Catherwood LibraryILR School

After nearly a year of failed contract negotiations between graduate student workers and university administration at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Graduate Employees’ Organization union has declared a strike for February 26. The main issue of contention throughout the talks, which began in spring of 2017 and continued through the expiry of the previous contract in August until now, has been university officials’ plan to introduce flexibility into their tuition waivers for graduate student employees. Union members claim that a majority of their members can only afford to attend school due to their tuition waivers and that, without these, none of the graduate students would make enough money to pay tuition and survive. In addition, union members assert that U of I is attempting to create a system in which graduate students must compete with each other to earn tuition waivers, creating an allegedly dystopian environment. U of I claims that the change in contract language will not negatively impact student employees and their tuition waivers, but the workers themselves remain skeptical and believe organized action will show their steadfastness.