The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
4 — Wednesday, June 22, 2022

LEO-GLAM demonstrates on the Diag to raise support 
during ongoing negotiations

The LEO-GLAM union at UMich gathered on the Diag on Thursday to rally support during ongoing contract negotiations

Members 
of 
the 
Galleries, 
Librarians, Archivists and Museums 
(GLAM) subunit of the Lecturers’ 
Employee Organization (LEO) at 
the University of Michigan staged a 
protest on all three U-M campuses on 
Thursday afternoon. Approximately 
100 LEO-GLAM members gathered 
on the Diag to rally support for their 
ongoing contract bargaining process 
with the University. 
LEO-GLAM was first recognized 
as an independent bargaining unit 
within LEO in August 2021. From 
there, they sent questionnaires out 
to their membership to understand 
what issues to bring to the bargaining 
table. They have been in negotiations 
with the University for their first 
contract since December 2021, during 
which there have been 24 formal 
bargaining sessions.

SAMANTHA RICH 
Summer News Editor

ANN ARBOR

In an interview with The Michigan 
Daily, Meredith Kahn, a librarian 
on the University’s Ann Arbor 
campus, said a driving force behind 
the demonstration was not only the 
prolonged bargaining period, but 
also the University’s inflexibility on 
specific proposals. 
“We have already reached a 
tentative agreement on most of the 
contract, and all that’s left on the 
table are salary and professional 
development,” Kahn said. “Those 
are both things that will cost the 
University money, so that’s why 
they’re still on the table.”
LEO-GLAM 
sent 
its 
initial 
salary proposal to the University in 
February of this year and did not 
receive a response to the proposal 
for two months. LEO-GLAM’s most 
recent salary proposal asks for a 
41.5% salary increase over the first 
three years, with 60% of this increase 
in the first year.
To date, the University has offered 
to raise the minimum salary by 

The University of Michigan Board 
of Regents met at the Alexander 
G. Ruthven Building to discuss the 
budget for the 2023 fiscal year, which 
includes an increase in tuition and a 
$15 minimum wage for all workers 
across campuses. 
Interim University President Mary 
Sue Coleman opened the meeting by 
announcing that Regent Jordan Acker 
(D) will be succeeded by Regent Paul 
Brown (D) as the new chair of the 
Board. Acker will continue to serve 
on the Board of Regents until his term 
ends in 2027. 
Regent Sarah Hubbard (R) shared 
updates 
about 
the 
Presidential 
Search Committee and the process 
of selecting the University’s new 
president. In February, the University 
announced the Presidential Search 

Committee, led by regents Sarah 
Hubbard and Denise Ilitch, to find 
a replacement for former President 
Mark Schlissel, who was fired 
in January for engaging in an 
inappropriate relationship with a 
subordinate. The committee, which 
solicited feedback from the campus 
community through virtual learning 
sessions and an online survey, 

ANNA FIFELSKI 
& IRENA LI 
Summer News Editors

Read more at michigandaily.com

UMich Board of Regents approves $15 minimum wage, tuition 
increase at June meeting

NEWS

The Board of Regents met Thursday to discuss the 2023 budget, which includes a tuition increase and a $15 minimum wage for all workers

roughly $2,000 to $48,000 with 
a 2% increase after the first year 
of the contract, a 2.25% increase 
in the second year and a 2.5% 
increase in the third. They have also 
proposed a minimum of $700 per 
year per employee for professional 
development opportunities, including 
attending academic conferences and 
pursuing continued education. 
In an interview with The Daily, 
Sarah McLusky, lead archivist for 
reference at the Bentley Historical 
Library on the University’s Ann 
Arbor campus, said she believes 
the lack of initial response on this 
issue contributed to the slow pace of 
bargaining. 
“When it comes to salary, that’s a 
proposal that they’ve had for a pretty 
long time and just didn’t do anything 
with it, at least that we could see,” 
McLusky said. “It was returned back 
to the union pretty late in the process, 
which is part of why we haven’t come 
to an agreement about that yet.”
In her speech on the Diag, Zia 

Davidian, an assistant librarian on 
the University’s Flint campus, said 
she believes the University’s salary 
offer is unacceptable, particularly for 
LEO-GLAM members with financial 
and familial obligations. 
“I am fortunate to be able to just 
make ends meet as a young, healthy, 
single, childless adult,” Davidian said. 
“I can’t imagine trying to support 

a child or a family on this income 
— which many of my colleagues 
actually do. As faculty at one of the 
most 
well-respected 
institutions 
of higher education in the country, 
with an endowment of $17 billion, we 
deserve better.”
Summer News Editor Samantha 
Rich can be reached at sammrich@
umich.edu.

KEITH MELONG/Daily

consists of representatives from 
all three campuses and Michigan 
Medicine. 
“We continue to be on track 
to complete the search for a new 
president this summer,” Hubbard said. 
“We’d like to have an announcement 
sometime soon. The interest is very 
high. We’re interviewing a diverse 
pool of candidates.”

Following 
Coleman’s 
opening 
remarks, 
Laurie 
K. 
McCauley, 
University Provost and Executive 
Vice President for Academic Affairs, 
 
 
presented the Fiscal Year 2023 
General Fund Budget for the Ann 
Arbor campus. The budget outlined 
an increase in the minimum wage for 
students and temporary workers of 
the University to $15 an hour, up from 
$9.87 per hour.
“This change will assure that all 
employees, including students and 
temporary staff, are compensated 
in a manner consistent with the 
institutional values, regardless of 
how many hours they worked at the 
University,” McCauley said. 
The budget presentation detailed 
an increase in tuition for all paying 
students. For the 2022-23 school 
year, tuition will increase by 3.9%, 
amounting to $2,102 per year, for 
undergraduate out-of-state students 
and will increase by 3.4%, or $558 
per year, for in-state students. The 
increase in the cost of tuition amounts 
to over double that of last year’s, with 

tuition increasing by 1.8% from the 
2020-2021 to 2021-2022 school year. 
Tuition will not increase for in-state 
students who receive need-based aid.
The budget also includes support 
for community college students in 
the humanities who aim to transfer 
to the Ann Arbor campus through 
the 
Bridges 
Program, 
renews 
support for Living Arts Engine 
— 
an 
interdisciplinary 
learning 
community on North Campus — and 
funds increased access to a program 
called Mental Health First Aid, which 
equips faculty staff and students 
with more tools to identify and help 
students who may be struggling. 
The U-M Biological Station will also 
receive infrastructure upgrades. 
Regent Denise Illitch (D) was the 
only board member to vote against 
the proposed budget. Illitch said 
continuing tuition increases would 
make a U-M education inaccessible to 
more students.

JULIANNE YOON/Daily

Daily News Contributor Camryn 
Reitzel also contributed to reporting