Unions Undermine Education

On university campuses nationwide, the discussion continues over whether or not graduate students should have the right to unionize on campus. At issue is what a graduate student union might mean for the undergraduate students of Columbia. Unions hold the power to undermine the undergraduate education by striking and drawing other resources for the university.

The Graduate Student Employees United (GSEU) has a motto: "Columbia works because we do." There is no doubt graduate student instructors play an integral role in the instruction of Core Curriculum classes like Literature Humanities, Contemporary Civilization, Art Humanities, and Music Humanities. Additionally, Columbia's lecture classes could not operate without the graduate teaching assistants who help to run them

But because graduate students are so involved, a graduate student strike at Columbia--a very real possibility with unionization--could cripple nearly all of the requisite undergraduate curricula. If Core class instructors were to stop instructing, the Core would not work; a two-week strike might set an undergraduate's course of study back by an entire semester, postponing graduation or the completion of a major. Imagine the potential undergraduate outcry that would ensue, calling for a refund in tuition, or an exemption from one or more of Columbia's Core classes.

Additionally, a union will allow its members to bargain with the University about the number of hours they work each week. Though this could improve the lifestyles of Columbia's graduate students, it could also detract from the work--both inside and outside of the classroom--that instructors and teaching assistants would put into class preparation. Bargaining over hours could affect the quality of in-class instruction if instructors were not required to put in the appropriate amount of work for a section.

While presenting a unified front against the University would certainly give graduate students leverage in negotiations for better pay and other benefits, graduate instructors and teaching assistants must not forget their importance to the continuity of undergraduate education. At a university like this, where such dependence is inevitable and irrefutable, the Administration and the graduate students must come to an arrangement by which they will not endanger this university's educational mission.