“We absolutely are agreeing to the continuation of the current tuition policy,” said Robin Kaler, University spokeswoman. “We are agreeing that if we would ever change the current tuition policy, we wouldn’t do that without first bargaining such changes with the Union.”

It's important to know that this is spin. Yes, the administration is willing to bargain in-state tuition wavers if they're ever in danger but *NOT* out-of-state. They refused to add that to the contract.

This means all out-of-state graduate students could suddenly owe thousands and thousands of dollars one semester with little warning and the GEO could do nothing to stop it.

“We absolutely are agreeing to the continuation of the current tuition policy,” said Robin Kaler, University spokeswoman. “We are agreeing that if we would ever change the current tuition policy, we wouldn’t do that without first bargaining such changes with the Union.”

It's important to realize that this is spin.

Yes, the administration agreed to allow the GEO to bargain about IN-STATE tuition waivers if they were ever in danger of being revoked. They are unwilling to bargain about OUT-OF-STATE waivers.

This means that out-of-state graduate students could suddenly owe thousands and thousands of dollars with no recourse.

You should really report the facts! No where did you say how much of an increase we accepted. 10% increase in the minimum wage over 3 years. That will get us no where close to a living wage, just around approximately 14,500, not the 16,000 that UIUC says we need to live on. We conceded that and they won't give us language protecting tuition waivers. Please DI, do some real reporting and stop being a mouthpiece of the administration.

Boy, you GEO members are really stretching it. You've been whining on and on about a living wage, and after you agree on that suddenly you strike because the university won't guarantee tuition waivers. You're just looking for a reason to strike! I would sympathize with you if the administration was actually going to take away the waivers, but to strike because it won't promise not to? You claim that you're all for "worker rights" but all you're trying to do is guarantee that cuts won't come from your corner if they come, to hell with everyone else, including the students whose classes you're disrupting. You've really shown your true colors this morning, striking over insecurity. TAs should ask themselves whether the GEO will be sending them checks in the mail 10, 20, 30 years from now, because what the TAs are doing today is certainly feathering the GEO nest for the future. This is the danger of having unions on campus. Students are too naive to connect the dots.

The primary contention point is that the University wants to be able to take away out of state waivers away without talking to the union about it first. The Administration proposed a clause that says they will talk with the union about changing only in-state waivers, the GEO proposed a clause that says they will talk with the union about changing *any* waivers. The University rejected the GEO's proposal, which implies that they value the ability to remove out-of-state waivers without having to bargain about it. Shady.

you have my full support GEO. You need to protect yourselves in case the university tries to change the tuition waiver in the future. Let's hope the administration sees reason quickly.

In my four years at the U of I, I found the majority of my time spent in TA discussions was pointless busy work and any class taught by a graduate student was at the level of a high school class. I can remember only one occasion, my TA for Gotheil's class, in which I had a graduate instructor I felt comfortable meeting with outside of class for additional aid because in most cases I didn't feel there was any benefit to it. I didn't find them to be experts, and certainly not more knowledgeable than a professor would have been. And I was lucky that I was in a major that required most of my professors to speak proficient English. In many of the programs where outside help is probably most needed (the sciences and engineering, I presume), it's tough to find a TA who is not foreign. I'm not saying it isn't fantastic that our University opens its doors to the world and provides a truly diversity enriched experience, but it shouldn't come at the expense of someone else's learning. In general, that's my feeling on graduate teachers: their benefit was greater than mine at half the cost to them (if not more), and undergraduates pay for it with their tuition and their learning experience.

So you're saying the DI, instead, should by a mouthpiece for the GEO? Gimme a break. Who cares if it's a cost of living wage? It shouldn't be looked at as a wage at all, but rather a stipend. If you're a working professional with a family and you're risking your livelihood to come back to school, you have more problems than the difference between a thousand dollars or so.

So do the students go to classes or not? Will there be anyone in the classrooms when they get there?

Even in this heated discussion, let's factor out the complicated situation behind this question: why did some undergraduates suffer from sub-optimal TA instruction? Not to be exhaustive: 1) The incompetent TA does not have the capability to take his/her duties, even after training. The University should not have admitted him or her as a TA. 2) Insufficient training / support provided by the University. The performance of TAs, same as that of other teaching personnel, partially relies on the support the institution provides academically. Behind an unsatisfactory TA-taught undergraduate course could be not only the talking TA in the classroom, but also other missing components: think about those classes for which TAs have to take full responsibility even if they are not receiving the same benefits as staff that do similar jobs ? 3) TAs overloaded with hours of instruction work as well as their own research work, while taking a salary that is not proportional to what they contribute, distracted and having to worry about their living. 4) TAs, though an essential part of the instruction team of the University, have been unsatisfied with their job: In fact the U. of I. graduate employee benefits in insurance, fee waivers have been on the lower end compared with other same-tier public institutes. This is by no means a definitive list. Just my two cents.

This reporter fails to mention that the GEO conceded on the living wage issue. We accepted a 3% increase in wage per year, which amounts to roughly 10% over three years. This is NOWHERE CLOSE to living wage, but we conceded.

Omitting this detail is straight-up sloppy journalism which forwards an agenda and misconstrues the truth.

"both sides were able to reach an agreement on all aspects of a contract except for tuition waiver security."

Great job GEO! Way to get that 3% raise over 3 years from the minimum stipend even though you asked for 20% and over the last week have rammed that point down our throats as your most important reason not to accept the current contract. That's really going to make a difference between a living wage and a non-living wage.

Oh yea and by the way...the university isn't going to get rid of waivers for people who deserve them. If anything, this is going to push more departments to offer packages with higher assistantship percentages since no respectable phd student would come to a place where they have to pay. If on the other hand you are studying in a field where tuition waivers aren't the norm, then that sucks, but it is probably because you're going to make a ton of money eventually anyway.

Stop striking for no reason and bring this thing to a close.

I don't get any tuition waiver.

I don't get paid by the university.

I have homeworks and exams galore over the next month.

I now have no TA's for help on them.

Does anyone give a damn?

Please get your facts straight. From Day 1 of the negotiations, the GEO has been insisting on guaranteed tuition waivers, as you can quickly check by reading one of the GEO's numerous press releases; this is NOT a sudden, "11th-hour" issue as the administration suggests.

Also, the administration DID threaten to take away waivers earlier this year; specifically, they planned to eliminate waivers from people with less than 33% appointments (up from 25%) and from students in certain programs deemed to be "tuition-supporting" (like Social Work and Computer Science). That is one of the motivations for requesting that tuition waiver security be included in the contract. To put it in a different way: if the administration does not intend to modify waiver policy, why are they refusing to put it in writing?

Negotiation is the process of two individuals or groups reaching joint agreement about differing needs or ideas. At some point in everyone’s life we enter into a legally binding agreement, whether it is to buy a car or rent an apartment.

Now, the GEO has been trying to negotiate a fair contract covering benefits, wages and work conditions. This is really the only way that is there to assure both parts do what they say they will do!!! We cannot accept a contract does not guarantee the security of IN and OUT of state tuition waivers!!!

The good faith of the Administration is not enough!!! The administration could change (we've seen that!), their priorities could also change (they tried once to eliminate tuition waivers for 25% appointments). That's why we need to protect our interests!

That's why I support the strike. Inform yourselves, www.uigeo.org

I am in full support of the GEO. Graduate students deserve to be paid for the immense amount of work that they do. Tuition waivers are an absolute necessity for these adults who work at least 20 hours a week teaching while taking classes full time and making $13,000 a year with poor health insurance! Paying $10,000 in tuition per year is impossible, except for those who are wealthy or supported by wealthy families. Please keep Illinois a public institution that is truly open to all, even those who are not financially well off.

Actually, if the university is unwilling to protect tuition waiver for graduate students, where do you exactly think the increase in funding would come from? The departments cannot give bigger packages because of the lack of financial backing from the University. People who deserve them? Grad students DO deserve them. They do more work for this university than you can recognize unless you've been a TA or a GA or an RA. And what will you say to people who get tuition waivers taken away and are charged out-of-state tuition on an income of under 14000 in school? "Oh, you must not have deserved it." ??

Also, I think the article should recognize that GEO is part of UI. GEO of UI disagrees with the board of trustees/administrators of UI.

Nobody from out of state should be getting a waiver in the first place.

It is morally unacceptable to expect the Illinois taxpayer to fund the graduate education of non-Illinoisians at a land grant university that was founded for the purpose of providing an opportunity for middle class people to go to college.

There is no reason for ANY undergradute to support the GEO. Graduate students consume the majority of the benefits of the university, yet pay NONE of the costs.

http://wp.me/pmF0P-9D

The DI shouldn't be the political mouth piece of the board of trustees/administrators either. It's the university paper and it should represent all sides equally. DUH. 2nd, you have clearly never been a graduate student, or gone through the process of graduate applications (Not talking about MBAs or JDs) - it's a job application. Grad students represent the school in a multitude of ways, including conferences and publishing, giving out free advertisements for the university. You think the university rep comes from undergraduates? EXTREMELY rare, if not none at all. It's professors who work here that provide certain credibility, but it's also the students they put out in their masters and doctorate programs who are able to compete with other Big Tens or Ivy Leaguers.

Not guaranteeing tuition waivers or trying to hinder the negotiation power of the GEO would be a foolish game to play for the university. They would lose their graduate population to universities who guarantee/protect tuition waivers (as most reputable universities are.).

Out of state is different for grad students. For example, I have lived here for 4 years, worked here for 4 years, paid taxes here for 4 years, yet I am an "out of state" student. I move here from out of state, yes. But I have a drivers license, I pay taxes, hell, by the strict letter of the law, I pay property taxes. I pay Illinois to register my car. For everything, except for this university, I am a citizen of the state of Illinois.

On top of that, we pay over $1000 in fees every year. Including fees such as the "Legacy Scholarship Fee" where we, ostensibly, pay for scholarships for students of alumni. That is real fair.

NONE of the costs, indeed.

Out of state is different for grad students. For example, I have lived here for 4 years, worked here for 4 years, paid taxes here for 4 years, yet I am an "out of state" student. I move here from out of state, yes. But I have a drivers license, I pay taxes, hell, by the strict letter of the law, I pay property taxes. I pay Illinois to register my car. For everything, except for this university, I am a citizen of the state of Illinois.

On top of that, we pay over $1000 in fees every year. Including fees such as the "Legacy Scholarship Fee" where we, ostensibly, pay for scholarships for students of alumni. That is real fair.

NONE of the costs, indeed.

Half of the grad students are only in grad school because they couldn't get a decent job in the current economy. So if you weren't here, you'd most likely be unemployed, living at home with your parents, and making nothing. Just be happy you're making anything at all, and were able to do something instead of be unemployed.

Quit your bitching - everyone is going through tough times right now, and you're no exception. Stop being so selfish GEO.

I honestly think TA quality all depends on your department. Mine is small and 80% of my TAs have been extremely effective. The fact of the matter is, they are still working full time while going to school. The tuition waiver is a no-brainer when you still have to eat and have a place to live. Many have families to feed as well. We are the lowest paying University in the Big 10. When I think about it, I'd kind of rather go somewhere else for my Masters in that case.

I'm with you! I also like how this article fails to mention that our very PUBLIC (read: government-funded) University payed for Herman's legal fees. As both a tax-payer and tuition payer, that is not okay.

Once upon a time, Americans stood up for labor against the boss's lies, spin, and undermining.

Today, the most virulent anti-GEO students and citizens are giving cover to one of the most *corrupt* and *shady* administrations this university has ever seen. Are you so knee-jerk anti-union that you can't stop and think for a moment that maybe the same ones who brought you the Herman-White debacle of a clout scandal might not be dealing with graduate students as they should be?

Don't drink the Kool-Aid! The graduate students in the GEO are the most dedicated to their own and undergraduates' education. If they are stopping work, you must realize that it is because it is of the utmost necessity to *everyone's* wellbeing. I support the GEO and urge you to, as well.