Grateful but Undeterred
In light of a renewed push for graduate student union rights and the NLRB’s upcoming decision on the matter, Columbia University has announced new graduate student benefits, including drastic pay and stipend increases for teaching and research assistants. John H. Coatsworth, Columbia’s provost, claims that these improved benefits are a result of collaboration with the Graduate Student Advisory Council and other student groups on campus. Columbia has been steadily improving its graduate students’ working conditions and wages over time, seemingly responding to heightened demands for collective bargaining rights while maintaining its firm position against graduate student union rights. Regardless of the university’s pushes to appease graduate students, the push for union rights continues on Columbia’s campus.
See "Grateful but Undeterred", Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed, July 22, 2016