed. He argued that unions give students more control rather than allowing power to fall into the wrong hands.
If accomplished, the union could lead to more feasible workloads and higher stipends for graduate students, Moore said. But under Maryland state law, universities are not required to acknowledge concerns brought by such unions and so far university administrators have not taken a stand on the issue.
A graduate student labor union could be costly to the university, leaving less room to negotiate stipends and other benefits.
The Graduate Student Government unanimously passed a resolution in February proposing that the state allow graduate students collective bargaining rights, Moore said. The next step is continuing to garner as much support as possible from students and local politicians, she said.
Though graduate stipends rose 4.55 percent this semester, some graduate students saw a nine percent rent increase leading Moore to pursue additional stipend increases, she said.
"Some [teaching assistants] are getting paid for 20 hours a week, but working 40," she said. "This is an ethical issue, and it's bad for the teachingand research we do and, therefore, it adversely affects the university."
In the past, cries for unionization at universities nationwide have been met with concerns that the entire graduate student body would be able to influence specific departmental issues. University of Pennsylvania Linguistics Professor Donald Ringe addressed this in a 2004 letter to graduate students.
"We do not want a decision that will have a major impact on our program to be made by non-linguists," he wrote. "We can't do anything about the fact that voting graduate students in some other programs are much more numerous - that's just the breaks."
But James Douglass, an Ohio State University graduate student, disagreed. He argued that unions give students more control rather than allowing power to fall into the wrong hands.
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