English graduate student Sarah Hamblin wears a Lucy Van Pelt costume behind a desk to represent the classic psychiatrist scenes in the “Peanuts” comic strip. Hamblin is the vice president for contract negotiations and enforcement for the Graduate Employees Union, which is working toward a contract with the administration that will give teaching assistants better mental health care coverage.
She jumped straight out of the comic strip and onto the streets.
Standing in the corner of Wells Hall surrounded by signs proclaiming “anxiety,” “depression,” “culture shock,” and “stress” was Lucy Van Pelt, of “Peanuts” fame, ready to offer her brand of psychiatric advice.
Except the sign in front of her booth proclaimed, “The doctor is out.”
“Lucy’s a reminder that sometimes the doctor looks to be in but the doctor’s really out,” said Sandra Schmidt, president of the Graduate Employees Union, or GEU.
The GEU’s contract with the university expires on May 15, 2008, and the group plans on starting contract talks soon. One of the major issues they are dealing with is medical coverage for mental health issues.
“Mental health is basic health care,” said Jacque Lloyd, contract administrator for the GEU.
This time, the only things Lucy was offering were candy and flyers.
The rally was an effort to inform graduates and undergraduates of the GEU’s issues.
“As teaching assistants, the people we work closest with are undergraduates,” Schmidt said. “So we definitely want to inform the undergraduates of what the issues facing their teaching assistants are.”
University representatives were not available for comment Monday afternoon.
According to Lloyd, suicide is one of the leading causes of death for graduate-aged students, which is a main factor in their search for better mental health care.
Under the current contract, TAs receive up to 20 mental health visits a year with a $30 co-pay per visit.
In addition to mental health, the union also is looking for better discipline-specific professional development.
“If you’re a TA in math, we want you to know how to teach math,” Lloyd said.
The GEU also is seeking to decrease department fees and receive inflation-adjusted wages. Fees in the engineering department have gone up 66 percent in the last four years, Lloyd said. Graduate department fees pay for lab fees and TA salaries, among other things.
“If you’re an international student, that $500 you spend for engineering fees — you have to pay that as a student before you even get your first paycheck,” Lloyd said.
For now, all the GEU can do is spread the word, Schmidt said.
“We need to work collectively, not just with graduate students and the administration, but also with undergraduates,” Schmidt said. “How we go about (contract talks) has great impact on the education the students receive here at the university.”
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