Improved stipends, health benefits and working conditions will top the list of priorities for members of the Graduate Employees Union as they meet today to prepare for bargaining negotiations with university officials.
The current contract, which has been in place for about three years, could use significant changes, said Samuel Otten, a doctoral student and Graduate Employees Union, or GEU, president.
All graduate students, whether GEU members or not, are welcome to the general meeting ,where they will work to adopt a platform to present to university officials, he said. Although students who are not members cannot vote, there will be sign-up opportunities at the meeting.
Bargaining negotiations for the contract, which expires in May, will be addressed with university administrators in January, said Kayra Hopkins, co-chair of the GEU bargaining team.
“We’re excited about this bargaining session, and we look forward to working with the university to develop a contract that’s satisfactory to students and the university,” she said.
University officials from MSU Human Resources declined to comment Wednesday in respect of the confidentiality of the bargaining process.
Although university administrators would like to see MSU become a world leader in receiving grants, Otten said MSU can’t make the goal happen without graduate assistants. And graduate assistants, he said, won’t come to MSU without competitive stipends. As it stands, the stipend level for graduate assistants at MSU is subpar to other comparable institutions, Otten said.
“Our main goal is to make MSU competitive,” he said.
“We have to recruit the best graduate students we can. We would like the students to be the best and brightest.”
Health care also tops bargaining concerns, Otten said.
“We have a whole laundry list of complaints (in that area),” he said.
Currently, graduate assistants can purchase health care coverage for their spouses and children, but Otten said the cost is sometimes out of reach for those with only a graduate assistant’s salary.
Expensive dental coverage under Midwestern Dental is another major concern.
Eliminating, or at least reducing, various fees attached to graduate programs is another major concern, Otten said.
Miscellaneous fees for program enrollment can at times reach $400 to $500, he said.
To doctoral student Joe Jalbert, the contract isn’t as big of an issue.
“I keep telling my friends, ‘More money would be great, but other than that, things are OK,’” Jalbert said.
Staff writers Andrew Krietz and Megan Durisin contributed to this report.
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