Tag Archives: TAs

The Chronicle: Teaching Assistants Suspend Strike at U. of Illinois

Graduate students who work as teaching assistants and researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign suspended a labor strike Tuesday night after informally agreeing to the terms of a new contract with the campus’s administration.

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The Chronicle: Strike by Graduate Teaching Assistants Disrupts Some Classes at U. of Illinois

Many classrooms at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are sitting empty today as a result of a strike by graduate students who teach or do research.

About 1,000 graduate students employed by the university have signed up to picket academic buildings in shifts today, with about 500 on the lines at any one time, said Peter O. Campbell, a spokesman for the Graduate Employees Organization, which has about 2,600 members. Graduate students generally teach about 23 percent of all undergraduate course hours on the campus.

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Inside Higher Ed: Teaching Assistants Plan Strike at U. of Illinois

Graduate teaching assistants at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are planning to go on strike today, following the failure to complete a contract agreement. The union, affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, said that while many contract issues were resolved, the university would not offer assurances about the continuation of tuition waivers. “The administration’s refusal to guarantee the continuation of its current tuition waiver practice not only means that the majority of graduate employees could be forced to pay thousands of dollars in additional tuition charges, but also indicates its plans to implement such a change. By making graduate education untenable for all but the most affluent students, the administration is abandoning its responsibility to ensure access to the highest level of public education for all,” said a union statement. The university issued a statement in which it characterized the union’s interest in tuition waivers as new and not a subject over great disagreements. The union “has chosen to strike over an issue that historically has never been a source of contention between the union and management, and about which there is no indication would be a source of contention in the future,” said the university’s official statement. In turn, the union issued a new statement asking why, if the university was committed to the tuition waivers, it wouldn’t agree to add the desired language to the contract.

The Chronicle: Graduate Teaching Assistants Are Poised to Strike at U. of Illinois

Graduate students who teach and do research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign plan to go on strike early Monday.

Weekend negotiations between the graduate students’ union and the university failed to produce a guarantee the union wants from administrators that the institution will continue tuition waivers, the Graduate Employees’ Organization said. Without such waivers, many graduate students may have to shoulder an increase in the cost of their education.

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