GEO Stands in Solidarity with Northwestern University Students
The Graduate Employees’ Organization at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (GEO IFT/AFT Local 6300) stands in solidarity with all graduate and undergraduate students at Northwestern University, who have called on their administration to adjust tuition and fees to more accurately reflect the decline in quality of their education and loss of access to facilities as the university transitions to online learning in response to COVID-19. This global pandemic has put an enormous strain on our educational institutions and students have recognized this, acting in good faith to work through disruptive changes, but universities do not want to recognize those same students when they call for fair adjustments to education costs. It is imperative, now more than ever, that students and workers not be needlessly harmed by changes to our universities.
Undergraduate and graduate programs alike are being negatively impacted. For example, the MFA in Documentary Media program promises access to its “first-class facilities and equipment [that] include professional cameras, lighting and sound equipment, computer labs, a top-tier soundstage, film studios with 180-degree cycloramas, full lighting grids, and an extensive film library”, yet it will be impossible for enrolled students to take advantage of these resources under current conditions. Similarly, the MFA in Acting program advertises access to “brand-new facilities in Abbott Hall” which are now closed, and the MA program in Sound Arts and Industries promises students access to “Northwestern’s state-of-the-art sound facilities, which include a newly renovated sound production lab, multiple sound editing stations, [and] cutting-edge audiology facilities.” These facilities are longer accessible, but graduate students are being asked to pay the same tuition and fees as before. For students already enrolled in the program, this amounts to little more than a bait-and-switch in which some have already invested tens of thousands of dollars and are now being told they can either pay for something they did not agree to, or drop out with nothing to show for their time and effort.
The situation is not unique to these programs, or even Northwestern. Universities across the country are proceeding as though dramatic changes in the quality of education they provide need not be reflected in reductions to already excessive and burdensome tuition and fees, including here at UIUC: our administration’s decisions to charge the usual summer health insurance fees, and even move ahead with a 33% premium fee increase scheduled for the fall, are unconscionable in a time of unprecedented precarity where reliable access to healthcare is a matter of the highest priority. It is imperative that we engage in shows of solidarity with students around the nation who have a right to quality education and to stay safe and healthy under these extenuating circumstances, and GEO stands with all who protest these unfair practices. We encourage workers and allies everywhere to sign a petition to have Northwestern lower their tuition and fees for the upcoming spring quarter.
The Graduate Employees’ Organization, AFT/IFT Local 6300, AFL-CIO, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, represents approximately 2,700 Teaching and Graduate Assistants on the UIUC Campus. In November 2009 and in February 2018, over 1,000 GEO members and allies participated in a strike to secure a fair contract and more accessible UIUC campus. With an active presence in the community, the GEO continues to work for high-quality and accessible public education in Illinois.
For more information, please contact geo@uigeo.org. More information can also be found on GEO’s website at www.uiucgeo.org.
Twitter: @geo_uiuc
Facebook: @uigeo @geosolcomm
Instagram: @geo_uiuc