Graduate students rally with NYU peers

In a gesture of solidarity with graduate students holding a work stoppage at New York University, about a dozen Penn graduate students decided to skip class last week to attend a rally for the unionization of students employed by their universities.

The rally in Washington Square Park on NYU's campus last Thursday brought together hundreds of students, city politicians and union officials in support of a graduate student strike at NYU that has been going on since last semester.

Members of Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania -- a group working to establish a union of graduate students who work for Penn -- said their trip was intended to raise awareness of graduate students' rights.

Michael Janson -- a School of Arts and Sciences graduate student and GET-UP member -- attended the protest and said that "there was a really positive atmosphere."

According to GET-UP spokesman Bill Herman, each time NYU has a major rally, his organization sends people to New York to support the students there. He added that the organization has also raised over $1,400 for the NYU strike fund.

NYU's Graduate Student Organizing Committee has been off the job -- meaning that many graduate students refuse to lead recitations -- since November.

The group had previously been a union recognized by the university, but administrators decided not to negotiate a new contract with it after a National Labor Relations Board ruling denied that graduate employees have the right to unionize.

On Nov. 28, NYU President John Sexton announced that if the students don't fulfill their teaching responsibilities they will lose their stipend -- a minimum of $19,000 -- and teaching assignments. The strike has continued regardless.

Janson said that last week's rally showed that many people besides graduate students support their cause. He added that there was also tremendous political support for the students' efforts.

"The [New York] City Council was basically saying that NYU shouldn't come knocking on their doors for anything until they negotiate another contract" with the students, Janson said.

However, NYU spokesman John Beckman said that the size of this rally was half that of any rally that took place last fall. He also added that only a small fraction of the participants were actually members of the NYU community.

However, because many graduate students have boycotted their teaching responsibilities, Herman says that NYU is underpopulated and full of empty buildings that constitute an embarrassment to the school.

But Beckman said that this problem is "almost imperceptible."

According to Beckman, on an average day, 2,700 classes are held at NYU. Of those, 150 are taught by graduate students, and only a handful of these have stopped meeting.

Beckman added that, though the striking graduate students will lose their stipend and teaching positions, they will continue to receive benefits that were part of their original financial aid package.

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