Yale TAs end strike before gaining concessions from admin.

Yale graduate students voted to turn in undergraduate grades Sunday night -- ending their month-long grade strike without receiving any concessions from the Yale administration. In a letter to Yale President Richard Levin, members of the Graduate Employees and Students Organization said they ended the strike as a result of threats from the administration that they would lose spring semester teaching positions and the accompanying stipends. "Striking graduate teachings have voted to hand in our grades?so as to secure our teaching positions for the coming term," GESO spokesperson Robin Brown said in a statement. According to Yale spokesperson Gary Fryer, practical reasons motivated the administration's threat to withdraw teaching positions. "It is to protect the quality of the undergraduate education," Fryer said. "The undergraduates should not have to be exposed to the same individuals who have failed in their academic obligations." Victor Prince, chairperson of the Graduate and Professional Students Association at Penn, said he was disappointed the strike ended. "It's a shame that Yale resorted to such hardball tactics," said the Wharton graduate student. According to Prince, the National Association of Graduate and Professional Students has discussed sending a letter to Levin, condemning Yale's actions. He added that the Association is also currently trying to get professors from other institutions to call their colleagues at Yale, urging them to support the Yale graduate students. If the strike had gone on for a longer period of time, the Association would have raised money for the strikers, Prince said. "The only income is from internships," he said. "It hits them where it hurts." Fryer said eighty-five of the 721 fall semester teaching assistants withheld grades. But according to GESO, 200 TAs did not turn in their grades. Yale administrators gave TAs until yesterday to turn in their grades. GESO members said they would have their grades in by noon yesterday. Undergraduates returned to Yale's campus yesterday, following their winter break, and began receiving their grade sheets. Last week, Yale took disciplinary action against three graduate students who had withheld grades. One student was barred from teaching in the spring and received a letter of reprimand. Disciplinary hearings for the other two graduate students will be held later this week. During a rally held in protest of these disciplinary hearings last Wednesday, the New Haven Police cited 137 graduate students for creating a nuisance in a public street. GESO, which represents about 25 percent of the Yale graduate student body, also filed a federal charge against Yale with the National Labor Relations Board in response to the university's disciplinary action against the graduate students. For the past four years, GESO has asked the university to recognize TAs as regular university employees and has demanded higher stipends and lower health insurance costs. Currently, TAs receive fellowships that pay for their tuition and have an annual stipend of about $9,750 for living expenses. But Yale has continually refused to recognize GESO as anything more than a student organization. "The university does not regard it to be a labor union and will not interact with it as labor union," Fryer said. Daily Pennsylvanian reporter Leonora Caparas contributed to this story.