Penn's Graduate Student Associations Council approved an official statement of neutrality in regard to the ongoing graduate student unionization campaign on Tuesday.
Currently, Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania is seeking to unionize many Penn graduate students.
GSAC -- the representative body for all graduate students in the School of Arts and Sciences and all Ph.D. students University-wide -- decided not to take any action on either side of the unionization debate and intends to continue providing a campus-wide forum for discussion.
"We want to encourage and foster debate and discussion among our constituents," GSAC Chairman Darren Glass said.
The statement, which is posted on the GSAC Web site, states that a neutral stance "will reassure graduate students on all sides that their voices will be heard and that GSAC truly represents all its constituents."
"We're very happy about it," GET-UP co-interim spokeswoman Joanie Mazelis said. "We think it's appropriate that GSAC takes the position of neutrality because GSAC represents all graduate students, so there is a variety of perspectives that need to be represented."
Mazelis also serves as the Sociology representative in GSAC.
Last week, the National Labor Relations Board wrapped up hearings on the right of Penn graduate students to hold union elections. Both GET-UP and University representatives will file briefs by April 15 and will then await the NLRB's decision, which is expected to come four to six weeks after briefs are filed.
The neutrality statement was initially drafted by one member of the council, and then changes were then made as discussion and input from the entire general body were taken into consideration.
A general meeting was held on March 5, during which 35 members hammered out the details of the statement and tentatively approved it through a vote. Though the vote was not unanimous, it was overwhelmingly in favor of neutrality, according to Glass, a graduate student in the School of Arts and Sciences.
In addition to suggestions from members that GSAC should take some sort of stance in the unionization debate, the statement also came about for the purpose of saying "we've actually thought about this [issue] and made a conscious decision that GSAC as a body should not be a part of this decision process," Glass said.
GSAC will continue to encourage its constituents to voice their thoughts about the unionization issue.
"We want to make sure, and [the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly] too, that there are ways to get as many of the graduate students as possible to think about the issues involved, what the benefits and drawbacks would be," Glass added.
Also on the GSAC Web site is an opinions statement board on which students can post op-ed pieces. The executive board of seven members has already put up a statement voicing its opinions on unionization, analyzing specific issues including graduate student representation, grievance resolution, stipend levels, working conditions and health care. The document presents arguments for and against unionization and its possible impact, although the majority opinion of the executive members is that unionization is unnecessary and potentially harmful.
