More than 300 teaching assistants and supporters from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign participated in a three-day protest last month to demand their rights as university employees.
For more than eight years, UI TAs have been trying to communicate with the school’s administration while establishing their work contracts.
They have yet to gain any of the benefits and rights to which they feel they are entitled.
“All we want is to have a voice,” said David Kamper, parliamentarian for the Graduate Employees’ Organization, a student group formed to advocate rights of TAs. “We have no specific contract with a clear job description. We want to be able to bargain and negotiate our contracts.”
While the TAs want to unionize, five Northwestern TAs in four different departments expressed satisfaction with their situation.
“We are actually treated well, so there’s no need for unions,” said Lyla Miller, a second-year TA in the linguistics department.
University policy at UI states the administration does not acknowledge student unions. The TAs’ struggle for recognition escalated with work- and sit-ins throughout the campus. During the work-in, TAs held office hours in administration buildings and taught classes outdoors.
A complaint at UI is the blurry distinctions between the TA as a student and as an employee.
“Supposedly, I’m just a student,” Afro-American Studies TA Lucy McCollum told The Daily Illini March 30. “But when Spring Break came and it was time for students to take off, I couldn’t. Then, I was considered an employee.”
NU TAs tell a different story. Most speak of a positive experience with students and professors.
“I have never heard of efforts to unionize,” Miller said. “There was some talk about having a day care (available to) grad students and faculty members, but it’s not really a centralized effort. In fact, there’s not much contact with other teaching assistants (in other departments).”
NU TAs receive benefits such as tuition waivers, monthly stipends and guidance.
“It’s not a lot of money, but you’re not here to accumulate wealth. You’re here to do research and learn to teach,” said John Maloy, a second-year graduate assistant in the political science department.
The Graduate School administration also attempts to keep abreast with TAs’ concerns.
“There are a number of graduate student associations on campus,” said Graduate School Dean Richard Morimoto. “I meet with representatives of these groups quarterly to discuss issues.”
At NU the responsibilities of TAs vary according to the academic department and professor. Duties range from holding discussion sections and office hours to grading papers.
In addition, all TAs sign a contract with the Graduate School that states the compensation and time commitment, said Senior Associate Dean Leila Edwards and Assistant Dean of Finance Pat Mann. The contract lays a loose foundation for interpretation by each department.
“(The contract) states that they are to perform teaching duties as specified by department, for which an accounting must be made at the conclusion of each quarter to the Graduate School,” Edwards said.
Some departments, like sociology, require their TAs to take a teaching course. Political science graduate students are allowed to teach only after one year of residency, and even then they do not teach their own course, said political science Prof. Kenneth Janda.
“(TAs) really are assistants to me,” Janda said. “They are not teaching classes. Insofar as TAs at the UI are more likely to teach their own classes, rather than just assisting in teaching, they have more responsibility. If they’re exploited, then they should have a kind of voice.”
