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UA grad students hold teach-in on Administration lawn

COGS brings attention to labor conditions for graduate assistants

Wearing badges that declared, "The university works because we do," members of the UA Coalition of Graduate Students organized a teach-in yesterday to recognize the labor conditions of graduate teaching assistants across campus.

Cathy Chaput, an English graduate student and COGS member, said at any given time at least 100 people - undergraduates, professors and local union leaders - were milling with COGS members on the Administration lawn supporting their cause.

Chaput said the teach-in was meant to educate people about the labor conditions for University of Arizona graduate student employees - conditions that COGS members say create the need for unionizing in order to obtain collective bargaining privileges.

Literature distributed by COGS members stated that graduate assistants are often not paid for the full amount of work they perform, which includes research, creating lesson plans, delivering lectures and grading.

Graduate students are also given minimum health coverage - which does not extend to dependents - and limited child care benefits.

In addition, registration fees often consume a large part of graduate assistants' salaries.

Chaput said the teach-in was a success in bringing more exposure and people in support of COGS' objectives.

"We gathered a lot more names and got a lot more graduate students interested and willing to participate," Chaput said. "Come next fall, we'll be a strong presence."

Danika Brown, also an English graduate student and a COGS member, said today's event officially marked the launch of a campaign to unionize.

Brown said many undergraduate students showed concern for the graduate assistants when they learned the working conditions of TAs.

"I was really impressed with the level of sympathy we got from undergraduates," Brown said. "They thought it was a messed up situation."

Brown added that COGS members generally receive positive attention because the issues they bring up are hard to ignore.

"I think the fact that these are issues that need to be addressed is clear," she said. "Nobody's ever accused us of whining."

Andrew Silverman, a UA law professor who stopped by the teach-in, said he was impressed by the success of the group's first major activity.

Silverman, who described himself as a supporter of organized labor, said the burgeoning COGS will have a positive effect on the UA.

"I support the graduate students in organizing," Silverman said. "I think it's important that we support movements like that."