Yale Law Faculty Defend Grad Student Union Effort
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The following open letter to Yale University President Peter Salovey appeared yesterday in the Yale Daily News. Dear President Salovey: As members of the Yale Law faculty, we write to express our disagreement with your May 3, 2017 public letter regarding graduate student teaching fellow unionization. In the letter, you suggest that…
University of Chicago Graduate Employees File to Form Union
POSTED BY KELLY HAND Today, a strong majority of graduate employees at the University of Chicago filed authorization cards with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to hold a formal union recognition election. Members of Graduate Students United (GSU) personally visited the regional NLRB office to deliver the cards, signed by grad workers from seven…
Short-term, Real-life Collaboration Sets this Experiential Learning Apart
BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL Many of us in higher education have long been proponents of “laboratory” initiatives in the humanities, social sciences, professional and graduate programs that translate academic learning into real world experience. These initiatives serve a variety of purposes. They make critical inquiry more pragmatic. Most colleges and universities build their academic program…
Help Brothers and Sisters in Iowa — Make a Call Now!
BY LAURA MARKWARDT Graduate workers with COGS at the University of Iowa are struggling for a fair contract in the midst of state legislation against working people in the public sector. COGS celebrated their 20th Anniversary last year, and the gains they’ve made for graduate employees and students over this time are being quickly erased. Today, COGS holds an action at the University of…
Average Student Debt by State
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH The following data is from the Student Loan Report produced by 24/7 Wall St. This news release provides a summary explanation of that report, highlighting the key findings and aspects of the methodology: “Total student debt in the United States, at approximately $1.26 trillion, is the second largest consumer debt in…
Noble Words and Foul Deeds at Columbia
BY HANK REICHMAN Words: On November 17, Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger spoke to attendees at the university’s annual Hamilton Award Dinner. Here is part of the Columbia Spectator’s report on his remarks: “The University is not a political institution—we do not take positions on political issues. But when you have a position that…
Are You an Intellectual?
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN Ibram X. Kendi, assistant professor of African American history at the University of Florida and winner of the 2016 National Book Award for Nonfiction for Stamped from the Beginning: A Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, will be the plenary speaker at the AAUP’s Annual Conference on the State of…
Columbia Graduate Students Vote to Unionize
BY HANK REICHMAN A majority of teaching and research assistants at Columbia have voted to unionize, the National Labor Relations Board confirmed today, December 9. Graduate and undergraduate students voted 1602 to 623 in favor of joining Graduate Workers of Columbia-United Auto Workers Union. University administrators and especially provost John Coatsworth had lobbied vigorously against…
Columbia Provost Coatsworth Escalates Assault on Grad Student Union Rights
BY HANK REICHMAN Back in August, the National Labor Relations Board ruled in the Columbia University case that student employees at private universities have the right to organize unions to bargain collectively over the terms of their employment. Within a week Columbia’s provost, historian John Coatsworth, responded with a letter to the campus community, which…