Graduate Student Senate considers unionization

The Graduate Student Senate (GSS) decided Wednesday to hold an informational forum exploring its options for responding to the recent budget cuts that will greatly affect graduate programs.

"We're going to have a short meeting tonight, because nothing important happened since the last time we met," said GSS President Brooke Morrill, a Ph.D. candidate in English literature as he called the meeting to order.

The $16.1 million budget cut includes a state-mandated three percent rescission as well as cuts in fringe benefit and salary reserves, an "uncertainties reserve," which will act as a buffer in the event of future economic instability and an additional .5 percent cut by the administration that will reallocate funds to departments hit hardest by the struggling economy.

"President Hogan told me at the picnic that he already spent that money," said Treasurer Jeffrey Bernath, referring to the $2.3 million "strategic reallocation."

In a special issues forum held during the senate's regularly scheduled meeting, senators discussed possible ways to take a stand against the administration. Graduate students are worried the cuts will eliminate teacher assistant benefits and make it harder for students to balance their research and studies with work.

"If 50 people in a department have a half-TAship, you could have 25 full TAships. Then you would only have to pay half the amount in benefits, salaries, etcetera. That's one of the ideas on the table [for the departments]," said Bernath, who is a Ph. D. candidate in linguistics.

After those present discussed the situation and offered a few ideas to unite graduate students on this issue beyond the reaches of the GSS, conversation turned toward the possibility of joining a union for protection.

This idea seemed to give the forum direction toward a concrete action the GSS could take.

Sen. Josh King brought up an example in which students from the University of Massachusetts unionized among themselves.

"We should get in contact with people who are in another graduate student union," King said.

King also suggested that the GSS get a representative from the professor's union to see if they'd be willing to take the graduate students into their organization.

Miloje Despic, a graduate student in the economics department, suggested holding a panel discussion strictly for graduate students with union representatives.

After a near-simultaneous "yes" boomed throughout the room, the senate ran with Despic's idea.

"We need to be able to provide some answers [to graduate students' questions]," King said.

Although the panel would include union representatives, the senate said it would be purely informational, and that they weren't yet sure whether a union would be the right course of action.

"People are hesitant because it's scary. I don't want to teach and work under a union, but I don't want to have to, either," Morrill said. "What we want is information."