Second Degree: Identity Crises

Many graduate students are searching for their identity. And last week thirty met to try and find it. Unlike professors and undergraduates who are certain of their roles -- to teach and to learn -- many graduate students claim their position is not well defined at the University. Marc Stein said last week that several key issues, including costly health insurance and low stipends, stem from this identity conflict -- the University views graduate students as apprentices while many see themselves as employees. Stein, a history graduate student, said he assembled the graduate student group last week as the first in a series of steps to clarify graduate students' role and take action to "improve our situation" -- a task which some graduate students claim requires unionization. "In some ways graduate students are becoming as vital to the functioning of the University as [unionized staff,]" Stein said last week. But Stein added that unionization is only one of many ideas and requires serious consideration before action is taken. Students at the new group's first meeting said they would soon investigate the results of unionization efforts at other universities. But University administrators said last week that they are opposed to unionization and believe that student complaints can be resolved more effectively without a union. Donald Fitts, the associate dean of graduate students for the School of Arts and Sciences, said that he believes a union would hurt the students more than help them. Fitts said last week that graduate students would find "in the long run" that unionization would "work to their disadvantage." He noted that if the students unionized they would have to pay income tax on their tuition. "The TAship is part of their education, this is the apprenticeship for their becoming a teacher," Fitts added. "The problem with them being a union is that then they would be employees and they are not employees." But many graduate students said last week that they do not believe that they are apprentices. "We're not just students, we're student-employees," Stein said. "It's hard to believe that we teach because it's part of our education, like the University tells us. We teach because the University needs us to." Stein added that the lack of a formal training program for teaching assistants proves that the University does not consider TAship part of the education process. But Fitts said the TAship is an integral part of the graduate students' education and added that each department is responsible for training its own TAs. "In some departments they take a course, in some departments they take a workshop, in some they do neither," Fitts said. This same question as to whether TAs are employees or apprentices helped propel students at Temple University to attempt to form a union two years ago. Jay Longshore, a Temple anthropology graduate student, said that many graduate students wanted a union since as teaching assistants they considered themselves employees -- and therefore deserving of employee benefits. "[The administration's] argument was that whatever work we did was training," Longshore added. "[But,] it is not at all the requirement of any degree program that you have to be a teaching assistant or research assistant." Longshore said that the union effort ended when the administration gave into some student requests. "We never actully formed a union, but we wanted to," Longshore said. "For a year there was really a lot of momentum, but the university basically bought everyone off." Longshore said that the Temple administration agreed to an 11 percent stipend raise and improved health insurance coverage. Graduate and Professional Student Assembly chairperson Allen Orsi said that if students in the new University group try to form a union they may be met with a similar response. "I imagaine the University would not want to unionize and would come back with more for the TAs," Orsi said. Efforts to form unions at private schools are rare and have only succeded at Yale University, according to its organizers. At Yale, however, both sides have agreed that the graduate students are not university employees. Rather, the Graduate Employee and Student Organization works to increase stipends and student representation on university boards. After holding a three-day strike last February, GESO won a 10 percent raise for teaching assistants, a teacher training program to prepare teaching assistants and three seats on the graduate school's executive committee, according to GESO spokesperson Eve Weinbaum. This is the first time graduate students have been represented on the influential policy-making body, Weinbaum said. But other perks which the administration promised, such as 28 percent raise for almost half of the TAs, have not been granted, Weinbaum added. "After we left [for the summer] the administration decided not to implement it. There are still lots of things that we're working on," Weinbaum said. Weinbaum said the union, despite early setbacks, has been effective in capturing the attention of Yale's administration because it represents over 1350 of the 2000 graduate students. "Until December of last year they had a very strict policy of not meeting with GESO representatives," Weinbaum said. "Then, after we started putting on the pressure, they met with us. They're now very friendly with us. The new dean of the graduate school met with us right away. They've been quite attentive." · Former GAPSA chairperson Susan Garfinkle said University graduate students discussed forming a union two years ago, but never implemented their plans. She said last week that she doubts students will form a union this time either. "Someone said the word [union,] it got into The Daily Pennsylvanian, and caused such a big fuss no one said it again," Garfinkle said. Stein said that the new graduate group may find working with GAPSA, the Graduate Student Associations Council and individual departments to be more effective than unionizing. GSAC chairperson Michele Grimm said she believes that all three organizations will be able to work together and is "pleased they're not jumping into the idea of unionizing without information." Stein said that the new graduate group wants to increse stipends which are currently $9000 a year. "We're talking about health insurance and rent eating up half of [the stipend,]" Stein said. Stein also said that working conditions for the TAs are not acceptable and their responsibilities are not clearly defined. He added that many graduate students have no office space and an excessive number of undergraduate students. For the first time, all research and teaching assistants will receive a written outline of their responsibilities, Grimm said last week. At Yale the graduate student union GESO is also trying to better define TAs responsibilities. "[Published guidelines] give a range of students and a range of hours," Weinbaum said. "But they are not enforced at all." Stein added that the new group will also discuss summer funding for graduate students since the current stipend only covers the nine-month academic year and many students study through the summer. But Fitts said last week that summer fellowships are available and noted that students who are not working for the University, during the summer, have time to find an outside job.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.