Graduate students weigh benefits of unionization

While negotiations between graduate students who want to unionize and administrators at nearby campuses have escalated into walkouts and rallies, the possibilty of unionization does not appear to be on the horizon for Princeton graduate students.

In recent weeks, graduate students at the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University have scuffled with administrators over compensation, medical benefits and housing accommodation.

The fear of creating rifts between departments, students and professors has helped to deter University graduate students from unionization attempts, though the possibility has not been completely abandoned.

"With Princeton planning to up its undergraduate admissions by the hundreds, we can expect there to be more pressure on professors, adjuncts and graduate students," said Elliot Ratzman GS.

"If the workload falls disproportionately on graduate students and adjuncts without appropriate compensation, then the stage may be set in the coming years for a unionizing effort."

Princeton graduate students generally share the same wants as those at other universities — higher compensation for teaching, better housing accommodations and health care plans that encompass dental and eye-care benefits, for example.

Attentive and responsive action from the administration has helped to quell the grievances of University graduate students, keeping the situation from reaching the frenzy ensuing at some other schools, graduate students say.

"The [Graduate Student Government] at this point is not considering unionizing because we are trying to successfully address our concerns with a cooperative administration," said Lauren Hale GS, the press secretary for the GSG.

Hale said President Tilghman and Graduate School Dean John Wilson are committed to dealing with housing, health and financial problems, as shown by the new housing accommodations in the Lawrence Apartments complex, expanded health benefits and the institution of fellowship funding and summer stipends for students.

"We've been the envy of other Ivy League graduate schools in terms of the care we've provided with all of our grad students," said Sandra Mawhinney, associate dean of administrative affairs for the graduate school.

"We are way out ahead of other places in providing dental and eye care," she said. "When graduate students raise a concern, we respond very quickly. We house 80 percent or more of our graduate students. No place comes even close to that."

Mawhinney explained that the compensation graduate students receive is not only competitive but also attractive.

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"Compensation is not really an issue," she said. "We've worked hard to become the place to beat."

But unionization is also not out of the question for post-graduate students — those who have exceeded their departments' fourto five-year enrollment periods but are working toward their Ph.D. degrees.

These students, mostly in the humanities and social sciences, account for approximately half the graduate student body but are treated as "non-students" by the University.

"We're not 100 percent content," Hale said. "There is a hint of the positive, and there are some advantages to being a Princeton graduate student, but there are no advantages to taking a longer time [to finish a degree]."

Some students take as many as 12 years to finish their degrees. After the enrollment period, Hale said, a student may not have access to health care, parking, stipends, student loans, travel fellowships, career services e-mail lists or even the library and gym. They also get holes punched through their pictures on University ID cards, she said.

Hale said this experience is degrading and the Graduate School has been "dismissive and stubborn" in denying post-enrollment is a problem. However, Tilghman plans to address the issue.

"We are hopeful that through continued cooperation with the new administration, we will have no need to unionize," Hale said.