Aretha Franklin spelled it out in song, and now the AFT has documented exactly what graduate employees need: respect and recognition. “Given our status as university instructors, graduate employees deserve to be treated with the dignity and respect that is our due,” writes Chris Goff, past president of the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation/AFT, University of Oregon. To that end, Recognition and Respect: Standards of Good Practice in the Employment of Graduate Employees, released Oct. 8, makes the case for graduate workers and outlines specific tenets for universities and unions to create a fair workplace.

In a comprehensive introduction, Recognition and Respect documents an academic staffing crisis created by increasing reliance upon poorly treated part-time, adjunct and other non-tenure track faculty. Graduate assistants have assumed a significant role in this mix, experiencing double discrimination when they are treated as peripheral in teaching, and again upon graduation when they look for jobs in an increasingly thin market for full-time academics.

Now the AFT lays out specific standards designed to support graduate employees and, by extension, improve the universities for which they work.

To download your copy, go to www.aft.org/pubs-reports/higher_ed/
grad_employee_standards.pdf.

The new guidelines include the following:

Compensation

• Fair salary to cover school and living expenses
• Full tuition waivers, no student fees
• Clear work expectations
• Timely compensation
• Full healthcare benefits
• Proportional retirement benefits
• Access to long-term disability and life insurance
• Child care options

Employment practices

• Nondiscrimination, due process and grievance procedures
• Rational hiring practices; reasonable, timely posting with clear criteria
• Clearly defined workload
• Clear lines of supervision
• Job security after probation
• No reclassification to avoid providing benefits

Responsibility and support

• Paid orientation
• Paid English as a Second Language training
• Ongoing training and professional development
• Administrative and technological support
• Distance education training and input
• Protection of intellectual property
• Right to serve on departmental and institutional committees

Union rights

• Union commitment to long-term, hard-fought organizing campaigns
• Support from faculty and professional staff unions
• Full voting rights on union matters
• Dues adjusted for low compensation
• Support from union on standards outlined in this report

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