Teaching conditions concern undergrads

Although this Wednesday's and Thursday's union election results will have to wait on the University appeal before possibly going into effect, the implications for Penn's undergraduate community are already being contested. "Unionization will enable graduate students to obtain the necessary tools to teach effectively," Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania spokesperson Joanna Kempner said. Unionization "translates into a better environment for undergraduates to learn," Kempner added. But administrators and department heads question the problems which could befall undergraduates in the event of unionization. "My fear is that the collective bargaining model would erode and damage relationships that our graduate students have with their faculty mentors and undergraduate students," Deputy Provost Peter Conn said. Nevertheless, this fear is not a widespread one within the graduate student community. "I feel the administration is making speculations and claims that a lot of our issues could be dealt with without a union," said Julia Rabig, a third-year graduate student in the History Department. "But they don't say how." Rabig emphasized that a union would allow for better teaching conditions and more attention to undergraduates. "I anticipate that the relationship with undergraduates would improve," Rabig said. "Graduate students would have resources they need like desks and phones." Yet other graduate students saw the unionization issue as distinct from undergraduate concerns. "I don't think there's any way undergraduate and [teaching assistant] relationships should change," said fourth-year chemistry graduate student Kevin Jude. These relationships "are important, but not as important as some of the other stuff -- namely healthcare," philosophy graduate student and teaching assistant Nathan Jun said. "TAs are responsible for cultivating their own relationships with students," Jun said. "Those are not going to sink or swim based on unionization." Yet Jun did cite limited resources as an impairment to a professional relationship with students. "We're often stuck in these situations where two or three of us are competing for one closet-sized office space," Jun said. Students, too, are aware of these limitations and their impacts. College junior Luke Mazur, who considers himself "probably more pro-union," cited problems he has noticed within the History Department. "I know a lot of the history TAs hold office hours in Starbucks," Mazur said. And this problem of limited space is not unique to the History Department. Similar situations are also evident in the Chemistry Department, according to Jude, who mentioned a lack of office space and resources for first-year chemistry graduate students. However, administrators said that in any case, space on campus is limited, with or without a union. "The numbers of grad students... who do not have space are relatively small... and [the issue is] better solved by working on the specific problem," Conn said. "Some of [these problems] will never be ameliorated" by a union, he added, noting that even faculty members face limited office space. University President Judith Rodin echoed this argument, noting that "life isn't perfect." Sympathetic to these types of problems, many undergraduates are siding in favor of unionization. Yet these opinions seems to be more linked to the plight of the graduate students than out of any real concerns for how a union could impact the undergraduate community. While admitting that he was not familiar with all of the issues, College sophomore David Johnson favors unionization. Graduate students "have to have a voice," he said. "I've seen nothing hard core like graduate students working in the halls," Johnson said. But in walking through the Statistics Department, he noted, "It was like a sweatshop in there. They were all hounding for one room." GET-UP and many teaching assistants are aware of this student sympathy for their need for resources. "I know that we have a lot of supporters in the undergraduate community," Kempner said. Jude also referred to the fact that "all the undergraduates [he knows] are supportive of the union." While few undergraduates have acted on their support, several, including College senior Lincoln Ellis, have become involved directly in the efforts made by GET-UP. "It seems like a union would negotiate for improved working... and learning... conditions," Ellis wrote in an e-mail. Administrators still maintain that unionization of graduate students could pose a legitimate impediment to undergraduate learning. "The threat of a strike is a very serious threat of disruption," Conn said. "Some [undergraduates] have a concern that their own education could be interrupted" because teaching assistants would be responsible to their union. In reference to both undergraduate and graduate hopes concerning improved resources, Conn urged internal solutions, saying, "Unions can promise anything, they can guarantee nothing."

Penn votes: The union debate

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