More than 50 graduate students marched down Locust Walk yesterday chanting, "I don't know, but I've been told, Gutmann's pockets are lined with gold."
The students attempted to present University President Amy Gutmann with a petition that demanded reforms to their health insurance, but they were forced to leave without any firm commitment from administrators.
Gutmann was not available to receive the petition, but Chief of Staff Joann Mitchell accepted it.
Most marchers were members of Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania, Penn's would-be graduate student union. They were joined by about 20 members of Jobs With Justice, a national workers' rights group.
Attracting more supporters as they marched though the cold, the marchers were joined by about 50 members of the American Federation of Teachers at College Hall. The rally gathered about 200 supporters in total.
They demanded health-care insurance after their fifth year of employment in addition to free dental and vision insurance.
Better graduate-student health coverage "is a drop in the bucket for" Penn, said rally spokesman Billy Herman, a third-year Communication graduate student.
"All Penn employees deserve health care that covers all basic health-care needs," said GET-UP co-Chairwoman Deirdre Brill as she recited the petition to Mitchell.
Mitchell said that Gutmann was in a meeting and "could not be relieved of her duties." She accepted the petition -- which was signed by over 200 supporters -- and said she would deliver it to Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli and Provost Ron Daniels, who decide graduate students' benefits.
"My only expectation is ... they will be able to pursue their research and teaching and continue with their studies," Mitchell said.
The protesters slipped their individual petitions under Gutmann's door and plastered copies against it. They then left College Hall chanting, "We'll be back."
Mitchell added, "We just want to make sure people have the opportunity to be heard and in turn be respectful of the process and procedures and have a conversation."
However, rally organizers said they were not offered that option.
"This is our fourth time asking her and her refusing to meet with us in a collegial, community way," said seventh-year History and Education graduate student Tina Collins, GET-UP's political director.
Though GET-UP has not received University recognition as a union and the National Labor Relations Board has ruled against graduate-student unionization "the school has come to see our demands," Herman said, citing the increase in pay for School of Arts and Sciences graduate students from less than $12,000 in 2000 to about $17,500 today.
However, not all graduate students felt compelled to join.
Spencer Allen, a fourth-year SAS graduate student, said that, though he is ideologically pro-union, he is ultimately "apathetic." He said that he has been taking advantage of his health insurance but is uncertain how "it will play out next year."
Allen voiced concern that if the University begins to spend more money on individual graduate students, it may take in fewer students and award fewer fellowships in the future.
This was GET-UP's first rally of the school year, scheduled to coincide with the run-up to International Human Rights Day, which is on Sunday. Herman said it was "fortunate timing" that the rally took place during the same week graduate students staged strikes and protests at New York University demanding their own health-care reforms.
