After confronting both a controversial NLRB decision in August and getting a pay increase at the beginning of the semester, Graduate Employees Together-University of Penn-sylvania is looking to move forward with its agenda of increased graduate-student rights.
Some of the initiatives that the organization is looking to act upon in the near future include establishing healthcare for all graduate students, evening out workloads for teaching assistants and working to make obtaining visas and security checks easier for international students.
The group will also be pushing for health insurance for TAs, according to GET-UP co-chairman Joe Drury. "It is scary to think that not everyone working here has health insurance."
Another item on the GET-UP agenda for the spring semester is improving the unequal distribution of work for many teaching assistants. According to GET-UP officials, some TAs don't teach any recitation sections while others have a much heavier workload, and many are teaching courses outside of their field of specialization.
On the national level, the group is working with other schools to draw attention to the needs of international graduate students.
"When an international student goes home, when they want to return to the U.S. they have to obtain a new visa, which requires security checks," said Drury.
According to Drury, these checks can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months, and some students end up stranded in their home country.
GET-UP also conducted a mass survey of graduate students last semester in order to gather information about their economic situation and their priorities.
According to Drury, 550 graduate students were surveyed over a period of six months, and the results were utilized in a poster campaign by the group.
"We used this information to see what the cost of living is like for graduate students, and so we know what kind of things we need to bargain for," said Drury.
GET-UP co-chairwoman Sayumi Takahashi also said that the last semester was used to build relationships and have joint planning sessions with similar groups at Yale and Columbia universities.
"All graduate students face the same problems, and the more unified we are, the more publicity we will get for what we want to say," said Drury.
A year in the life of GET-UP
February 26-27: GET-UP strikes August 26: The National Labor Relations Board rules against graduate student unionization at Pennn September 14: University President Amy Gutmann raises graduate student stipends by $1,750 September 23: GET-UP argues in front of a Senate Appropriations subcommittee for the right to unionize
