In Response to Deputy Provost Deborah Nelson

Dear fellow graduate students,

On November 4th, all of us received a letter from the new Deputy Provost of Graduate Education, Deborah Nelson, seeking to “set in motion a collaborative effort to continue to improve the graduate experience at the University of Chicago” (our emphasis). We welcome this effort by the Provost’s Office and look forward to working with Deputy Provost Nelson in the coming year, but we wish to note that the effort she describes is already underway. Graduate students themselves set it in motion when they founded Graduate Students United in 2007.

In the past four years, GSU has identified a number of issues of tremendous concern to graduate students at the University: access to decent and affordable healthcare and childcare, an end to Advanced Residency Tuition and other punitive fees, and better pay for the work we do here on campus--whether teaching, research, or other labor. We have successfully mobilized around several of these issues, and have won the following major victories:

• a 100% increase in TA pay, from $1,500 to $3,000 per quarter (in 2008);
• a 43% increase in pay for lecturers, from $3500 to $5000 (also 2008);
• service improvements at the U of C Student Care Center (in Winter 2009);
• a freeze in Advanced Residency tuition hikes (since 2008);
• a change in the Bursar’s billing policy allowing students to pay their quarterly University tuition and fees until after receiving their first paychecks (in Fall 2011);
• a promise by the Provost’s Office to amend the university’s parental leave policy so that student parents can retain their student status (and hence visa status, health insurance, and access to university facilities) while on parental leave or “academic modification” (Summer 2011)

We appreciate the Deputy Provost’s remark that “no one knows better the kinds of support that you need than you.” In response to this invitation, GSU would like to offer the following list of priorities, based on four years of one-on-one conversations and organizing efforts among current graduate students at the University:

• the elimination of AR Tuition, in accordance with the findings of the Provost’s committee (see below for details on the committee and its unheeded recommendations);
• an improvement in the quality and affordability of health insurance for all student employees;
• an improved family leave policy and access to affordable childcare on or near campus;
• better support for international students;
• further improvements in teaching pay, which remains at the low end of the scale in comparison to our peer institutions.

To find out more or get involved in GSU’s ongoing campaigns for the above improvements, visit us at http://www.uchicagogsu.org. Please also visit our page on http://www.facebook.com/uchicagogsu.

Read GSU's Report on Grad Student Parents and Family Life

Recently our Child Care Committee drafted a report outlining the current situation for University graduate student parents and their families and compared them to other institutions around the country. The report concludes that current University policy "fails to adequately meet the needs of graduate student parents, let alone clearly define the University rules and regulations related to maternity and paternity leave, childcare, and family life."

As many of you know already, GSU has been pushing the administration to make the new child care center available to children of all families in the University community on a sliding scale payment basis. The report was handed to University administrators earlier this month by a contingent of graduate student parents and their children. You can download and read the report here (pdf).

If you would like to hear more about GSU's child care campaign or get involved, email us This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it !

GSU News #5 is here!

The latest issue of GSU News is fresh off the press and distributed to various locations on campus. If you haven't picked one up already you can download one here (pdf). This time our theme is "Beginnings (New and Old)," and features:

• An article from member and historian of the South Side Paul Durica.
• A call to unionize from member Andrew Yale.
• Information on our new Community Partners Program.
• And the latest news about GSU and the education labor front.

Don't forget to learn the words to the GSU drinking song (for water or wine) "The Union is Here"!

Response to Provost's Decision on AR Tuition

On February 25th, 2010, the administration released the "Provost's Response to Graduate Education Committee Reports". It is available here: http://provost.uchicago.edu/news.shtml. We encourage you to consult the Provost's Response and read the administration's decision concerning issues of grave importance to students: unfair AR tuition burdens, teaching eligibility, and (the lack of) increased funding for dissertation writing periods. The Provost's Response is a reply to a number of student-faculty committees that provided reasonable -- though excessively modest -- recommendations for improving the graduate student experience and enabling us to continue to produce top-quality academic research.

Graduate Students United is profoundly disappointed by Provost Rosenbaum’s decision to ignore the Advanced Residency and Time to Degree Committee’s most crucial recommendations, including virtually all the recommendations that were designed to ease the financial burden of AR tuition. Over the past year, students, faculty and administrators have dedicated many hours working on the Advanced Residency and Time to Degree Committee, attended open forums to offer helpful suggestions, and took the time to share their deeply personal stories of financial burden and stress. Just this past week over 180 graduate students personally sent e-mails to Provost Rosenbaum, expressing the need for the administration to go beyond the Committee’s recommendations by removing AR tuition entirely.

With the release of the Provost’s Response on February 25, 2010, it is now clear that this good faith effort and trust in the University’s official procedures was in vain. Rosenbaum has taken the route of least financial flexibility and least administrative effort. The decision to ignore all of the Advanced Residency and Time to Degree Committee’s most substantial recommendations has shocked even the most cynical students amongst us. We are confronted with two questions: Why did we work on this process for over 1.5 years if the administration never had any intention of ratifying the key recommendations of the Committee? And why should we bother ever again to trust that such a process will result in fair treatment?