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Graduate students preserve some, not all demands

Yesterday, graduate students gathered to raise awareness of the low benefits they receive. Turnout was high, with about a hundred students milling about in front of the administration building for the duration of the demonstration. Students should be concerned with the legitimate gripes the graduate students have with the way they are treated, but we should be careful to not allow them to go so far as to hurt all of us.

Graduate students have a large workload at the University. Especially in introductory level undergraduate classes, they have, sometimes, a primary role in the education of the students. Beyond this, they grade papers, hold office hours and assist in preparations for classes of all levels. Professors, in many cases, cannot do their jobs with the help of these underpaid university employees.

They deserve more money than they currently receive. While the salaries of the professors at this University are low, what we pay graduate students is a disgrace. For what they do, especially at the introductory undergraduate level, they should be rewarded far beyond what they are. While there are many perks that they cannot expect to receive from the administration, more money is one that they can.

We should eliminate the registration fees that currently burden graduate students. It is absurd to give graduate students money, than make them pay to attend the university. These are employees of the University, and making them pay to attend the University is like making professors pay to teach their classes. This is at least one area in which the graduate students are absolutely right; few of their other demands can meet this standard.

Not all of their demands will be met. It is almost certain that health care benefits will not be extended to the dependents of graduate students, and it is certain that child care facilities will not be built for them in the near future. This is not to say that these are not things that the graduate students should not have, but that these are demands that administration will never agree to. They are demands that should be brought up in negotiations, so that they can be discarded as per the normal negotiation processes. If they are insisted upon, as they very well could be if a permanent union were established, they cannot help but lead to bad affect and gridlock.

A permanent union is not the way to go. Certainly, the graduate students have legitimate complaints, and these should be communicated to the administration. Once a permanent union is created, the temptation to go on with more and more extreme demands becomes increasingly great. As they demand that more and more of their conditions be met, tensions between the administration and the union is inevitable.

Almost certainly, the existence of a permanent graduate students' union would lead to antagonism between the graduate students and the University. As we have seen in the confrontations between Students Against Sweatshops and the administration, groups can never gain progress so long as they work against the powers that be. For any goals to be met, interest groups must work with the administration, and come to a compromise acceptable to both sides.