Officer Election Information, Upcoming GMM...redo
It came to our attention that if you are a gmail user, then the previous GEO-L that was sent on wednesday did not include all of the candidates’ information in the default view because the full email was too large. Gmail users can see all the information only if they click ‘view entire message.’ If you are not a Gmail user, we don’t believe this was an issue for you. In an effort to be fair across all candidates, we are re-sending the candidates’ materials who were not included in Gmail’s ‘default view.’ Please find those below.we are also including the information about the GMM and proposed constitutional amendments as those were clipped from gmail Users’ view as well
Table of Contents:
General Membership Meeting:
Our last GMM will be held Wednesday, April 26th 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM, and you can join either in person or online. To join online, request a meeting link by 3:00 pm at https://tinyurl.com/GMM-April26.
Proposed Constitutional Amendments and Bylaws:
The Coordinating Committee is proposing two Amendments and two new bylaws to the GEO Constitution, to be considered at the GMM on April 26. The goals of these are to promote better conflict management and accountability procedures in the union, as well as to promote diverse leadership and provide better structure to the role of the Secretary.
According to Article XIV of the GEO Constitution, “If a majority of members attending and voting at the membership meeting vote in favor of the proposed amendment it shall be put to a ballot as outlined in article VI.” According to Article XV, “A simple majority of those attending the Membership Meeting shall be necessary to amend the by-laws.”
You can read the text of the proposed amendments here and the bylaws here. If you have questions about any of these amendments or bylaws, please reach out to the GEO Coordinating Committee at geo@uigeo.org.
Officer Campaign Materials:
[Part of the role of the elections committee is to publicize and distribute information about the candidates running for election. The communications committee is distributing this information in a GEO-L to aid in that effort but this should not be construed as an endorsement from GEO for any of the candidates as that would be against the constitution.]
Officers-at-Large:
As Per the GEO constitution members may elect up to three officer-at-large voting positions. For candidates running in pairs, they are running as co-officers and will share one voting position on the coordinating committee.
Preethi (she/her) & Togzhan (she/her)
Candidacy Platform:
Work with stewards and comms to:
Build spaces and plan events to strengthen the spirit, hope and joy of the community;
Develop a support network for individual emergencies;
Strengthen the campaign of RA/PGA unionization;
Identify, raise awareness and mobilize around department-specific issues;
Voice international worker issues.
Work with the solidarity committee to support and organize actions around issues facing the broader community.
Work with the grievance committee to raise awareness about grievances and provide more accessible avenues for people to file them. Mobilizing the community around particular grievances through organizing actions.
Train and educate members about actions while building structured resources for planning logistics of future actions and strikes.
Bios:
Preethi (she/her), Physics
Preethi is a first year PhD student in Physics. She has been involved in GEO since her first semester here. In that time she has been the co-coordinator of the Work-Action Group (WAG), a member of the Bargaining Team and is currently a Steward and Illinois Federation-Teachers (IFT) fellow. Preethi strongly believes in the power of community and action in any movement and plans to use what she learnt in WAG and on the bargaining team to strengthen the mobilization and organizational capacity of the union while also building support systems for our community. Her experiences working as the WAG-BT liaison and an IFT fellow will allow her to serve as a bridge between the various committees of the union, stewards and members to increase collaboration and open the doors to a greater diversity of thought and leadership in the union.
Togzhan (she/her), iSchool, PhD student, year 1.
Joining the GEO for Togzhan meant finding a whole community of like-minded people who care about each other and unite to protect every single member. She wants to invite every graduate worker to experience that care and sense of belonging and community at GEO. Economist and filmmaker, Togzhan turns numbers into stories. She will make GEO’s story visible and accessible through creative media projects, thus increasing the Union’s popularity and membership and strengthening its organizational capacity.
Sam Froiland & Priyanka Zylstra
This flyer has a blue background, a photo of Priyanka, a photo of Sam, the GEO logo. Under the GEO logo in white text is “Local 6300 IFT/AFT AFL-CIO at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.” Below the photos in large white text is “Vote Zylstra and Froiland for GEO Officers at Large.” Beneath that text are three bullet points that read: defending our new contract, building institutional memory, accountability in leadership.
Anisa Codamon (she/her) & Adrianna Mirabal (she/her)
Candidacy Platform:
Our focus is to build a community and organize around issues important among women and femmes of color.
Develop a space to build a strong community among women and femmes of color within the union through a women’s caucus.
Identify and organize a working group around issues important to women and femmes of color, such as child care support for parents and gender-based violence.
Recruit and train women and femmes of color to have a stronger leadership presence within the union.
Establish and maintain a fund for members to receive support for reproductive justice, such as abortion care and gender-affirming health care.
Identify and create ways to address identified issues for women and femmes of color in the next contract bargaining cycle.
Bios:
Anisa Codamon (she/her)
Anisa is a 2nd year PhD student in Human Development and Family Studies studying the impact of historical trauma on marginalized family and community health outcomes, particularly among ethnic and immigrant families in the US. She has been a GEO member since Fall 2021, got more involved as an Illinois Federation-Teachers (IFT) Fellow over this spring semester, and is excited to have recently become an official steward for her department!
Adrianna Mirabal (she/her)
Adrianna is a 1st year master’s student in musicology studying how popular music culture interacts with identity, belonging, and community through queer and feminist frameworks. She believes that the knowledge she has gained through scholarship will inform her and Anisa’s platform–creating a strong community of women and femmes of color in the union–in a unique and valuable manner. She currently serves as a steward for her department and an executive board member for the Illinois Student Association of Music Scholars (ISAMS) a registered student organization.
Lesley Owens (she/her or they/them):
This blue and yellow flier has a picture of Lesley, a white person with blond hair, red lipstick, and clear-rimmed glasses, smiling in front of a book shelf. The text reads “Lesley Owens for GEO Officer at Large. For a union that serves its members. Why I’m running for officer at large: To foster two-way communication with every single member. To support stewards and rank & file organizers. To prioritize accessibility. For accountable and transparent leadership. GEO Organizer Since 2019. English Steward, 2020-Present; Co-President, 2021-2022; GMM Co-Coordinator, 2023. Vote April 27 & 28. Check your UIUC email address for a voting link! Platform questions? Email Lesley at LLesleyOwens@Gmail.com.”
Bio/Platform
Lesley Owens is a fifth-year PhD student in Writing Studies. They have been active in the union since 2019, organizing as a steward for the Department of English since 2020, serving as GEO co-president, and co-coordinating the union’s General Membership Meetings (GMMs) during the Spring 2023 semester.
As officer-at-large, Lesley will advocate for following the lead of membership. This means making sure that communications between union leadership and members are two-way conversations. Through improved communication, they will prioritize listening to the needs of members, diversifying the voices that lead union conversations, and achieving concrete wins. Their goal is to always bring more people into the work of the union.
They will do this work by supporting stewards and rank-and-file organizers, prioritizing accessibility to better reach our members, and being an accountable and transparent leader.
Co-Presidents: Michael Klajbor-Smith (he/him) and Daniel Rodriguez Arrizon (he/him)
Candidacy Platform:
The recent past has seen GEO deal with a number of unprecedented crises that have profoundly impacted its health, priorities, and organizing capacity. JANUS vs AFSCME, COVID-19, and most recently, contract bargaining, meant that GEO's work assumed a primarily reactive quality. Now that the dust has settled, Michael and Daniel plan on turning inwards and to think critically about how to proactively meet the needs of our members, both during a crisis and outside of it. As Co-Presidents, their platform shifts the priorities of the union towards long-term, sustainable practices so that GEO remains a powerful, healthy institution in all future organizing. They will run on the following pillars, and are eager to dialogue these with the next generation of leadership and membership -
Adjusting the GEO’s organizing strategies to ensure greater participation and stability during non-contract years
Building up GEO committees with a focus on creating more opportunities for direct democratic participation in decision-making
Ensuring that future generations of GEO members understand and are empowered to take on the work of the union.
Developing and executing strategies to unionize RA's and PGA's on campus in collaboration with IFT
Fostering a stronger GEO community and culture to ensure that the union affirms its commitment to diversity, inclusion, and empowerment
Bios:
Michael Klajbor-Smith (he/him), Communication
Michael is a third year PhD student in the Department of Communication. He has served as a steward since 2021, on the Bargaining Team through 2021 and 2022, and most recently as GEO Secretary for 2022 and 2023. In Michael's time in the union, he has led several initiatives for long-term success, both in contract drafting and in maintenance of GEO internal organizing tools. Before attending UIUC, Michael participated in several activist initiatives at University of Nevada-Reno, taking active roles in community justice projects and counter-protests of far-right propaganda on campus.
Daniel Rodriguez Arrizon (he/him), History
Daniel is a second year PhD student in the Department of History. He has served as a steward since Fall of 2022, worked building up membership as an IFT fellow, coordinated office visits and tabling in collaboration with GEO leadership, and currently helps facilitate the weekly GEO socials. Before attending UIUC, Daniel was an active member of UAW 2865. In November of 2019, he helped organize UC Santa Cruz’s historic wildcat strike and continued to withhold labor until August of 2020.
Co-Treasurers: Tony & Aaron
Candidacy Platform:
Increase funding sources other than member dues
Relying solely on dues puts our union in a precarious position where our finances fluctuate with membership. In the last year, we successfully expanded our funding sources to include new grants and programs from our parent union. This year we will expand on those programs and apply for and negotiate several new funding sources.
Develop a Mutual Aid/Hardship grant program
We need to reduce the impact of union dues on our most vulnerable members who sometimes struggle to pay rent and other basic necessities. A mutual aid program, in line many other labor unions, will help to meet the needs of struggling members and avoid dropping membership in the union.Organize and improve finance committee workflows
For at least the last five years, one co-treasurer has always returned to serve a second term, ensuring continuity of operations. We need to organize and document our workflows in case this is not always possible in the future.
Tony
Aaron
Secretary: Raymond La
Hi, I am a third year clinical-community psychology PhD student. I became active in GEO as psychology steward in Fall 2022 to help mobilize efforts to gain living conditions we deserve as graduate student workers, including guaranteed year-round healthcare and a living wage. During my time as psychology steward, I contributed toward data-related efforts such as the Spring 2023 bargaining survey as a community psychologist who understood the connection between data, community feedback, and mobilization. At the same time, the clinical psychologist in me is mindful of how data can contain sensitive information and wants to ensure that we respect the privacy and confidentiality of GEO members when we use and manage our data. As I reflect on these experiences, I came to realize that GEO will benefit in future years if we take a more proactive approach in maintaining and using data and I think I would be well-suited in the secretary position to lead GEO in this direction.
If elected as GEO secretary, my goals and vision under this role includes the following:
Streamline how GEO member data is saved and stored to further ensure that data is secured and easily usable when reports are needed in appropriate situations (e.g., data presented during bargaining sessions, reporting union membership percentage, etc.)
Evaluate how data is used and stored and whether additional policies and procedures are needed for best data security practices
Create new internal summary reports to help GEO committees make informed decisions within their roles in the union – most notably, Stewards Council, Solidarity Committee, and Communications
Work with GEO leadership on more consistent assessment of membership needs using a data-based approach (e.g., yearly surveys independent of bargaining years) and reporting these findings with general membership for confirming membership priorities
Develop a team/“mini committee” dedicated toward ad-hoc reports for organizing purposes to further empower committees into making positive change for graduate student workers
I look forward to potentially serving as secretary and help GEO’s continued efforts toward better living and working conditions.
Communications Co-Chairs: Evan Stoor & Cassidy Farrar
Candidacy Platform:
Establish procedures and protocols to support:
Committee longevity
Processes and structure that support GEO committee and leadership members
Flexible and quick turnaround on communications materials
Consistent and professional output of communications materials
Strong relations and clear communication tactics with general membership
Represent the GEO leadership team and committee members through all outreach materials and correspondence
Continue to build and strengthen bridges of communication with general membership and graduate students across the university as well as with organizations on and off campus
Maintain these lines of communication in order to adapt and serve general membership
Continue strong efforts to build a wider community for GEO members!
Bios:
Cassidy Farrar (she/her)
Cassidy Farrar is a first-year MA student and Graduate Instructor in Communication. Prior to attending UIUC, she received her BA in Intercultural Communication at Missouri State University in Springfield, MO. Born and raised in Illinois, Cassidy is invested in working on messaging within her local community. She was happy to apply her previous nonprofit and extracurricular communications experience as a member of the GEO Comms Committee in her first semester here. After a both exhausting and energizing bargaining year, she hopes to continue the development and staying power of the committee and to advance the larger goals of GEO in any way she can.
Evan Stoor
Evan Stoor is a first year PhD student and Graduate Assistant in Music Education. He previously received his Master of Music degree at Western Michigan University. A New Mexico native, he taught choral music in Albuquerque, NM before moving to the Midwest. Throughout his career, he has garnered valuable experience in both student affairs and organizational marketing and communications. Specifically, he collaborated with several music programs with their marketing and outreach efforts both at the local and national community levels. A fervent believer in the power of unions and community strength, Evan is excited at the opportunity to continue to serve the GEO in whatever capacity he is able to.
Grievance Co-Chairs: Dante Dabaghian & ben wallis
Our platform: 1) defend every win for members in the 2022-26 contract: get the total amount of back pay owed to grad workers; ensure that grad workers have easy access to new summer health care provisions; see to it that admin pays the proper fines for issuing late fall and spring Notices of Appointment; guarantee that disciplinary investigations conform to contract standards; defend new (and old!) protected categories with regards to non-discrimination; and much more; 2) recruit new Grievance Committee members—with the goal of tripling the committee’s size by the end of our term—and create a durable committee division of labor; 3) build grievance case history and case portfolio around key contract issues; 4) advertise members’ access to the grievance procedure and how they stand to benefit from utilizing it; 5) develop Grievance Committee’s institutional memory and best-practice standards via digital and physical archiving projects.
Solidarity Co-Chairs: Jessennya Hernandez & Soraya Cipolla
Candidacy Platform:
Strengthening GEO presence in the CU community and relationships with on campus and off campus orgs
Creating safe spaces and events for women, people of color, Black, and LGBTQIA+ people
Participating in environmental activism
Creating collaborative mutual aid events for poor, working class, and marginalized communities on and off campus
(Soraya left, Jessennya right)
Bios:
Soraya Cipolla is a 4th year PhD candidate in Italian Studies and Queer Studies. She is a GEO member since 2017, so she participated in the last GEO strike. She has been a steward for French and Italian since 2019 and she joined the Solidarity committee in 2022. She has been involved in various organizing initiatives such as International Working Women events and other bargaining related actions. Soraya has a life long committment to social justice. She has been part of various feminist and queer organizations in Italy (her home country) working for women’s empowerment, LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights. In Italy she also worked with students’ unions where she organized for student housing justice.
Jessennya Hernandez is a queer, brown, 7th year PhD candidate in Sociology and Gender and Women’s Studies. She has been a GEO member since 2016 and like Soraya, participated in the last GEO strike. She is also the current chair of the Solidarity committee and has focused on rebuilding its membership, sustainability, and CU presence. She has been committed to solidarity work through her co-founding and membership in mostly queer and femme-led collectives focused on mutual aid with houseless and poor communities; defunding and abolishing carceral systems; and transformative justice, in California and the CU.
In Solidarity,
Graduate Employees’ Organization
809 S. 5th St., Geneva Room
Champaign, IL 61820
Email: geo@uigeo.org