UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Monday, August 24 1992
3B
GTAs fight for rights
KU assistants seek benefits unionization
By Andrew Arnone Special to the Kansan
Frustrated by bureaucratic rebuches, and despite opposition both within and outside the University, University of Kansas graduate teaching assistants set out last spring to form a union. They demanded increases in wages and benefits.
"GTAs plan, teach and grade 40 percent of all undergraduate classes," said Dan Murtaugh, a GTA in English from Lawrence and organizer of the GTA union movement. "We are University employees."
The University disagrees. In a memo dated March 12, Del Shankel, interim executive vice chancellor, wrote of the GTA issue, "It is the position of the University that these students are at the university primarily for the purpose of obtaining a degree, not for the purpose of employment."
However, before they are allowed to vote for or against organizing a union, they must win a favorable verdict in a hearing to determine whether GTAs are classified as employees hired by the state or as students receiving financial aid.
The GTAs argue that they are University employees and, like other public employees, should receive benefits such as health and dental insurance, multi-year renewable contracts, child-care programs and unemployment benefits.
Howard Mossberg, vice chancellor and interim dean of the graduate school, said he thought the University had articulated what the policy has been all along.
He said that GTA appointments are not a career ladder but a means of gaining experience.
Mossberg said GTAs are employed by the University and play an important role in the teaching process, but he questioned the legality of forming a union.
The office use is, under the collective laws
d'Fatu institute under the collective laws
gaining rule?" he said.
This is the question that will be raised to the Kansas Public Employee Relations Board at the October hearing, said Mary Prewitt, assistant general counsel for the University.
Pewitt said the hearing would determine whether GTAs have the right to organize a union, and if so, employees are eligible or only GTAs.
Murtaugh said that even though the University administration had rejected the idea of GTAs as covered employees, KU's student and faculty governments – the Student Senate, the Graduate Student Senate, and the University Senate Executive Committee – all had adopted resolutions stating that they do regard GTAs as employees.
"In 1987 the University of Illinois offered me a full health and dental plan, 100-percent tuition waiver, and a stipend $3,000 greater than what KU offered," Murtaugh said. "Every time I pay tuition at KU it's like a slap in the face."
In addition, the GTAs themselves have voiced a strong opinion demanding the right to vote on whether to create a union.
An important reason for discontient with the current GTA package is that other universities offer better benefits.
Mike Rolstien, who works in the University of Wisconsin at Madison's office of academic personnel and support, said in a telephone interview that teaching assistants and project assistants at that university received comprehensive health insurance, multi-year renewable contracts in some departments, like French and Italian, and a supplement of $200 to $300 a month for child care. In addition, an average teaching assistant or project assistant earns about $12,500 for a nine-month contract.
At KU, an average GTA earns $7,400.
Murtuaad said.
"Fifty percent of all graduate employees filled out show-of-interest cards," Murtaugh said. "That's over half." He had also have said they support unquoting.
Prashant Kapoor, a former KU physics GTA and research assistant from New Delhi, India, is now attending Yale University. He receives a 100-percent tuition waiver, comprehensive health coverage, and a $15,000 stipend for being a GTA, he said.
"We understand the issue," Mossberg said. "We know the benefits are below par, not only for GTAs, but for faculty and administration as well. It's true across the board, and the situation is real."
However, Mossberg maintains that unionization is not the key to
But even when GTAs have tried to gain benefits through legislative avenues, they have found it increasingly difficult to get bills passed that would improve benefits.
Despite support from State Sen.
Wint Winter, R-Lawrence, to pass a bill last March, which would have increased GTAs' tuition waiver from 75 percent to 100 percent, State Sen.
Gus Bogina, R-Shwane, vehemently blocked the bill and forced a compromise of 87.5 percent.
Winter said that the 100-percent waiver added educational quality to the institution.
Only later in the summer did the issue resurface and the 100-percent leather coat begin to fade.
Bogina said he had rejected the increase because taxpayers should not pay for a GTA's education and a salary.
But not all graduate students think the employee package should be weighted so heavily.
Maria Angelaetti, a former GTA in the Italian department, said, "Most graduate students are selective on where they go to school. Why else do you have people spending an arm and a leg to go to Stanford?"
Marla Downing, a biology GTA from Lenexa, also disagrees that higher stipends and benefits are vital.
"The teaching experience is worth more than any other compensation." Downing says. "GTAs are offered a good opportunity to teach."
Yet Murtaugh maintains that the GTAs themselves should decide whether to organize. He said if they won a favorable ruling in October, an election could take place 30 days later.
And Murtaugh is confident that the union will succeed.
"The GTAs are a powerful organization," he said. "We are essential to the establishment. We will assert ourselves through legal means."
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