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Grad-Student Unions

In a case involving Columbia U., the National Labor Relations Board ruled on Tuesday that graduate-employee unions are legal at private colleges. Experts predict a surge in organizing similar to what has taken place among adjuncts. Above: Low Plaza on Columbia’s main campus, in New York.
In a case involving Columbia U., the National Labor Relations Board ruled on Tuesday that graduate-employee unions are legal at private colleges. Experts predict a surge in organizing similar to what has taken place among adjuncts. Above: Low Plaza on Columbia’s main campus, in New York.

Here is a collection of articles from The Chronicle about recent unionization efforts by graduate students, rulings that have aided them, and how the picture may change under a new administration.

Columbia U. (pictured) was among the elite universities that for years led opposition to graduate-student unions. But now it and other such institutions, including Brown and Harvard, are collectively bargaining with their graduate-student unions.
News
Grad Students at Private Colleges Were Cleared to Unionize 3 Years Ago. Here’s What’s Changed.
By Vimal Patel
The sky has not fallen since 2016, for either graduate students or their universities. And now collective bargaining is proceeding on a number of campuses, on issues that extend beyond pay.
Graduate students at Yale U. and elsewhere have seen their efforts to unionize facing litigation. The presidency of Donald J. Trump has stepped up the urgency of their cause.
Graduate Students
The Clock May Be Ticking on Graduate Unions
By Vimal Patel
Under President Trump, the National Labor Relations Board could soon take a dimmer view of Ph.D. students’ bids to unionize. Some say colleges are using litigation as a stall tactic.
Voting last week, graduate students at Columbia U. overwhelmingly approved a unionization bid. That victory is likely to motivate similar drives at other private colleges, but the legal support for collective bargaining will be less certain under a Trump administration.
Labor
Graduate-Student Union Efforts Gain Momentum, Despite New Uncertainties
By Vimal Patel
A landslide pro-union vote at Columbia is likely to motivate similar drives at other private colleges. But the legal support for collective bargaining will be less certain under a Trump administration.
Yale U. graduate assistants marched last year in New Haven, Conn., for secure pay. The grad students are pursuing a new labor strategy: organizing in departmental "microunits" instead of forming a campuswide union.
News
Yale Graduate Students’ ‘Microunit’ Unionization Strategy Could Have Nationwide Implications
By Vimal Patel
Administrators at the university oppose a move to organize unions at the department level, and a regional labor-board director will decide whether the effort can proceed.
Robb Willer, now a professor at Stanford, led a graduate-student-unionization drive at Cornell back in 2002. Students voted more than 2 to 1 against it.
News
NYU’s Grad-Student Union Succeeded. Cornell’s Flopped. Why?
By Vimal Patel
Comparing a pair of grad-union votes from more than a decade ago can provide valuable context for the collective-bargaining fights expected this year.
Changing realities in higher education and the broad scope of a decision this week by the National Labor Relations Board are feeding a growing appetite among graduate students to fight for better working conditions. Above, graduate students seeking to form a union at Yale U. marched last fall.
Graduate Students
A New Era for Grad-Student Organizing
By Vimal Patel
Changing realities in higher education and the broad scope of a new decision by the National Labor Relations Board are feeding a growing appetite among graduate students to fight for better working conditions.
In a case involving Columbia U., the National Labor Relations Board ruled on Tuesday that graduate-employee unions are legal at private colleges. Experts predict a surge in organizing similar to what has taken place among adjuncts. Above: Low Plaza on Columbia’s main campus, in New York.
Graduate Students
Ruling Pushes Door to Grad-Student Unions ‘Wide Open’
By Peter Schmidt
The National Labor Relations Board’s decision in a case involving Columbia University has made clear that graduate-employee unions are legal at private colleges. Experts predict a surge in organizing similar to what has taken place among adjuncts.
Graduate-student workers at New York U. and their allies protest for a fair contract in November 2014.
Graduate Students
NYU’s Graduate Union: Success Story or Cautionary Tale?
By Vimal Patel
The NLRB’s ruling on Tuesday, that graduate students are employees, prompts a look back at the labor-union battle that started it all.
Tania Aparicio, a Ph.D. student in sociology at the New School, saves money by sharing a walk-up apartment with three roommates. 
Despite her work as a teaching assistant, she has built up $80,000 in debt for her graduate studies.
Academic Labor
How One College Became Ground Zero for Grad-Student Unionization
By Vimal Patel
What began as a struggle for better working conditions at the New School now has implications for private universities nationwide.
Academic Labor
What It Means When Harvard Tells Its Faculty How to Talk About Graduate-Student Unions
By Vimal Patel
The elite university has issued 15 dos and don’ts to help professors discuss unionization efforts with students.
Faculty
Graduate-Student Union Organizers Hail NYU Deal as a Breakthrough
By Peter Schmidt
The tentative contract could be a model for graduate students at other private colleges. But first they face the challenge of getting their unions recognized.
Kevin Reuning, a Ph.D. student at Penn State, hands out fliers promoting unionization. "About half of us became involved with this because of the health-care issue," he says.
News
Health Care Is a New Flash Point for Graduate Students
By Vimal Patel
In response to the Affordable Care Act, some campuses have cut back on insurance coverage, leading graduate assistants to cry foul.
The Teaching Assistants’ Association, despite having lost collective-bargaining rights at the U. of Wisconsin at Madison, held a rally last month seeking pay raises for all graduate students, not just those in some disciplines.
Graduate Education
Wisconsin Grad Students Want Pay Parity Across Disciplines
By Vimal Patel
The university wants to allow departments to set the upper limit on stipends. But critics say the move violates a long-held principle at Madison of “equal pay for equal work.”
Yale graduates students march with a 1,000-signature petition—the same number as on a successful one at NYU—asking to vote on unionization.
Academic Labor
Graduate Students Seek to Build on Momentum for Unions
By Vimal Patel
Organizers have been encouraged by recent success at New York University, although challenges remain.
News
United Auto (or Is That ‘Academic’?) Workers
By Scott Smallwood
Inside the strategy of the union that led the fight to organize teaching assistants.
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Graduate Education