In her inaugural remarks to the 27th Graduate Student Government assembly, GSG President Laura Moore gave hope to graduate students' increasingly dire situation. She congratulated the assembly on a number of small victories: a graduate student voice in the East Campus initiative, new shuttle routes based on grad student needs and serious consideration of the Purple Line Metro plan. Even the existence of this column is progress from the days when graduate students thought The Diamondback was a jewelry exchange.
However, Moore pointed out a number of basic grievances that still plague graduate student life. Our stipends don't keep up with the cost of living in College Park. We work far more hours than we get paid for. We are the only group on the campus without a formal grievance procedure. Of course, she reminded the assembly that the GSG has made a heroic effort on all of these fronts, with unprecedented media coverage, landmark speeches to the University Senate and constant pressure on the administration. Yet we have not seen any tangible improvements.
For Moore, along with the rest of the graduate student leadership, these are more than just gripes. They are ethical issues. The university benefits greatly from the work graduate students perform. Just recently the university announced that during the past year it collected more than $400 million in research funding, much of which resulted from the efforts of highly motivated graduate students. Teaching assistants often put in twice as many hours as they are paid for, detracting from their research and delaying graduation. We are vital to the educational and research reputation of this university - why don't we have the same negotiating power as everyone else?
This, Moore announced, is where Maryland Teachers and Researchers comes in. MTR will soon become the umbrella organization for us to force results on the most fundamental issues of graduate student life. Unionizing will give graduate students the same voice as other state employees. We produce much of the research that gives the university its reputation, so we have a basic right to the same seat at the negotiating table.
For the union to succeed, it needs broad support among its constituents - that translates to membership and involvement. The message to the graduate student population is join, get involved and make your voice heard. Without graduate students bringing their concerns to the union, the GSG, the administration and the state legislature, we can't expect change.
To the faculty and administration: Support your graduate students. Much of the $400 million in research funding from last year came out of their long hours in the labs and libraries. Improved graduate student situations attract better graduate students and increase graduation rates. Happy graduate students will do better work when they don't have to worry about making rent, and their well-being will benefit the university as a whole.
Finally, to those shaping MTR: Be careful, as the tone we take today will shape the development of the union for the future. In our quest for an improved situation, we cannot lose sight of the fundamental reason for which we are here: to get our graduate education. Our university has an outstanding research reputation; our efforts to unionize cannot jeopardize that position or detract from our education. We must take an approach of cooperation, because in the end, we all have the same goal: a better university community and even more exceptional research.
Effective examples of unionization exist at other institutions such as the University of Michigan and the University of California, Berkeley. Hopefully MTR will follow in their footsteps, benefiting graduate students and perhaps serving as an example for other groups to follow.
Danny Rogers is a graduate student in the chemical physics program. He can be reached at drogers2@umd.edu.
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