Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Take a peek behind the curtain and test drive the NEW StateNews.com today!

GEU kicks off recruiting campaign

The Graduate Employees Union has begun a month-long drive to increase union membership.

Informational meetings, dancing and phone calls will make up the campaign's effort to attain the group's 70 percent membership goal.

"I think everybody knows about GEU already," union member Brian Holcomb said. "What I want is for people to recognize us as a group of professionals and realize the good we are doing on campus.

"I think this is a great opportunity to make MSU a better place."

The drive will begin with a membership meeting and dance party at The Temple Club, 500 E. Grand River Ave. in Lansing's Old Town.

The union wanted to create a different environment for people to learn about the organization, union member and material science graduate student Ian Smith said.

"This time we wanted to appeal to people on a more human level instead of on a business level," he said. "We want to come together and have some fun and learn something."

There will be a question-and-answer session with officials from The Chickering Group, which provides health care for the graduate employees.

The union also will hold a seminar focusing on handling conflicts in the classroom. This seminar will be an informal lunch-in where teaching assistants can discuss the challenges and experiences of their work, Holcomb said.

Smith said the union represents MSU's 1,200 graduate employees but only 60 percent are active members. He said most of the focus on raising membership will be geared toward science, engineering and research graduates on campus.

"They tend to be getting a negative idea about the union and we are hoping to try and fix it," Smith said. "We here in the engineering and the research sciences are really paid well.

"We are comfortable compared to (employees in) the humanities who don't get what they need and have to fight for it."

The union is always recruiting new members union president Scott Henkel said.

"The need for a strong union is greater than ever," he said.

Discussion

Share and discuss “GEU kicks off recruiting campaign” on social media.