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11/23/2015

How One College Became Ground Zero for Grad-Student Unionization - The Chronicle of Higher Education

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GRADUATE STUDENTS

How One College Became Ground


Zero for Grad-Student
Unionization
By Vimal Patel

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

NEW YORK

U
Mark Abramson for The Chronicle

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.

niversity administrators dont


view Tania Aparicio as an
employee, but she feels like one.

The sociology Ph.D. student at the New


School teaches two undergraduate courses,
holds office hours, answers students
emails, and performs research unrelated to
her dissertation for professors.
"When I had an issue with my pay stub," Ms.

Aparicio says, "I was referred to human resources and payroll. I wasnt referred to
my adviser or my dean, because Im an employee, and those are my wages."
To Ms. Aparicios frustration, however, she and other graduate assistants at the
New School are not seen as employees and do not have a legal right to collectively
bargain for better pay and working conditions.

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How One College Became Ground Zero for Grad-Student Unionization - The Chronicle of Higher Education

That may change soon. Last month the National Labor Relations Board said it
would review a bid by New School graduate students to unionize, a move that
could reshape how graduate students are viewed at private colleges nationwide.
A 2004 ruling by the board involving Brown University found that graduate
students at private colleges cant unionize because their relationship with
universities is primarily academic, not economic. (Unionization at public
colleges, meanwhile, is governed by state law.) In taking the case, the labor board
is signaling a willingness and many labor experts say a likelihood to
overturn the Brown ruling.
The review of the New School case comes as graduate students at several other
private universities like Yale, Harvard, and Columbia are seeking to unionize,
fueled by hope that the Brown ruling will fall, and by the example of New York
University, which in 2013 became the only private college to voluntarily recognize
a graduate-student union.
Like students on other campuses, those at the New School say their frustrations
grew over time, slowly boiling to the point where they decided to form a union
and then take their case to the labor board. Yet Ms. Aparicio and others also say
their situation stands out as something of a perfect storm of graduate-student
woes in part because the New School offers relatively low financial support
despite being located in an expensive city like New York.
Top administrators at the college
acknowledge the hardships for the
graduate students, but university
lawyers argue that the money graduate
assistants receive is actually financial
aid, not pay. Moreover, according to
legal briefs filed by the university, the
http://chronicle.com/article/How-One-College-Became-Ground/234291

In taking the case, the


labor board is signaling
a willingness -- many
say a likelihood -- to
overturn the Brown
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How One College Became Ground Zero for Grad-Student Unionization - The Chronicle of Higher Education

purpose of these positions "is to assist


students, and not create employment

ruling.

opportunities."

We felt powerless
Ms. Aparicio says she lives frugally. She lives close to campus to save on
commuting costs, in a rent-stabilized Chinatown walk-up that she shares with
three roommates. Some weeks during her graduate program, she says, her food
budget was tiny and she ate just one meal a day.
These days, she counts herself among the lucky students who have on-campus
academic jobs. When she started at the New School as a masters student in 2012,
however, she worked at one time or another as a babysitter, a graphic designer, a
researcher for a human-rights group, and a production assistant for commercials.
Even so, Ms. Aparicio has accrued more than $80,000 in debt to finance her
graduate studies, and shes not alone. About a third of the people who completed
a Ph.D. at the New School from 2004 to 2013, the most recent period for which
data are available, reported accruing more than $50,000 in debt during graduate
school, an unusually high rate, according to federal data.
Moreover, many report difficult working conditions. Ms. Aparicio, for example,
didnt know she would have classes to teach until a week before they began this
semester, making financial planning uncertain. "Theres no way for us to know
how were going to make a living," she says, "or whether we should take a year off
or a leave of absence because its not going to be possible to do both school and
work outside the university."

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How One College Became Ground Zero for Grad-Student Unionization - The Chronicle of Higher Education

A Quick Look at Past Rulings


During the last 45 years, the National Labor Relations Board has ruled several times on the
issue of whether graduate assistants, who receive a stipend and other benefits for teaching or
conducting research, are in fact employees of a university. Over that time, the board has gone
back and forth on this question. Here are a few of the boards key rulings:
1972: In a case involving Adelphi University, the board held that graduate assistants were
primarily students and should be excluded from a bargaining unit of regular faculty.
1974: The board went further in a case brought by research assistants in Stanford Universitys
physics department. It found that the students were not employees as defined by the National
Labor Relations Act. The stipends the students received, the board found, were not based on
the skill or function of the particular individual or the nature of the research performed and
were not wages.
2000: Reversing precedent, the board found that most New York University graduate assistants
were, in fact, employees under the labor act. The board wrote that it rejected the contention
that because the graduate assistants may be predominately students, they cannot be
statutory employees.
2004: In a case involving Brown University, a divided board ruled that extending collective
bargaining to the students would have a deleterious impact on overall educational decisions
by the Brown faculty and administration. The majority wrote that stipends amount to
financial aid.
2015: In October, the labor board decided it would review a case brought about by New School
graduate assistants, a move that sets the stage for overturning the Brown ruling. When the
board decided to review a case involving New York University, in 2012, the college decided it
would voluntarily recognize a graduate-student collective-bargaining unit, sidestepping a
labor-board ruling. No such deal is expected in the New School case.
Vimal Patel

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Students say they have been raising these concerns to administrators for years.
Oliver Picek, a fifth-year economics Ph.D. student, recalls being particularly
frustrated in a town-hall meeting with President David E. Van Zandt in 2012. Mr.
Picek, who earned about $16,000 that year teaching four courses, and other Ph.D.
students wanted to know why financial support was so paltry. The response, he
says, was vague and unsatisfying. "No one would take any responsibility for our
situation," Mr. Picek says. "We felt powerless."
Afterward, over drinks with a fellow dejected student, he floated the idea of a
union. In the days that followed, he learned others were thinking the same. Last
fall Mr. Picek, now a union organizer, and others collected signatures supporting
a United Auto Workers collective-bargaining unit from more than 70 percent of
the 350 or so graduate teaching and research assistants who would be part of the
unit. The New School has about 3,500 graduate students.
Armed with the support of a majority of graduate assistants, the graduate
students asked the university to recognize the union in December. When they did
not receive recognition, they filed their petition with the labor board.
In an interview, Mr. Van Zandt, who became president in 2011, said he was
sympathetic to the students concerns and that he was "sort of astounded" at the
financial challenges faced by the students when he first heard them.
He said, however, that the New School doesnt have the resources of a traditional
research university. With a relatively small endowment of about $300 million, the
university depends on tuition and fees for about 90 percent of its budget. While
most colleges "fully fund" their doctoral students, meaning they cover tuition and
offer a stipend for living expenses, most New School Ph.D. students pay at least
some tuition, and stipends often dont cover the cost of living in New York. In

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How One College Became Ground Zero for Grad-Student Unionization - The Chronicle of Higher Education

exchange for a stipend, graduate students at the New School often hold teaching
and research assistantships. A teaching assistantship, which is the most common,
is supposed to require 10 hours of work a week and provides $4,228 per course.
Recently, the university began fully funding a small number of Ph.D. students, 36,
and Mr. Van Zandt says his goal is to increase that support, though he said it was
too soon to offer specifics.
When asked to make the case that graduate assistants arent employees, Mr. Van
Zandt said, "Its not really relevant to me what we call them. Im focused on the
best way to support them going forward as opposed to what the lawyers might
say at the NLRB."

Ping-pong jurisprudence
The New School graduate students arent the only ones taking aim at the 2004
Brown ruling. A petition filed by Columbia graduate students may also be taken
up by the labor board.
While the New School students petition takes direct aim at the Brown ruling, it
also makes the case that New School graduate assistants are different than those
at most other universities. For example, students at the New School can earn their
doctorates without ever being a teaching or research assistant, showing that
those duties are disconnected from their educational experience.
If the board does rule in favor of the New School, it doesnt mean the debate is
over.
Daniel V. Johns, a higher-education labor lawyer with Ballard Spahr, calls the
labor boards views on how graduate assistants fit into universities "ping-pong
jurisprudence," the result of its members being politically appointed by the
president.
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How One College Became Ground Zero for Grad-Student Unionization - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Graduate students at private colleges "didnt have the right to organize under the
pre-Clinton board," he says. "They did under a Clinton board. That goes back the
other way under a Bush board. Now it may go back the other way under an
Obama board. Theres no reason to believe that might be any different should the
White House go Republican."
Even so, a labor-board win for the New School students would probably provide
immediate collective-bargaining power to the students. And even if the political
wind changes, says Mr. Picek, the New School union organizer, contracts often
last several years.
Whats more, while the ability to form a union is important, to New School
students like Zoe Carey its really about changing the campus culture to prioritize
graduate-student needs. The challenges they face, says Ms. Carey, a Ph.D. student
in sociology, show a larger problem with higher education. "Theres really no
alternative to either accruing exorbitant student loans or working while youre
also studying," she says. "Were no longer exclusively students. Were students
and workers."

Vimal Patel covers graduate education. Follow him on Twitter @vimalpatel232, or


write to him at vimal.patel@chronicle.com.

Copyright 2015 The Chronicle of Higher Education

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