The Student Workers of Columbia-United Auto Workers and the University met for their first mediation session on Monday, one day after agreeing on a private mediator. The student-worker strike, which started on Nov. 3, is continuing with daily pickets and withholding labor.

Beginning their second labor strike this calendar year, student-workers commenced picketing on College Walk on Nov. 3. The Student Workers of Columbia–United Auto Workers has bargained with the University over 85 sessions and for nearly three years in the hope of receiving a fair labor contract. They now have $140 million worth of demands to bargain over.

Exasperated by stagnant bargaining talks and recent pay structure changes, the Student Workers of Columbia–United Auto Workers voted 1,804 to 234 to authorize a strike. In doing so, the SWC-UAW has given a mandate to its bargaining committee to initiate a strike, which bargaining members pledge will happen this semester if Columbia does not meet the union’s demands.

Aiming to ease student fears about the pandemic, Columbia College Student Council is developing a series of new proposals designed to improve academic and campus life. Although some ideas are pending administrative approval, CCSC hopes to improve its vision of student life, which is inseparable from pandemic concerns this year.

In a gamble to win contract concessions, the graduate and undergraduate members of Student Workers of Columbia are holding a vote from Sept. 15 to Sept. 27 to determine whether or not to withhold their labor.

Starting this fall, fewer doctoral students will serve as teaching assistants in the humanities and social sciences. Columbia’s cost-saving decision to limit doctoral student admissions in non-science fields has departments deliberating how best to staff courses over the next few years, and will likely fill teaching assistant roles with master’s and undergraduate students, lecturers, and adjunct professors.

The tentative agreement reached between Columbia and the Graduate Workers of Columbia–United Auto Workers’ bargaining committee failed to pass on April 30. Student-workers voted 1,093-970 with 63 percent participation from card-carrying union student workers to continue negotiating, a process that will likely require further mobilization throughout the summer and fall semesters.

Graduating students are wrapping up their Columbia careers optimistic, disappointed, burnt out, or some combination of each. Instead of the iconic flood of light blue graduation gowns and family members filling up College Walk, students will watch the University’s Commencement ceremony virtually on April 30 while dispersed across the globe.

A new $1.4 billion funding campaign was announced by University President Lee Bollinger in an email Thursday. The Columbia Student Support Initiative will provide assistance to all 16 schools at the University, with a goal of raising all funds by June 2025.