GEO strikes after latest talk fails

I love how the Undergrads who are asking us to sacrifice our education and our livelihood for their grade are calling us selfish.

And to the student who was angry that she was "forced" to cross a picketline: no one held a gun to your head. There wasn't a baby on fire on the other side that only you could rescue. Your teacher unethically held a punishment in the form of a reduction of your grades over your head and you caved. I'm sorry if that makes you feel guilty, but that is not the fault of the GEO, who is striking not only to ensure that we are able to *maintain* the tuition waivers that we were promised when we arrived, but also to protect the U from driving all of its best teachers away. If anything, you should blame the admin, who refused to compromise AT ALL until strike procedures were initiated. They wanted to see how far they could push us. Now we are pushing back.

Believe me, I wish that my students were not caught in the crossfire here. But it is the *admin* who decided that it was okay for you to lose time in your classes by refusing to budge until things reached this point.

Graduate TA's are some of the most exploited workers that universities employ. I'm glad to see these student workers standing up for a living wage and a guarantee of the tuition wavier.

All the folks who have posted here saying that workers should just shut and be thankful that they have a job could use a lesson in history. Workers create the wealth.

Solidarity.

Some undergrads truly have no idea about graduate education.

Graduate school is for training researchers. And research is a demanding job. Graduate student is not a student like you, they had the bachelor degree already, to conduct serious real-world work, including teaching you.

Why law school and medical school needs to pay?-- because after graduation, doctors and lawyer earn handsome money directly from the job market. Graduate students are different, they are the nation's major research force who take academic projects with minimum wage. And let's be frank, don't expect to and usually can not earn that much after graduation. But this society needs these people carry "academic world" forward. That's why graduation school is tuition waiver even in developing countries.

Tuition wavier is a tradition and a bargain. Who wants to pay full-time salary to do the research works that graduate students do it 7 days a week for half-price anyway? Not to mention that the university saved enormous money from hiring older professionals or training non-professionals to do TA's work. After 2 years, graduate students no longer take classes, they do "thesis research" which usually make breakthroughs, publish papers, generating news to keep U of I look glorious and competitive! Do you think professors still work on the bench as you undergrads? No, the daily research are done by grads, day in and day out, with a janitor's salary!

It is the tuition waiver program makes any American university a decent research university. No tuition waiver, no PhDs. In Europe, even tuition waiver for undergrads! Sad for you!

I think it is important to recognize that being a graduate student is NOT a profession. You are supposed to finish your degree and then get a real job in the real world where you will then make money. You are students. You're supposed to be poor. Take out loans like everybody else does. People pay off law school and medical school loans for decades. Some people have to work a full time job while going to school full time, so graduate students having to work a mere 20 hours a week is nothing. Why are you any different?

Unfortunately, education in this country is a privilege, not a right. So don't complain about graduate school becoming limited to the affluent because that's just the way the American system of education is set up. Tuition waivers are a gift that many others seeking higher education cannot even imagine receiving. Nothing in life comes free. Deal with it.

I think it is important to recognize that being a graduate student is NOT a profession. You are supposed to finish your degree and then get a real job in the real world where you will then make money. You are students. You're supposed to be poor. Take out loans like everybody else does. People pay off law school and medical school loans for decades. Some people have to work a full time job while going to school full time, so graduate students having to work a mere 20 hours a week is nothing. Why are you any different?

Unfortunately, education in this country is a privilege, not a right. So don't complain about graduate school becoming limited to the affluent because that's just the way the American system of education is set up. Tuition waivers are a gift that many others seeking higher education cannot even imagine receiving. Nothing in life comes free. Deal with it.

So you out of state grad students expect the people of Illinois to pay for your education? If you can't afford it, go to your in-state school... Not to mention should of thought of the costs BEFORE enrolling at the U of Illinois, common sense says, you should also look at the costs of a school and make sure you can afford attending before enrolling you idiots.

I wonder if those striking have stopped to think about how this discussion looks from the perspective of the majority of the community of CU. For example, there a many, many families in CU living on less per year than the wages being paid to you. Additionally, these families are working full time jobs without the option of subsidized housing or food. Add in the fact that graduate students have to ability to make a much better living after graduation than these families ever will and you might understand that the community is not going to be very sympathetic to your position. No one disagrees that you should be making more, the university should have better funding, families should be able to make a living wage, and the list goes on. Going on strike is probably the least successful strategy for accomplishing these things.

I hope those of you striking remember this when you go out and get a job. I hope you take jobs that will help the working and middle class in this country.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.