Graduate Student Walkout

dilksy
Mon, 24 Mar 2008 21:00:27 +0000

The GEO threatens to strike every three years, when contract negotiations come up. The issue is that the current average stipend is below the cost of living. Both sides agree that the average stipends need to be raised to match the cost of living, but the two sides differ in what they believe the cost of living is. The University has offered to increase the average stipend by 3% (to match up with the rate of inflation), and the GEO is demanding a 9% increase (most likely to cover inflation and increased housing costs).

AFAIK, this is more of an issue amongst the humanities/soft science graduate students, who can’t readily get summer research jobs to supplement their stipend. I know the people in the math department don’t particularly care (except for this one girl who looks like a guy that I saw wearing a t-shirt highlighting all the achievements of Graduate Student unions over the past decades…she might care), but are going through with the strike anyways.