Memo to the Community from Jacob Lew and David McLaughlin

SUBJECT: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GRADUATE STUDENTS AND THE UNIVERSITY

TO: THE NYU COMMUNITY

FROM: EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT JACOB LEW AND PROVOST DAVID MCLAUGHLIN

DATE: JUNE 16, 2005

In the summer of 2004, the National Labor Relations Board reversed its 2000 decision regarding NYU and reaffirmed its long-standing precedent that graduate assistants are students, not employees, and therefore not eligible to organize under the National Labor Relations Act. The University has over the years consistently embraced this paradigm. NYU was, and continues to be, the only private university in the country with unionized graduate students. This ruling removed the University's legal obligation to negotiate a new contract when the current one expires on August 31, 2005.

The University Leadership Team—comprised of deans and senior administrators—has spent considerable time reviewing the nature of the relationship between our graduate students and the University, particularly the intermediary role of the UAW as the collective bargaining representatives of our graduate assistants. These deliberations have been informed by campus-wide conversation on this matter.

The collective bargaining process, while challenging at times, identified issues of importance to our graduate students and produced valuable improvements. Over the past few months, graduate students, undergraduates, faculty members, and public officials have offered public displays of support for the benefits the GA union has yielded for our community. In addition, some faculty members have signed a petition and sent letters supporting renewal of the contract with the UAW.

At the same time, many members of our community have expressed deep reservations about the impact of the collective bargaining framework on our academic programs. These reservations include the difficulty of reconciling a non-academic intermediary between faculty mentor and student, and the introduction of the one-size-fits-all approach—traditional in the labor context—into a University that values distinctive scholarship and prides itself on the diversity of its graduate programs. Moreover, they worry about a pattern of grievances filed by the union and taken to arbitration which, if decided in favor of the UAW, would undermine the critical role of the University's faculty in making academic judgments. And they worry about the UAW's pursuit of these matters after committing during the last round of bargaining that they would not pursue such academic areas.

In addition to seeking general input from the University community, the Provost specifically invited advice and guidance from two committees on which a number of our faculty leaders sit. Both committees, the Faculty Advisory Committee on Academic Priorities and a joint University Senate committee, which also includes students and administrators, offered a number of important recommendations to support NYU's graduate students, but have advised against continuing with a collective bargaining approach with the UAW (http://www.nyu.edu/provost/ga/ap042605.pdf and http://www.nyu.edu/provost/ga/saacreport.pdf).

We had intended to reach a conclusion and announce our recommended decision in late May. However, the UAW approached us, and we met with their representatives on May 26th. At that meeting, the UAW expressed an understanding of our concerns about grievances relating to the academic management of the University and asked us to delay issuing a proposed decision to consider alternative approaches to accomplishing the letter and spirit of the agreement we had made in 2001. The goal would be to find new language that would offer better protections for the University's academic management rights in light of the failure of the union to abide by the original commitment.

We delayed making a decision, and we have spent significant hours since then discussing the UAW's approach to us. Our original contract contained strong language about the fundamental academic management rights of our faculty; indeed, we thought it was ironclad. Without this agreement at that time, we would not have proceeded with the contract; we would have appealed the NLRB decision through the courts. However, it did not work, and we were surprised and discouraged to confront grievances that sought to undermine those academic management rights. We have come to believe that it is not possible to write new language that can give us any greater assurances and prevent the UAW from pursuing these grievances were we to negotiate a new agreement with this union.

After considering this matter and the input from the community, the University Leadership Team offers the following proposed decision: that the University should continue to extend support and benefits to GAs/TAs, but that we should no longer use a union as an intermediary with our students; accordingly, the University should not negotiate a new contract with the UAW.

We will now begin a 30-day period of notice and comment, as outlined below in this memorandum, to permit all in our community to react to this proposed determination and its implementation.

Building on the Positive Impact of Unionization

Our experience with unionization provided important lessons for our University. The experience gave graduate assistants a strong collective voice, providing the University with a mechanism to better understand their desires, needs, and concerns. With or without a new union contract, we must not only sustain and continue to improve the gains resulting from the contract—such as stipends and healthcare—but also address other issues of importance to all graduate students: ensuring a strong graduate student voice in University issues, clarifying the privileges and responsibilities of all graduate students, and providing fair and transparent processes by which grievances can be resolved. We must honor the spirit that propelled our students towards unionization and put in place a set of meaningful processes to build the entire community's faith in the proposition that the University values, respects, and welcomes our student members.

In moving forward, we will be guided by the general principles expressed by the Faculty Advisory Committee on Academic Priorities in its report (which can be found at http://www.nyu.edu/provost/ga/ap042605.pdf); namely, that we should commit the University in its relationship with graduate students to:

1. the highest possible standards of teaching and research;
2. competitive and predictable financial aid, health insurance, and other support to enable students to concentrate on their academic work and flourish at NYU;
3. honest and open discussions in good faith on all matters of common concern and processes that ensure fair resolutions of disputes; and
4. the opportunity for graduate students, individually and collectively, to have a voice in the educational issues that directly affect them.

The joint group of the University Senate Academic Affairs Committee and the Senate Executive Committee expressed similar sentiments (the report can be found at http://www.nyu.edu/provost/ga/saacreport.pdf). In its summary recommendation, the Committees said:

A substantial majority of the Committee suggests that the University cease to recognize the UAW when the current contract expires and not enter into collective bargaining. We have come to this recommendation despite the agreement by a majority of the committee that unionization has yielded some positive results for GA/TAs. While on these points the members were not in total accord, the Committee stands together in unanimously recommending that the positive effects of unionization be maintained...

Accordingly, in announcing our proposed decision, we offer the following set of recommendations, which honor this counsel and lay the foundation for the relationship between the University and its graduate assistants that we seek for the future.

Financial Aid Packages & Practices

Incoming and returning graduate students have expressed the strong desire to know what their financial aid packages will be, and our campus-wide conversations have underscored the importance of not only clarity but predictability in the graduate financial aid packages. In support of our continuing effort to attract the best graduate students, our intent is to make our stipends among the highest in the nation. We therefore offer the following proposals for graduate students (excluding those in the School of Law and the School of Medicine):

• Stipends: Every GA fully supported by NYU will receive an increase in their annual stipend of $1,000 per year for the next three years. Over three years, this will raise the minimum base stipend for doctoral students from $18,000 per year to $21,000, and for master's students from $13,000 to $16,000 (every GA who is currently receiving more than the base will also receive an increase of $1,000 per year in each of the next three years). This is in addition, of course, to whatever tuition remission a graduate assistant receives from his or her school.
• Predictability: We will adopt a process designed to provide a horizon of predictability about stipend levels that would be unattainable in the context of a union contract or, to our knowledge, at any other private institution in the nation. Beginning in spring 2006 and in the spring of each subsequent year, the University leadership will announce the minimum increases for an additional year, producing a continuing — or "evergreen"— knowledge of stipend increases for the next three years.
• Healthcare: As is currently the case, the University will continue to pay 100% of the cost of each GA's student health insurance premiums.
• Practices: The University has long had a set of practices that relate to assistantships, which were codified in the agreement with the UAW. We expect those practices to remain in force. These include:
  • Graduate Assistants will receive timely letters of appointment, clearly identifying the duration of the appointment and the stipend amount. Should the appointment be cancelled through no fault of the graduate assistant, the graduate assistant will be assigned to a comparable position for the duration of the appointment;
  • Graduate Assistants who are required to enroll in any course, including ESL training, will have tuition and fees for the course waived;
  • Graduate Assistants will be paid bi-weekly, and in a timely manner;
  • Graduate Assistants will have access to their records as graduate assistants under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act;
  • Graduate Assistants will have reasonable access to desk space, telephone and photocopy equipment, as necessary to carry out their responsibilities;
  • Graduate Assistants required to attend pre-semester training or meetings will be compensated for attendance;
  • Graduate Assistants will be reimbursed, on the same basis as faculty, for authorized and necessary travel and meal expenses;
  • The Faculty and Staff Assistance Program will be available to graduate assistants on the same basis as faculty; Requests by Graduate Assistants for a paid leave of reasonable duration due to illness, religious observance, or bereavement due to the death of an immediate family member will not be unreasonably denied;
  • Graduate Assistants will have the same rights provided by law for military leave as are available to employees;
  • Graduate Assistants will not have any reduction of stipend due to service on jury duty; and
  • Graduate Assistant appointments are normally expected to average no more than twenty (20) hours per week.

Graduate Student Voice within the NYU Community

Below you will find proposals on a set of rights and responsibilities to better define the relationship between graduate students and the University, as well as a graduate assistant grievance process. Both of these proposals are intermediary; they will not be final until they have been worked on in collaboration with graduate students themselves. A great deal of work needs to be done over the coming months to complete them, requiring substantial graduate student input. That necessity leads directly to another crucial issue: establishing a robust and credible mechanism for graduate student voice.

The UAW gave those graduate assistants covered by the contract a collective voice in interacting with the University. All graduate students now must have a forceful alternative. The Joint University Senate Committee highlighted this need in its report (http://www.nyu.edu/provost/ga/saacreport.pdf).

To give voice to graduate student concerns, a credible, representative group of NYU graduate students should be constituted to interact with the University for the purpose of working on the final grievance and rights and responsibilities policies, which may include those who have been actively involved in graduate student issues in the past. To gather such a representative group, we would propose a graduate student working group consisting of the following:

• One member from each School, appointed by that School's Graduate Student Council;
• Two members from the Student Senators Council, chosen by the student senators themselves; and
• Five at-large members, appointed by a subcommittee of the Student Senators Council from nominations they request and receive from the University community in general—including from the Deans, from graduate student groups, and from self nominations.

This group will be formed as soon as possible and will meet with the University's provost at the beginning of the school year.

In addition, the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs will be charged with, along with his/her existing duties, overseeing graduate student and graduate assistant matters, thus providing a liaison for graduate students to ensure that their issues and concerns remain at the forefront among the most senior leadership of the University.

Graduate Student Rights and Responsibilities

Graduate students rightly feel a need to have their role in the University community—as graduate students and as GAs—well-defined.

From the University's standpoint, the general principle is unwavering: all graduate students, whether or not they are GAs, are students of the University. However, as our GAs carry out their duties, many of them, understandably, also feel like employees. There needs to be clarity about their role, their rights, and their responsibilities. We must ensure that their work as GAs is related to their course of study, that they are treated with the respect and dignity accorded colleagues, and that they are accountable to NYU, just as NYU is accountable to each of them.

Every successful community must form some kind of social compact. In proposing a set of rights and responsibilities for graduate students (the full draft can be seen at www.nyu.edu/provost/resources.information/ga/rightsandresponsibilities.html), the goal is to give clarity to and achieve agreement on the nature of their relationship to the University. This draft compact contains ideas and priorities found in graduate student compacts and similar documents at other large research universities. The rights and responsibilities document, and its summarized version below, encompasses what we expect to be the minimum rights and privileges to which graduate students are entitled; the graduate student working group may use this list as the starting point for a collaborative dialogue—involving graduate students, faculty, and the University Leadership Team—about the creation of such a compact at NYU and about how it might be modified or augmented to achieve the final product. In the meantime, among the rights for graduate students at NYU enumerated in the proposal are:

• Being protected from discrimination on the basis of criteria inappropriate to academic evaluation
• Ensuring freedom of intellectual inquiry
• Being accurately informed about program requirements, responsibilities, payments, teaching responsibilities, and the availability of a grievance procedure
• Being provided with constructive mentoring and being appropriately acknowledged for scholarly contribution
• Being free from performing tasks unrelated to their academic programs and professional development

Reciprocally, among others, the following responsibilities for graduate students are:

• To conduct themselves professionally; to adhere to appropriate rules, regulations, and laws; and to exercise their rights in a way that does not infringe on others or on the operation of the University
• To maintain integrity and honesty in learning, teaching, scholarship, and professional development
• To communicate regularly with advisors and others about their progress, and to fulfill degree requirements in a timely manner
• To acknowledge the contributions of advisors and others in their presentations and publications

A Grievance Process for Graduate Assistants

Graduate education is a mentoring process. Graduate students are, to a great extent, the next generation of faculty colleagues and intellectual leaders of our society; the culture we seek to encourage is one that values and emphasizes collegiality. Graduate students are entitled to a set of rights—as proposed above—among which, particularly during their assignments as GAs, is the right to expect that they will be treated appropriately, professionally, and respectfully. When they are not, they have the right to a procedure that provides a fair hearing to resolve disputes.

The final version of this grievance procedure must be developed in accordance with our normal processes and in collaboration with graduate students. Accordingly, the grievance procedure offered here (see www.nyu.edu/provost/resources.information/ga/gagrievance.html for full text)—which is available to all GAs on matters relating to their assistantships—is interim (in place for the 2005-06 academic year), until the final grievance procedure, to take shape after full consultation and approval over the next year.

Having said that, we propose the following basic elements of a new grievance process:

• School Facilitator: School Facilitators will be appointed by the dean of each school, whose role is to assist those with grievances navigate the process and ensure grievance procedure's timely and smooth functioning.
• Facilitator: The president of the University will appoint a University Facilitator, whose role is to assist those with grievances navigate the process and ensure grievance procedure's timely and smooth functioning.
• Informal Resolution: As an initial step, the graduate assistant would, with the help of a facilitator, if desired, attempt to resolve the matter with the individual with whom he or she is having the dispute (the respondent).
• Formal Complaint: When a grievance is not resolved informally, a graduate assistant may submit a written complaint to the School or University Facilitator, the respondent, and the dean of the school in which the student is enrolled, stating what University policy has been violated. The dean or his or her designee will meet with the parties to attempt a resolution, and will issue a written decision 15 days after the meetings are completed.
• Appeal: A matter not resolved by the dean's office may be appealed to the Graduate Assistant Review Panel—consisting of a tenured faculty member, a GA, and a University administrator (none from the school involved in the grievance)—by written notice. The University Facilitator will aid the GA in this process. The panel will issue a recommendation within 30 days, and the provost's office will review the recommendation of the panel and issue a final written decision on the grievance within 15 days.
• External Review: The president of the University will designate a panel of experienced academics from outside NYU to evaluate the effectiveness of this procedure after the first year and periodically thereafter and report publicly to the University community.

Towards a New Relationship with our Graduate Students

Just as the period of unionization required all of us to adjust to a new paradigm in how we viewed our relationship with GAs, so, too, will the period we now enter.

Under the agreement with the UAW, that relationship was governed by a contract, the rule of law, and the decisions of arbitrators. Though we believe the disadvantages of this structure outweighed its advantages, we also know that it provided clarity on certain issues and furnished an authoritative way of resolving disputes. In the absence of a contract, we will rely on a new paradigm, one that will be based on:

• a commitment to sustaining and advancing the GA's current benefits
clearly understood expectations on both sides
• an ability to plan predictably for the future
• a new mechanism—to be jointly developed—for the will and concerns of graduate students to be expressed
• a new mechanism—to be jointly worked out—to address grievances and resolve disputes
• a shared commitment to academic excellence at NYU
• and, ultimately, good faith and trust

Trust is not an easy thing to build; it takes time. The University proceeds from this perspective: we value our graduate students and we seek to have the best graduate students in the nation. We are committed to their academic success, and we know we cannot advance as an institution without a vibrant and talented community of graduate students. We hope they will recognize our sincerity, and that this will serve as a basis for building trust. In the end, such trust will yield the strongest possible bonds and relationship between our institution and its graduate students.

University Dialogue: Notice and Comment

We are a large and diverse community of scholars with a broad range of views, and it is important to us to provide an opportunity for members of the NYU community to comment upon this communication.

Those wishing to send responses in writing about this communication may send e-mails to ga.dialogue@nyu.edu within the next 30 days. The submissions may be publicly released, but if so, will be done without the signature of the submitter.

There are many elements to this decision, and we believe their final form will benefit from members of the University weighing in on them. There will be a town hall this summer open to members of the NYU community to provide yet another opportunity for broad University dialogue.

We will announce a final decision from the University Leadership Team in late July. In the meantime, we look forward to hearing from you.