By Jordan Dominy
What Every UF Undergrad Should Know About Graduate Assistants United
Dear Undergrads of UF,
In all likelihood, you will have a class this fall taught by a graduate assistant—a graduate student employed by UF while completing his or her degrees. Graduate assistants may be either teaching assistants (TAs) or research assistants (RAs). TAs and RAs work hard as both students and as employees of UF. They perform a significant amount of the teaching and research at UF. Since 2002, 40 percent of the sections taught at UF have had TAs as the primary instructors.
There is no doubt you will have a lot of face time with your TA this semester, but his or her exuberance in the classroom will not show the struggles he or she may encounter. All graduate assistants have bills to pay: rent, utilities, groceries, and many have partners and children whom they must provide for as well. Some TAs earn as little as $5,000 during the nine-month academic year, which is well below the poverty line.
Fortunately, the hardworking graduate assistants have an advocate. Since 1980, Graduate Assistants United has been the labor union representing graduate assistants employed by UF. Every year, GAU sits down with UF to negotiate the contract that sets the terms of employment for every graduate assistant working at the university, and every year, GAU seeks to improve the benefits and working conditions established in the contract. In the 30 years of GAU’s bargaining with UF, it has secured for graduate employees guaranteed tuition waivers (which pay their tuition but not their fees), five days of personal time per semester for illness or family emergency, protection of academic freedom, the elimination of a discriminatory international student fee, fully subsidized and comprehensive health care (known as GatorGradCare) and the deferred payment of fees. GAU’s current goal is to bargain for a complete waiver of fees for graduate assistants.
Any graduate assistant can become a member of GAU. Perhaps even your TA is a member (you can tell if your TA wears the members-only T-shirt that says “With Love, Graduate Assistants United” to class). Even though every graduate assistant at UF reaps the benefits of the GAU-negotiated contract, whether he or she is a member of the union or not, becoming a member is vital to the success of GAU. As members, graduate assistants can vote in officer elections, help set the priorities for contract negotiations, and get local and national discounts. Most importantly, there is strength in numbers, and the larger GAU’s membership becomes, the more clout it has when it negotiates with UF. If ever there are no more members, there will be no more GAU, nor anything it has won for graduate assistants.
As the official, recognized voice representing the hardworking graduate assistants at UF for the last three decades, GAU understands that TAs and RAs deserve decent wages, good working conditions and respect for their work. So when your classes begin this fall, show your TA that you care: complete all your assignments on time, don’t text in class and ask your TA if he or she is a member of GAU.
Jordan Dominy
