This letter was distributed to students and faculty across Yale University, and was also published in the "Letters to the Editor" section of the Yale Daily News.
April 23, 1998
An Open Letter to the Yale Community:
On April 15, graduate students submitted a petition with 1,053 signatures to President Levin, who immediately sent the petition back. Sponsored by the Graduate Employees and Students Organization (GESO) and signed by a clear majority of PhD students-in-residence, the petition stated the following:
I believe that Yale University should negotiate in good faith, with graduate students, a written and binding agreement governing graduate school policies including, but not limited to, the terms of the Teaching Fellows program and health care benefits.
An attached cover letter asked the President to affirm the value of a written and binding agreement and to begin negotiations by May 1, 1998. The petition did not specify the exact mechanism by which a written agreement would be secured. With signatures from across the humanities, sciences and social sciences, however, the petition did represent a growing consensus that the Administration should come to an agreement with graduate students over basic living and teaching conditions.
On April 16, President Levin mailed back the petitions and explained his actions with the following three-sentence letter, which ignored the petition's fundamental concern:
I have received the letter addressed to me from the GESO Coordinating Committee requesting that the University begin negotiations with GESO. As I have stated many times in the past, the University will not recognize GESO or negotiate with it as a collective bargaining agent for graduate students for reasons which I have previously explained at length. That being so, I am returning the petitions enclosed with your letter.
We find disappointing President Levin's refusal to accept the petition on its own terms. The majority of graduate students, from all three divisions, were expressing their desire for a written and binding agreement. Levin's response did not address this fact; instead it merely reiterated the university's position on graduate student unionization.
We extend our thanks to those students who helped to circulate the petition and lent their support to its premise. We continue to believe that a written and binding agreement on the terms of the TF Program and health care benefits will improve graduate education and graduate teaching at Yale.
Sincerely,
The GESO Coordinating Committee
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This page was last updated on: November 30, 1999 |
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Graduate Employees and Students Organization |
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