Strike not supported by all grad students

With a Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania strike impending, the visibility of the unionization supporters is increasing on campus -- but graduate student ranks are not entirely unified in the crusade.

Although it is hard to clearly define the positions of the debate, many have pointed out that the support for unionization stems largely from the School of Arts and Sciences, and that other schools like Wharton heavily oppose it.

But those distinctions are far from black and white; even some SAS graduate students from departments like History, Political Science and Sociology -- which are typically closely associated with the unionization efforts -- disagree.

Some are not only against unionization but also, like Kyle Farley, a History Ph.D. student, find the slogan "Count the Votes" unjustified.

He said that the process of appeal that the University is currently engaged in is a legitimate option that is available in the legal system, and GET-UP would have fully utilized it to its advantage had last year's ruling come out differently.

The debate centers around which graduate students were eligible to cast a ballot during last February's vote on unionization -- ballots which have not yet been counted. Some have claimed that GET-UP has manipulated the voting parameters in its favor.

"There is no sense that this organization represents the graduate student body as a whole," said Michael Braun, a second-year Operations and Informations Management Ph.D. student.

The dispute is extremely contentious partly because the union implies a coherent, unified policy that would apply to all graduate students -- and many find that their schools or programs vary greatly from those that are the focal point of GET-UP's campaign. In addition, not all were allowed to express their views in the vote.

"GET-UP is not representative of all graduate students," said Daniel Harris, a second-year student in the Classical Studies Department. "But everyone will have to pay dues."

Harris added that he sees teaching more as necessary-to-graduate training than as work.

Despite this, Harris mentioned that he understands that other programs might receive worse financial packages than those in the Classical Studies Department, but that he and other students in the Classics program are "satisfied" with the "beneficial long-term packages" that they are currently receiving.

The discontent was expressed by other graduate students as well.

"There is a feeling among some Wharton departments that the NLRB election was gerrymandered," said one Wharton Ph.D. student, who did not want his name published. "Very few Ph.D. students at Wharton that I knew were allowed to vote in it. ... How is that a fair election, when all Ph.D. students aren't able to vote?"

He added that there was a general feeling among Wharton Ph.D. students that they were excluded from the vote primarily because of their opposing views.

Despite the attention the unionization efforts have drawn, some consider that its supporters constitute only a vocal minority that is pressing their views on others.

Many students inside specific departments, like Economics, remain divided on the issue, and additionally, the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly has remained neutral, although still "sharing some concerns" over the issues, GAPSA Chairman Robert Alvarez said.

Some contend that the strike will be an ineffective way to garner real support for the issues. And some view last Friday's GET-UP demonstrations as an unnecessary and damaging display. "They had a chance for a clean slate with the new president" Amy Gutmann, said Farley, adding that the demonstration "was a model of how to make a bad first impression."

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