**Sign this open letter using this form!**
January 24, 2023
We, the undersigned, stand with the Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO) in their contract negotiations for a living wage. We call on the Board of Regents of the University of Michigan and President Santa Ono to ensure a contract that provides affordability and dignity for all U-M grad workers.
Grad workers’ compensation should reflect the value they provide to the University. Graduate workers teach a majority of discussion sections and introductory classes, create ground-breaking research, and play a central role to the University’s educational mission. At the Ann Arbor campus, GSIs are the second-largest group of instructional workers, second only to tenure-track faculty in the number of courses that they teach. According to EMU economist Dr. Howard Bunsis, GSI labor generated a $200 million surplus for U-M in 2022.
Despite the value the graduate workers bring to the University of Michigan, too many are needlessly struggling with low or no wages. GSIs earn only $24,053 for fall and winter semesters, an amount that the University claims is for ‘part time work’ but that must cover all of graduates’ living expenses. Masters of Social Work grads are required to work – usually without pay – in field placements as part of their degree. The result of this is hardship: Internal polling of 1,200 grads shows that eight in ten graduate workers are rent-burdened, meaning that they pay 30% or more of their paycheck in rent each month. One in six graduates are not confident that they could come up with $500 in an emergency. One in ten graduates worry that they cannot afford enough food to eat. These conditions are not sustainable. We support GEO’s demand for a living wage of $38,500 (MIT Living Wage Calculator) and applaud peer institutions like Princeton, Brown, UPenn, and the UC system for significantly increasing graduate wages.
GEO’s proposals would make for a safer, more equitable, and inclusive workplace and campus: GSIs propose smaller class sizes to improve teaching and learning conditions for undergrads. Grads need access to emergency transitional funds to escape abusive situations that are all too common at U-M, a need that LSA has already recognized. GEO members need lower healthcare co-pays, accessible gender-affirming care, emergency funds for international students (similar to Harvard’s), and affordable childcare. GEO members also want a Disability Cultural Center (as endorsed by Student IDEA Board, Disability Culture @ U-M, and Central Student Government), Finally, grads want U-M to pay its fair share to the Coalition to Re-envision Our Safety, a community-based, non-police, unarmed emergency response team that would serve Washtenaw County, including the Ann Arbor campus, providing a vital public safety service that reduces the risk of police violence.
We join over 2,400 grads who have pledged their support for affordability and dignity for grad workers at U-M. GEO’s proposals would make attending graduate school at the University of Michigan vastly more accessible. The University of Michigan has the resources to do so. A contract that supports affordability and dignity for all grad workers sends a message to the rest of higher education that at the University of Michigan, graduate worker labor is valued.
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