As of now, the University’s
proposals for GSI and GSSA
salaries and benefits do not
appear to respect the value
of
their
labor.
Graduate
students play a particularly
tangible role in undergraduate
education, often serving as
a valuable link between a
student’s desire to learn and
achieving mastery in a subject
by teaching small discussion
sections
that
complement
large lecture courses. GSIs
alleviate much of the burden
of
grading
and
additional
instructional
hours
that
would otherwise fall on the
backs of faculty. In addition
to doing this labor, graduate
students have coursework of
their own to attend to, making
it hard for them to find time
to supplement their income
through other jobs.
While
the
relationship
between
graduate
students
and the University is complex
given their dual status as
students
and
employees,
our
GSIs
deserve
better
than an administration that
refuses to recognize the need
for substantial changes to
accommodate
rising
costs
of living. In exchange for
their invaluable labor, part
of what the members of GEO
wish to gain is a raise of 17.5
percent over three years to
accommodate the increasing
cost of living in Ann Arbor, a
request to which, as of March
15, the University responded
with an offer of substantially
less over the next three years.
GEO is also seeking changes to
graduate worker health benefits
that cap the amount spent on
copays for mental health services,
which many graduate students
seek out. Additionally, they urge
the University to expand paid
parental leave to be inclusive of
all parents, not just birth parents,
allowing graduate students to
assist their newly grown families
when they need it most. While
reasonable negotiations are to
be expected, we are seriously
concerned that the University has
not budged on its proposal for a
meager increase in wages and
other benefits.
Most
troubling
is
the
University’s outright refusal
to negotiate on the issue of
unionized diversity labor by
graduate students. Payment
for diversity work has been a
major issue for many campus
movements.
The
students
the
University
constantly
seeks
out
for
input
and
labor
on
diversity
issues
are often the very students
most
disenfranchised
by
the current campus climate
they’ve been tasked to help
repair. Recent events have
shown
that
addressing
barriers to equity on campus
isn’t easy for anyone. Asking
graduate
students
whose
time and wallets are already
extraordinarily
strained
to spend time on diversity
efforts
without
pay
and
unionization
flies
in
the
face of the principles the
University
claims
went
into the DEI plans. If the
University is serious about
implementing its DEI plan,
it must pay for unionized
diversity labor.
GSIs
and
GSSAs
are
integral
to
our
campus’s
continued
functioning,
yet
the
University’s
attitude
toward the current contract
negotiations with the GEO
have
not
recognized
the
serious struggles they face
under the current contract.
This
bargaining
period
could have been a test for the
University to put the principles
of this year’s DEI plans into
action. We’re not confident the
University has passed.
T
he work required to
make the University
of Michigan campus a
more diverse, more equitable
and more inclusive community
of scholars requires a long-
term
commitment.
That’s
why, when we developed and
launched our Diversity, Equity
and Inclusion strategic plan
last fall, it was a five-year plan.
And, like with any plan of this
magnitude and significance,
there were immediate calls for
us to do more and do it quicker.
That’s a natural reaction.
But today I want to make
sure
that
our
community
knows just how important
this work is for all of us. It is
so important that there is a
team of more than 200 UM
employees on the Ann Arbor
campus who are devoting all or
a portion of their professional
lives to this work.
Additionally,
there
are
countless numbers of faculty,
staff and students across our
campus who are assisting by
sharing
their
experiences,
offering
their
advice
and
volunteering their services in
many different ways.
Student
involvement
in
the
DEI
planning
and
implementation processes is
critical. Many units across
campus
have
involved
undergraduate and graduate
students in their work. My
office has a student advisory
board. The Division of Student
Life has established two DEI
Student Advisory Committees
made up of 25 undergraduate
and
25
graduate
student
volunteers. I recognize and value
the historic and contemporary
contributions made by students
to the University’s progress with
respect to both the DEI planning
process
and
more
broadly
diversity, equity and inclusion
over many years at the University.
A fundamental motivation
for creating a strategic plan was
to make the unpaid DEI work
of countless members of our
community (including graduate
students) the responsibility of
the University.
That
means
the
bulk
of the day-to-day work of
implementing the DEI plans
across campus must fall to
the faculty and staff who have
been given the responsibility
of DEI plan implementation
and who are paid for that
work. At the same time, we
also recognize the personal,
professional and educational
benefits that being involved
with DEI work provides. I have
personally
benefitted
from
them throughout my career.
To address the issue of the
appropriate role for graduate
students
within
the
DEI
strategic
planning
process,
my office is working with a
task force equally comprised
of graduate students and DEI
strategic plan implementation
professionals. The task force
will have two charges.
First, the task force will
go through all the unit DEI
plans
and
identify
where
unpaid
graduate
student
work may exist. The task
force will then recommend
appropriate ways to address
this work (including providing
appropriate
compensation).
The work needs to be tasks
for which graduate students
are uniquely qualified to do
or it should be done by faculty
or staff. The work also should
have some educational benefit
to graduate students since they
came to the University to get
the best education possible.
The
second
charge
of
the task force is to identify
existing
opportunities
within the plans as well as
recommend new mechanisms
by which graduate students
with interest in DEI issues
can gain valuable educational
and professional development
experiences with appropriate
compensation.
Possible
examples include: a new DEI
innovation
fund;
possible
new
Rackham
Graduate
School Diversity Allies grant
supplements;
internship
opportunities
through
the
National
Center
for
Institutional Diversity and the
Office of Diversity, Equity &
Inclusion; as well as potential
educational
opportunities
in other units across the
University.
I am confident that this
task
force
provides
the
best process to address the
shared concern that graduate
students,
particularly
under-represented
graduate
students,
should
not
be
required
to
perform
uncompensated work within
the DEI plan. It is a process
that will include graduate
students in designing their
roles in the DEI plan. We also
anticipate creating additional
funding for graduate students
to work in concert with the
DEI plan that will provide
graduate students important
educational benefits.
Ultimately, the University
is interested in fostering a
supportive relationship with
graduate students that is both
mindful of their time and
respectful
of
their
efforts.
Through these outlined actions,
we believe that together we can
achieve these goals.
Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
4A — Monday, April 10, 2017
REBECCA LERNER
Managing Editor
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
tothedaily@michigandaily.com
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890.
EMMA KINERY
Editor in Chief
ANNA POLUMBO-LEVY
and REBECCA TARNOPOL
Editorial Page Editors
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s Editorial Board.
All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
DEI work critical at the University
ROBERT SELLERS | OP-ED
Robert Sellers is the University of
Michigan chief diversity officer and
vice provost for equity and inclusion.
He also is the Charles D. Moody
Collegiate Professor of Psychology and
a professor of education.
FRANNIE MILLER | CONTACT FRANNIE AT FRMILLER@UMICH.EDU
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Carolyn Ayaub
Megan Burns
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Jeremy Kaplan
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Anurima Kumar
Ibrahim Ijaz
Max Lubell
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Madeline Nowicki
Anna Polumbo-Levy
Jason Rowland
Ali Safawi
Sarah Salman
Kevin Sweitzer
Rebecca Tarnopol
Stephanie Trierweiler
FROM THE DAILY
We stand with our GSIs and GSSAs
T
he Graduate Employees’ Organization, the labor union that represents
graduate student instructors and graduate student staff assistants
at the University of Michigan, is in the process of negotiating a new
contract for union members. GEO hopes the new contract will address issues
of the rising cost of living in Ann Arbor, health care and diversity labor
under the University’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion plan. The climate
surrounding the negotiations has become more heated in recent weeks, with
the union holding a number of protests, including a 400-person sit-in at the
Fleming Administration Building. The Michigan Daily Editorial Board calls
upon the University to support a contract that acknowledges the changes in
cost of living and other benefit needs graduate students face since their last
contract negotiation, and we implore the University to pay graduate students
for diversity labor under their new contract.
L
ast week, my best friends
from home visited Ann
Arbor because they have
each
dropped
out
of school to pursue
music careers and,
through a web of
connections
and
mutual friends, they
were
given
studio
time in Detroit. So
they
would
spend
their days mostly in
the city, and then
come back here and
hang out with me.
And while I was spending time
with them, I realized, among other
things, that I don’t feel very close
to very many people in Ann Arbor.
How could I? After all, I went to the
same school from the time I was 3
years old to when I graduated high
school, so I’ve known many of
the people who visited me for my
entire waking life. Immediately
once they arrived, the choice of
whom to spend time with was
abundantly
clear:
With
my
friends from home suddenly here,
there was not really anybody else
to be around.
And yet, I don’t think I saw as
much of my friends from home
as I could or as I wanted to.
And this is because I do a lot of
different things on this campus.
I have two majors and a minor in
three departments whose work
and faculty members I respect
enormously. I work with a lot of
change-making
organizations:
the Prison Creative Arts Project,
Students4Justice
and
the
Program on Intergroup Relations,
to name a few. I truly admire what
these organizations stand for, and
I am more than willing to help in
any way I can.
In
a
Positive
Psychology
textbook referencing a 2002
positive psychology study, the
author notes that the investigators
Ed Diener and Martin Seligman
found that the most consistent,
salient
characteristic
among
people who scored the highest
on a happiness survey was
“their strong ties to friends
and family and commitment to
spending time with them.” This is
something one of my friends from
home pointed out to me while he
was here.
And yet it’s something I’ve not
thought about during my time
at the University of Michigan. I
think my way of understanding
how to be happy at the University
was to do the most
things, to get most
involved, as a means of
leaving my mark on this
campus as someone
who tried to change all
the fucked-up things
that happen here.
Because,
from
its
origins, this university
is really unjust, both
in its history and in
the
way
in
which
the
discourse
surrounding
that history takes shape, as the
powerful
Stumbling
Blocks
exhibit shows: This land was
stolen from Native Americans, in
part, with the understanding that
Native children would be able to
attend this school, and yet not a
single Native American attended
the
University
of
Michigan
during the next 130 years.
Today, at a school which is
meant to represent the world
in which we live and, I believe,
the world in which we want
to live, only 13.8 percent of
the class of 2020 comes from
underrepresented backgrounds.
Despite these statistics, of course,
the
University
brands
itself
as “Always Leading. Forever
Valiant,” and it has made this
year’s
graduation
ceremony
one to explicitly celebrate the
University’s history — fraught
with discrimination — instead
of inviting a dynamic speaker to
help graduates construct a more
egalitarian future.
The answer is not in celebrating
our past. The answer is in
interrogating our past relentlessly
and brutally. Invite a Native
American whose ancestors were
lied to by University founders
and administrators to speak to
the class of 2017. Invite somebody
whose ancestor was denied entry
into this country by the Chinese
Exclusion Act of 1892, drafted
in part by former University
President James Angell.
All of this — our past and the
way we go about discussing it —
is pathetic and inexcusable. And,
as I type out these aspects of our
University that I myself already
know, I feel rancor boiling within
me. I begin to look at students
entering and exiting Mason Hall
with this rancor attached to all
of them, because I see them all
as not doing anything about the
deeply problematic aspects of
this school. I see them only in the
context of this; I see them as lazy,
ungrateful, blind.
And so I work to change this
campus by joining organizations.
I will not become the blind, lazy
idea of people that I sense all
around me. But I’m not writing
this just to say that. I’m writing
to say that this work has not
brought me happiness. My days
are grossly routinized: wake
up,
homework,
class,
class,
homework,
meeting,
dinner,
sleep. I barely speak to people
here — why would I, if I think of
the average University student as
complacent and fundamentally
silent? I don’t laugh for extended
periods of time here. “There is too
much work to be done,” I think.
Nor am I writing this to
criticize the people in my life or
the people on this campus. Not at
all. I’m writing this as a certain
diatribe against myself and the
way in which I have lived on
this campus. I have not worked
to
foster
deep,
long-lasting
relationships.
I
have
known
people in meetings and lectures. I
have not known people by taking
walks with them and singing and
dancing and playing Scrabble and
Boggle with them.
Instead, I have seen people in
this campus largely as products
of this university’s history —
the anger I feel toward the
people around me, right now,
just having recorded a few of
the horrendous historic aspects
of our University’s history — is
proof of this. I am writing this,
instead, to catalyze a shift in the
way I see people here: not merely
colleagues and peers, but people
with stories and lives to share.
I’m reminded of a quote by
the transcendent author Audre
Lorde: “Caring for myself is
not self-indulgence, it is self-
preservation.” I think I have
somehow denied myself the
ability
of
self-care,
denied
myself the time and space to
create deep and long-lasting
relationships, which are, I do
believe, the key to happiness.
My lonely mind
ISAIAH ZEAVIN-MOSS | COLUMN
ISAIAH
ZEAVIN-MOSS
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Isaiah Zeavin-Moss can be reached
at izeavinm@umich.edu.