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Graduate student unions struggling to survive
▶ CHANDLER BOESE @Chandler_Boese
R right now at private colleges across the country, graduate students
are forming unions to represent themselves for the first time in decades.
Graduate teaching assistant David Cooper teaches a sociology class in Fraser Hall.
At the University, these unions already exist - but they're in danger of going extinct.
Last week, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that graduate students at private institutions are employees and therefore have a right to bargain collectively, or form unions. Some schools like Yale University are already forming those unions.
However, at the University, graduate student organizations have struggled to find enough participation to take advantage of their rights to unionize.
Amy Schumacher, director of graduate affairs for Student Senate, said low interest caused the Graduate Teaching Assistants Coalition (GTAC), the University's chapter that reports to the union, to go defunct for a few years. Now it's up and running again, but Schumacher said the issue of low graduate participation is still prevalent.
"A lot of graduate students are older or have family or are really focused on their studies," she said. "It's hard for those graduate students to prioritize those kinds of extracurricular involvement."
Acting GTAC president David Cooper said GTAs in particular have a hard time getting and maintaining consistent membership in the
organization because a student might be teaching one semester, but not the next.
Ashley Hocking/KANSAN
"It's difficult to have a durable membership, it involves a lot of ground work," he said. "If there's not an active core of membership, it's tough for the organization to keep going."
Today, the union, the American Federation of Teachers — Kansas, is tasked with representing graduate students and their role as graduate teaching assistants. That means negotiating a contract every two years with the Kansas Board of Regents and the University, Schumacher said.
Last May, GTAC worked with AFT-Kansas to negotiate a new contract for GTA's at the University. The organization was able to get a $1,500 raise for returning doctoral students and a decrease in the number of required credits for those at the end of their programs.
"The agreement shows that administration and the Board of Regents can work with graduate students to make things better," Schumacher said.
Schumacher said she believes that the University's administration understands the "critical function" graduate students have in day-to-day operations and shows an eagerness to help its graduate students with their academic responsibilities.
"At KU, there is a strong relationship between our master's and doctoral programs and the success of our research and scholarship," said Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, director of news and media relations. "Many of
our graduate students, as they pursue their degrees, work alongside faculty in teaching and research. It's important that we support them in those roles."
is a strong relationship between our master's and doctoral programs."
Erinn Barcomb-Peterson Director of news and medias relations
belief in the University's support, she said there are still a number of issues that she would like to see addressed, either through Student Senate or the union.
Despite Schumacher's
Increased printing credit for graduate students to print academic work has been discussed in Senate for a long time, as has the role of student evaluations in GTA's review. Schumacher said getting more graduate students involved in these conversations would help them move forward.
Though she just started in her position last month, Schumacher said she would like to get more graduates involved in Student Senate.
on the Graduate Student Advisory Board — which has also been neglected in recent years — and in the union.
Even outside of the union, graduate students have seen and still see representative issues. Schumacher said that graduates are allocated a certain number of seats in Student Senate, but all of them are rarely filled. Once, there was a separate senate for graduates, but lack of participation forced it to merge with the undergraduate-dominated Student Senate.
"I think graduate students need to use their voice more," Schumacher said.
students the opportunity to do so through the organization. He said GTAC is planning to push recruiting this year, so they can better negotiate and represent the University's GTAs.
Cooper said GTAC is trying to give more graduate
Cooper said recruiting will not only help strengthen the union's force in negotiating with the University and Board of Regents, but will also help the union better represent the University's diverse group of graduate students.
GTAC will have their first meeting of the year Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Ecumenical Campus Ministries.
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