Working together across campus, we keep getting Columbia to do better! Provost Coatsworth sent another email Friday announcing improvements to graduate compensation. In addition to a 3.75% increase next year in most schools, Provost Coatsworth has announced the intention of GSAS and the Morningside professional schools to raise stipends by at least 3% for each of the following three years!
Friday’s email follows a series of earlier announcements by university administrators. In May, Provost Coatsworth and Engineering Dean Mary Boyce promised expanded childcare and parental benefits, the elimination of international student fees, and a reduction in facility fees for engineering graduate workers. Months before, Dean Carlos Alonso announced a series of improvements for international students in GSAS, while Dean Stephen Coll expanded health insurance and fee waivers for graduate workers in the School of Journalism.
These exciting wins show how powerful cross-campus organizing can be. We’re excited for the organizing and power GWC and organizations like Student Worker Solidarity (SWS), the Graduate Student Advisory Council (GSAC), and many other campus groups can have when we come together. Together we can make tremendous progress on our shared priorities.
We look forward to winning even more improvements at the university, and we want to thank everyone involved in the union and in allied organizations across campus who have organized tirelessly for these improvements. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is expected to rule later this Summer on our case to win back collective bargaining rights. We anticipate an NLRB election would follow in the fall where we could vote for GWC-UAW as our union so that Columbia would be legally obligated to bargain collectively with us. We will have our biggest and most powerful voice once we win our union and are able to sit down and negotiate as equals for even more improvements in a binding contract with the university.