Fellow members of the MSU community:

I write today to thank several people. First, in January of this year, a systematic underpayment of approximately $100,000 to graduate teaching assistants from last summer was resolved through a mutually pleasing agreement between the Graduate Employees Union and MSU. TAs were ultimately paid what they earned, and while negotiations had been in process for over a year before that, movement toward an equitable solution occurred only after GEU raised awareness of the issue at the October Board of Trustees meeting. After that meeting, Trustee Brian Mosallam reached out to the union and was instrumental in appropriately resolving the issue. So, while I cannot attend the Board of Trustees meeting this week, I would like to thank Trustee Mosallam for his actions in this matter. I would also like to hold this resolution up as an example of what can happen when university leadership and academic labor work together productively. While the Union of Nontenure-Track Faculty is currently negotiating with MSU this year, and GEU will be next year, I encourage Trustees to learn about the issues and make sure their values are represented in the negotiation process.

Also, this will likely be my last contribution to The State News as GEU president. I would like to thank the executive boards that served during my two terms, the stewards who have diligently represented their departments, all of GEU’s members, and the labor conscious members of the MSU community who have helped make the last two years so successful for GEU, our members, and all graduate students despite some serious challenges. With the union’s current strength and the new leadership of president-elect Sylvia Marques, I am excited to see what the future holds for GEU and all the MSU graduate students it represents.

Sincerely,

Dan Clark

GEU President

clarkd40@msu.edu