Graduate Workers Hold Press Conference in Front of UM Regents’ Meeting in Dearborn

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
News from Graduate Employees’ Organization 3550
May 18th, 2023

Graduate Workers Hold Press Conference in Front of UM Regents’ Meeting in Dearborn

DEARBORN—At the University of Michigan’s Regents’ Meeting at the Dearborn campus on Thursday, graduate workers gathered in response to moves by the University of Michigan administration to submit hundreds of falsified grades. Over this past week, hundreds of these fabricated grades have been entered by non-instructional staff in departments across the university for students whose grades are being withheld as part of the ongoing graduate workers’ strike.

For Amir Fleischmann, Political Science PhD Student and Chair of the Contract Committee, “It is astonishing to me that administration would rather throw academic integrity to the wind and put the University of Michigan’s reputation and accreditation at risk than pay grad workers a living wage.”

Luiza Caetano, a PhD student in the Department of Comparative Literature, who was a Graduate Student Instructor for the seventh time this Winter semester, described the ways that fabricated grades harm both undergraduate students and their graduate instructors. According to Caetano, “U-M’s effort to guarantee grades at all costs is not heroic, it’s shameful. It not only violates GSIs’ autonomy, it also undermines the importance of actual instruction and feedback.” She stated, “We don’t need U-M to be heroic, we just need it to be decent. We need U-M to make GEO an offer that stops harming the students—undergrad and grad alike— that U-M is meant to serve.”

Alejo Stark, a PhD student in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures and Graduate Student Instructor, who also had fabricated grades submitted on his behalf, describes a similar situation for his Spanish language course: “This staff person who sent these fraudulent grades does not have access to my grade book. Nor do they have any knowledge of my students. Nor do they have access to my syllabus. So all they could do is enter blanket ‘A’ grades for all my students, irrespective of previous grading assessments.” Fabricated grades present a particular problem for language instruction, as students will not know whether they have the skills needed to advance to the next course.

“In order to avoid paying its workers a living wage,” says Jared Eno, Sociology PhD Student and President of the Graduate Employees Organization, “the Ono administration has forced its faculty and staff to perpetrate mass academic misconduct.” Eno also stated that “If the Ono administration does not change course, we will be dealing with the effects of this fiasco for semesters and even years to come.”

As Fleischmann said, “This is a scandal that we’re only beginning to understand. Ono and McCauley’s decision to fabricate grades could have far-reaching consequences for this University. Their handling of these negotiations has been nothing short of a fiasco at every step of the way. Grad workers are ready to fight on, and today we’re calling on the press to investigate this mass academic misconduct”. Negotiations have been ongoing since November of 2022, and continue into the summer.

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