Update: GEO responds to recent faculty petition lobbying Regents to reverse decision

We were disappointed when, on Thursday, a professor of engineering established a UM website petitioning the University Regents not to recognize Graduate Student Research Assistants as employees.

This use of University electronic resources violated University policy on political campaigns (http://www.vpcomm.umich.edu/guidelines/faq/#11). When notified, the University correctly took down the petition site.

GEO President Sam Montgomery says: “We value freedom of speech, our relationships with faculty and their input, but we’re also concerned about the impact of this petition on GSRAs’ ability to freely associate. UM policy recognizes that the relationship between students and faculty is ‘inherently unequal’; when you have power over someone and tell them that you want something not to happen, you may be intimidating them without even intending it.”

We will shortly post here a link to a petition of faculty who commit not to attempt to influence the outcome of the vote. Please look for updates, and let us know if you learn of other instances of this sort.