Guest Column by eight GET-UP members | Calling on Penn to protect graduate and professional students
In this time, we graduate student-workers at Penn find ourselves wishing more than ever that we had a union to represent us in ongoing campus-wide conversations that affect all our futures. Last month, the group of students (including Ph.D., Ed.D., and professional students) organizing as GET-UP for a union at Penn, circulated a petition to the community outlining our positions during this global pandemic. We have received over 500 signatures in support of initial coping measures. Our peers at Yale and other universities have been calling on their administrations to support graduate student-workers in this time. At Penn, faculty have voiced their support for graduate students, and made specific requests for the administration to amend timelines and fellowships to meet our needs under these extraordinary circumstances. But as the dust has settled, we look toward a transformed academy and economy that has drastic, long-term consequences for academia.