There is an old saying with which we are all familiar. “Those who can, do. Those who cannot, teach.” Graduate students bridge that gap, providing knowledge to undergraduate students at a university while pursuing their own degrees. This puts them in an interesting position in the eyes of the university. Are they students, and therefore subject to the same rights as undergraduate students? Are they faculty, and therefore entitled to the same protections as university employees? Or are they somewhere in between?
Graduate students at the University of Missouri are attempting to answer this question after the events of last fall. These events are not the protests with which most of the nation is familiar; this is something that did not gain quite as much media attention. What would eventually become an effort by Mizzou graduate students to unionize began in August of 2015. About thirteen or fourteen hours before their health insurance would expire, graduate students were informed that the subsidized insurance that they received as part of their funding packages was considered a violation of the Affordable Care Act by the IRS.
“Obviously, students panicked,” said Michael Sickels, a graduate student in the Department of Sociology. Sickels is a doctoral candidate with specializations in the sociology of work and labor, cultural studies, difference and inequality, affect, and identity. He was one of the members of the initial group that began conversation around this issue. Concern spread across campus, especially considering that most graduate students are older and have families and health concerns to worry about. Progress began in the Sociology department with a Facebook event called “Insurance Party” that was intended to be an opportunity to get together and decipher the situation. That Sociology-targeted event expanded to approximately 300 RSVPs. Graduate students are “mostly locked in their own departments, but don’t talk about experience as workers across disciplines”, according to Sickels. This was an event that affected students in all departments.
This was all a year ago. Progress has been made since then. On the one year anniversary of that first meeting, graduate students held demonstrations on campus. The University of Missouri sought an exemption that will allow graduate students to keep their current insurance plans for two years. It was not, however, an official answer to the problem at hand.
“This event sparked everything and we started having conversations about what a union would look like,” Sickels said. “A union was best way to make sure we had a legally bound platform to advocate for our interests.” These interests include a living wage, health insurance, childcare, graduate housing, a reduction in fees, and protections for international students.
Organizing that union, however, was not an overnight task. “Graduate students are in a weird occupational situation,” Sickels said. “It’s a transition period. It’s really hard to organize transient workforces.” Graduate students are not with the university for a very long time. As a result, some don’t feel like this is their number one priority.
“I’m primarily concerned with making sure I graduate on time and get my degree,” said Marquise Griffin, a graduate assistant for Parent Relations at the University of Missouri. “I will say that I think this is important since graduate students are very underpaid… However, I also acknowledge the other side of the coin… we all basically knew what we were getting ourselves into.” Other graduate students, especially those who will be leaving within the next couple of years, share similar sentiments.
However, in April, graduate students voted in favor of a union by 84%. Students organized with the NEA (National Education Association), a larger umbrella union. The University of Missouri, however, didn’t recognize the union because they defined graduate students as student employees instead of workers. As a result, students are now suing the university in an attempt to be designated as workers in a way that will permit them to unionize.
It looks promising for Mizzou graduate students. The National Labor Relations Board ruled in August that private graduate students can unionize. Those at the University of Missouri and others like them are hoping that they are quick to follow in their private school counterparts’ footsteps.
