Dear Colleagues,

I sent the following message to graduate students today, and I want to share it with you too.


Dear Graduate Students:

We are writing to ensure that you have critical information concerning tuition waivers and pay, as we know these are of great concern to graduate students holding assistantships.

Contrary to a steady stream of communications from the GEO, degree seeking graduate assistants do not need to fear that their assistantship tuition waiver support will be reduced or eliminated. Providing tuition support through assistantships, scholarships and other financial assistance is the cornerstone for maintaining the excellence of our graduate programs. The University has provided tuition waivers and other forms of financial support to graduate students for many years, and we are committed to doing so in the future. Providing tuition support is essential to our ability to recruit the best and brightest graduate students.

University policy grants tuition support in the form of waivers for graduate students who have assistantships of 25% to 67%. In addition, the campus policy and practice is that graduate assistants do not face any changes to their assistantship tuition waiver support as long as they remain in the academic program (as identified by the graduate program code) in which they began, continue to hold a qualifying assistantship, are in good academic standing, and are making proper progress towards graduation in the academic program in which they began.  Our goal is to ensure that assistantship tuition waiver support is protected and that departments can continue to oversee the financial packages offered to attract students.

The Urbana campus invests in excess of $100,000,000 annually in tuition support for assistants, some of which is recovered from grants and other sources. Our policies regarding waivers and scholarships are designed to be competitive with policies and practices of other world-class universities, in order to recruit highly qualified students.  We have proposed to the GEO language that reconfirms that assistantship tuition waiver support for students that are degree seeking will be continued.

The GEO's second recurring theme is that the University pay proposals are unfair and do not provide assistants with a livable wage. Such accusations are inaccurate. Under the GEO contract that just expired, teaching and graduate assistants are guaranteed a minimum annual rate which translates to an approximate hourly rate of $19.00 per hour. The average rate on campus is $22.03 per hour (or $17,183 per year for an assistant with a 50% nine-month appointment). Over the three years of the GEO contract that just expired, the minimum stipend level was increased by 10%.  The University has presented wage proposals that would guarantee that continuing assistants would receive salary increases consistent with those given to other employees under the campus salary program.

It should be emphasized that assistants with appointments ranging between 25% and 67% of full-time equivalency also receive tuition waivers worth between $11,432 and $24,698 per year (depending on residency status), plus health insurance, which is partially paid for by the University. On average, this amounts to a package of approximately $28,000 for a 50% nine-month teaching assistantship.  The University has presented wage proposals that would guarantee both that continuing assistants would receive salary increases consistent with those given to other employees under the campus salary program and provides a guaranteed increase to the minimum assistantship wage rate for each year of the contract.

Despite the strike authorization vote taken by the GEO, we want you to know that a strike is neither inevitable nor necessary. The issues of tuition waivers and pay can be resolved through negotiation and mediation, as they have been in the past. We urge you to become familiar with the facts and make decisions based on all of the relevant information related to the negotiations process.  

Sincerely,

Ilesanmi Adesida
Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost

c:     Deans, Directors, Department Heads
        Faculty