FSU Grad Assistants Push to Unionize
TAs Seek Better Health Coverage, Higher Salaries
From the front page of the Tallahassee Democrat:
By Angeline J. Taylor * DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER * September 22, 2008
Shawntel Ensminger will owe at least $22,800 in medical expenses before the year ends, and that doesn't include the chemotherapy sessions she will have to get. The 27-year-old graduate student is employed by Florida State University. She's the recipient of a university presidential fellowship, so she has medical insurance.
"As long as I can cure my cancer (for) under $250,000 - I'm OK," Ensminger said.
But she knows her medical costs will exceed that amount. If she worked at the University of Florida, Florida A&M or the University of South Florida, she would have full insurance coverage and possibly a higher salary. And that, graduate students say, is the problem.
It's driving scores of graduate students employed by FSU to sign petition cards in the hopes of starting a union they say will help them in getting health insurance coverage, negotiated salaries and better job protection. There are 3,000 graduate students employed by FSU.
"It's so frustrating that UF has health insurance and we don't," said Sandra Simonds, 31, who teaches creative nonfiction for the English department. "Why, at Florida State, are we not at the same level?"
Graduate assistants at FSU say administrators haven't worked toward getting full health-insurance coverage because of the state's budget cuts. More than $30 million has been cut from FSU in the last year.
"A variety of mechanisms for addressing graduate students' concerns exist at Florida State, such as the Congress of Graduate Students," Dean of Graduate Studies Nancy Marcus said by e-mail. "We have an open-door policy, and we will continue to listen and respond to any issues that graduate students want to bring to us."
Barbara Speck, an accounting associate for the Congress of Graduate Students, sympathized with the students. She said graduate students are some of the brightest people she has met. Graduate students said they realize most people believe they are only students. Their parents should be able to cover their insurance. Right? Wrong, said Speck and Simonds.
"None of us are on our parent's health insurance anymore," Simonds said. "(Yet,) in some departments we teach 70 percent of the classes."
Speck said, "Grad students are in a real pinch because we've lost so many professors due to budget cuts. They are teaching more for less money. The insurance coverage is not as complete as it could be."
FSU professor Ralph Berry, chairman of the English department, said the university essentially pays graduate students about $3,000 a course. FAMU graduate assistants received higher salaries and full health-insurance coverage that became effective in August. The 500 graduate students at FAMU received between $7,000 to $8,000 more in their salaries.
The University of Florida, the University of South Florida and FAMU have a bargaining agreement that was negotiated by the United Faculty of Florida (UFF). "The state of Florida wants to provide higher education for all," Berry said. "There's no way that with the faculty resources we have that we could teach everyone without graduate students."
The university's Web site boasts that graduate students teach about 40 percent of the undergraduate classes.
Speck confirmed that they teach about 60 percent of the first and second years of undergraduate classes.
"The underfunding of our graduate assistants is a source of embarrassment. Graduate students are essential to our national and international ambitions," Berry said. In addition to paying about $1,000 for insurance, students pay all their fees. Their tuition is waived. And they receive anywhere from $4,000 to $23,000 a year in salaries. Ensminger's fellowship allows her to receive $23,000 a year for the first and fourth year of her fellowship.
"I have to spend $2,400 every two weeks for 12 weeks (for medical treatment). That will cost $28,800," Ensminger said. "Making do isn't really an option."
Candace Churchill is the UFF service unit director who works with Simonds and others at FSU. She said thousands have signed FSU's petition cards in hopes of establishing a union.
"There's overwhelming support for collective bargaining," Churchill said. "You can lose your assistantship at any time. (Graduate students) want some kind of security."