A dark day 


To the editor:

It is a sad day indeed when more than 1,000 graduate students admit to
themselves and the world that they are either incapable or unwilling to
negotiate the terms of their own employment.

Fortunately, I, as a graduate student, predicted that the money
provided by the big labor unions to the GEO would win this election
against the out-of-pocket contributions of a few individuals who opposed
unionization. I therefore left behind my teaching assistantship complete
with nomination to the Incomplete List, and I became a research assistant
in order to shield myself at least temporarily from being forced to give
up my right to bargain the terms of my own employment and from being
forced to finance those who would take this right from me.

I encourage all TAs who desire to negotiate the terms of their employment
themselves to leave their jobs and find research assistantships to
replace them. Of course, there is no reason to believe that the GEO
will be satisfied merely with forcing TAs to give them money, and I'm
sure the GEO is already planning its budget for after it manages to
force research assistants to surrender their desires and finance it
as well. On that dark day, it might be time to leave the University
altogether and head for another. And with the animosity that is sure to
follow between the union and the University, TAs forced to strike and
students, and willing union financiers and those who must be forced;
the sacrificing of faculty positions to increase graduate pay; and the
resultant degradation of the quality of education that this University
provides, would you want to stay?

Sidney Cammeresi 
graduate student


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Copyright 2002, Sidney Cammeresi.
All rights reserved.