About 20 members of MSU's Graduate Employees Union stood at the steps of the Administration Building in the blustery cold Monday afternoon, handing out bags of peanuts they say represent their wages.
Holding signs saying the union "demands a fair deal for students," the students said they were letting the campus know that graduate employees' benefits and pay are being stripped away by a loophole in the contract they signed with university officials in May 2002.
University officials were unavailable for comment Monday afternoon.
Union President Scott Henkel said there are 12,000 teaching assistants on campus and the teaching-assistant title is being reclassified to instructor in certain cases. Henkel said under this title, people who previously were considered TA are losing health care, tuition waivers and protection from overwork.
History graduate student and TA Stuart Willis said the loss of these benefits would keep him from attending MSU.
"The reasons I came to Michigan State are fast disappearing," Willis said.
TAs are granted nine free class credits for every semester they teach. Willis said without this waiver and protected pay, he couldn't make enough to live. Because he's an international student from England, Willis said he isn't eligible for grants, scholarships and loans available mostly to U.S. citizens.
"I just don't have that option," Willis said. "It's hard for people to turn down being a TA. I couldn't afford to be here."
Henkel said the union filed a grievance with the university and will enter into arbitration on Jan. 28.
Union officials also are in arbitration with MSU, saying their labor contract is being violated by the use of undergraduate TAs.
Laura Anderson, handing out fliers that urged readers to support the union by complaining to MSU President M. Peter McPherson, said her schedule doesn't allow for her to lose benefits. The philosophy graduate student and TAsaid she tried having a second job while teaching a class and conducting her own studies.
Anderson, who already has accumulated $12,000 in debt with three years left, said she can't afford to have a car and the pay is so low, it wouldn't be worth being a TA without the benefits.
"It would be like a non-job," she said. "I couldn't accept it."
Teaching assistants are paid on a time and experience scale ranging from $533 a month for the lowest amount of commitment and time and $2,042 for the most.
Anderson said across the nation, universities are cutting TA jobs into smaller part-time jobs without benefits. Students are being forced to work several part-time jobs running from campus to campus teaching classes, she said.
The union's picketing begins MSU's Campus Equity Week, a nationwide campus labor rally. The union is urging students to participate in a food drive with pickup areas on campus. Students also can attend a documentary movie on Wednesday about the impact of academic labor disparity on higher education at 7 p.m. in 106 Bessey Hall.
