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Union not necessary at
Tufts I have been reading the many Viewpoints regarding the Graduate Student Union controversy. I have digested what both sides have had to say, and am still sticking to my first decision. This was a decision I made 3 years ago as President of the Graduate Student Council (GSC). At the National Association of Graduate and Professional Students (NAGPS) national conference (the GSC is a member of this association and portions of your activity fee go to our national dues), several students from Yale approached me about starting a graduate student union at Tufts. After much deliberation with the executive board, we decided that such a step was not necessary. We had accomplished so much that none of us really saw how unionization would help, only ways that it would be a detriment. In addition to the well-researched and very real points of the Why Have a Union at Tufts (WHUT?) organization, there is a whole other side to this that the present GSC is not even exploring. Let me give a brief example. We all believe that the health care situation for graduate students can be improved and that many policies and focuses presently favor the undergraduate status. In 1998 we formed a Health Care committee in the GSC to research and address such issues, and we met regularly with Michelle Bowdler (director of Tufts Health Services) and Dean Hollister (then GSAS dean) to discuss first steps to rectify the situation. Those first steps were accomplished! The graduate student health fee (»$300), which was a mandatory charge regardless of your insurance plan, or even if you never planned to set foot in the Tufts health clinic, is now rolled into tuition waivers. With further negotiations more steps in this direction can be made. That year the GSC worked very hard to meet these goals, and was met with rewards for the hard work. We learned that the administration is more than ready to listen to us if we are organized and the demands are just. Another example of GSC victory came under Bruce Panilaitis. Did you know that the GSAS used to charge $500 dollars/semester continuation fee after your second year? Pretty unreasonable don’t you think? The GSC is the organization that worked with the administration which changed that for graduate students. What graduate students should draw from these examples is that a very effective organization already exists on campus. This organization just needs to be used to its full potential. If everyone who is so concerned about the union issue would put this much effort into the GSC, real goals could have been accomplished this year rather than mudslinging and petty banter. Why waste time setting up a new and external liaison between faculty and students, when a well-respected and familiar institution already exists? This institution has been proven to work and the whole of its members (and resources) are simply there to act on your behalf. No one is denying that issues such as pay equity and improved health care still exist. But these concerns are best met in-house and it is because the GSC has not been as active compared to previous councils that such improvements have not been made. The GSC just needs your input - and if you dare, a few moments of your time. As graduate students we chose academia knowing full well that even though better money could be made elsewhere, the rewards of faculty mentoring, a higher educational degree, cutting-edge learning, lasting connections with collaborators, flexible schedules and lets say it, a better salary after graduate school than before, far outweigh the relationship of employer and employee that is fostered by unionization. We are fortunate to have such an available and cooperative administration and because of this our academic lifestyle is something that we all value. Should we resort to unionization before exhausting all avenues, this lifestyle is threatened. I myself can’t reconcile why the United Auto Workers cares about graduate students other than the fact that they want our money, a substantially large sum of money I might add. Yes, we will then have lawyers at our disposal to force the administration to act in “good faith”. What does this mean? This means that the administration must legally provide us with documentation when asked. I must say that every request we made the year I was president was met. We were even allowed to send a representative to the Budget and Finances Committee. If that is not acting in good faith I don’t know what is, and lawyers had nothing to do with it. However, should the need for lawyers arise, I want you to remember the NAGPS organization I mentioned earlier. This is a truly great organization of which the graduate student body has been a member for years. They lobby for us every year in Washington D. C.. When congress wanted to tax tuition remissions as income, (at Tufts think about how that would have affected your tax bracket) NAGPS lobbying stopped the bill. That would have meant that a student with a $10,000 stipend would have been taxed as if he had made »$38,000 owing at least half his actual income in taxes. In addition, NAGPS offers a number of resources for tax breaks, health insurance, auto insurance, dental insurance, books, and grants and fellowship resources. Therefore, many of the things that the union promises to “bring to us” are already available to us through NAGPS, plus the more graduate student specific concerns of scholarships etc.. Everyone strives toward a better lifestyle, but it is essential to seriously consider what you will give up and what you will gain in such endeavors. I have simply given you the facts of my experience in leadership and working with the administration at Tufts. What needs to be proven is that there are substantial benefits in unionization and I at least feel that this burden of proof has not been met. Much of what we all seek is already there and extensive portions of this will be lost in forming a union, the most costly being the ability to govern ourselves. Donna L Wilson was president of the GSC from 1998-1999. This article has been reproduced with permission of the Tufts Daily.
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