Graduate Employees Organizing in the Time of COVID-19
Hello, GEO members! We hope that you are all staying safe and socially distanced during this time. Yesterday, GEO hosted a virtual Town Hall as a way to meet up for the first time since classes moved online and Illinois’ shelter-in-place order went into effect. If you missed it, or need a written recap, here are some of the important points we touched on. If you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to email us!
Table of Contents:
Announcements
Faculty Senate Resolution and Vote
Join GEO’s New Working Group
Tracking Your Hours!
Financial Review
Events
Tax Workshop
JOIN A GEO COMMITTEE!
CONNECT WITH GEO!
Faculty Senate Resolution and Vote
On 3/23 the UIUC Faculty Senate’s Executive Committee discussed a “Resolution on the University’s Response to COVID-19”. This resolution supports interests of both undergraduate and graduate students and is the most support we’ve had since the pandemic began.
Highlights of the Resolution: Demand to end the semester now and calculate grades with the current circumstances in mind or change to pass/no-credit grading; demand that the university rollback the increases in student healthcare premiums.
A large portion of faculty senators are in support of this resolution with minor changes. However, there are a few influential professors who are obstructing this resolution and are arguing for “business-as-usual" during this pandemic.
Timeline: General Faculty Senate vote on Thursday 3/26; Senate Executive Committee vote on Friday 3/27.
Work action for 3/26: Email your department faculty senators and the executive committee ask that they support the resolution. Here are the materials to do so:
Sample emails:
Work action for 3/27: Attend the Senate Executive Committee Town Hall meeting at 3:00pm, online. Pay attention to social media–details to follow.
Although the Faculty Senate does not have a ton of influence in university decision-making, this resolution is still an important step and could help us build more collaboration with faculty.
Join GEO’s New Working Group
The emergency transition to online instruction has generated member concerns over content ownership, privacy, and general online protections for graduate students who work in virtual spaces. Since online instruction is an important aspect for both distance learning and in-class instruction, we’ve decided that we need a better understanding of how online teaching platforms and cloud recording services work, and how this affects graduate workers and our workplaces. We also need to investigate the relationships between digital service providers and UIUC. This working group will look into these issues.
We need you. If you’re interested in joining this new working group, please contact Daniel Gonzalez.
Tracking Your Hours!
At the townhall we got requests for a sample form to track one’s hours and as promised here is a link to the form. We have done a lot of extra labor transitioning our work online and there have been many questions about compensation for that extra labor. We are bringing this up when we meet with the university administration.
We do have a provision in our contract about overwork. The way it currently works is our appointment percentage determines how many hours per week we are expected to work on average (50% = 20 hours, 25% = 10 hours, etc.). The contract attempts to recognize that academic work can have heavier and lighter weeks, HOWEVER if we are being consistently overworked, this is grievable. To grieve overwork we have to raise the issue within 5 calendar days of when we realize that we are being overworked. Remedies for overwork include: increasing your appointment percentage (so you get paid for the extra work), hiring someone else to do some of the work, or reassigning you to a different position.
Please email grievance@uigeo.org or geo@uigeo.org with any questions. Remember to track your hours!
Financial Review
Our financial review for FY 2018-2019 has been completed. We are still trying to figure out how to make it available to members online. It is always available for review at the GEO Office upon request by GEO members.
Tax Workshop
Have questions about how to file your state and federal tax returns? GEO will be hosting a tax workshop with a local CPA on March 26th 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM Central Time! For instructions on how to join the Google Hangout, as well as the link to the meeting itself, follow this link: https://tinyurl.com/w3rdruq
JOIN A GEO COMMITTEE!
We are a member-run union; we depend on the commitment of our members to stay as strong as possible. You can find details about what each committee does and how to contact them on our website. No special knowledge is required. You can also follow the calendar of events on our website for the date and time of upcoming meetings: http://uiucgeo.org/calendar. Meetings are open to membership, and coming to a meeting does not commit you to joining a committee.
Upcoming meetings:
Healthcare Working Group (health@uigeo.org) - Contact email for more
Stewards’ Council (sc@uigeo.org) - Tuesday March 24, 5:30-6:30pm
Finance Committee (treasurer@uigeo.org) - Contact email for more
Solidarity Committee (solcomm@uigeo.org) - Friday April 3, 4:30-6pm
Grievance Committee (grievance@uigeo.org) - Thursday March 26, 9-10am
Communications Committee (commcomm@uigeo.org) - Thursday March 26, 5-6pm
Coordinating Committee (cc@uigeo.org) - Monday March 30, 4-5:30pm
RA/PGA Working Group (geo@uigeo.org) - Thursday April 2nd, 6-7pm
Bargaining Team (barg@uigeo.org) - Contact email for more
International Students Working Group (geo@uigeo.org) - Contact email for more
Note: Due to COVID-19, all meetings are now held online. Contact by email or check the calendar for more information on how to join remotely.
CONNECT WITH GEO!
Have comments about the GMM? Other kinds of feedback for us? We want to hear it! Reply to this email or use our anonymous google form. You can also get in touch through our website and social media:
Website: www.uiucgeo.org
Twitter: @geo_uiuc
Facebook: @uigeo @geosolcomm
Instagram: @geo_uiuc
In Solidarity,
Graduate Employees’ Organization
809 S. 5th St., Geneva Room
Champaign, IL 61820
Email: geo@uigeo.org