It was appropriate for the university to reconsider the changes to its health care policies in order to better accommodate the needs of graduate students employees. But this change of heart should not force the Graduate Student Organization to rule out the possibility of forming a union; it is an important conversation that should be had, and an option that should be carefully considered.

GSO is currently exploring the possibility of unionizing in response to the perceived lack of transparency from the university’s administration. A major decision that pushed GSO to consider unionization was the university’s new health care policy, which was announced last month. GSO felt that graduate students were not being valued during the university’s decision-making process. Then on Tuesday, in response to GSO’s concerns, the university decided to make an adjustment to the plan.

The university respecting the graduate student’s perspective and adjusting its policy is an acceptable response. The graduate student employees play a major role in the university, acting as a hybrid of students and teachers.

Under the new policy, graduate assistants will be allowed to stay on the university-sponsored employee health care plan until “a smooth transition is determined.” This differs from last month’s proposal, which would have forced graduate assistants to switch to the new student policy provided by SU that would cost graduate students more money and might not cover as many services as employee coverage.

In order to reach an agreement about a new health insurance policy for graduate employees the university and GSO will form a new Student Health Insurance Benefits Group. This partnership is a step in the right direction.


But it should not dissuade GSO from deliberating what would be the effect of forming a union. Instead, GSO should consider the needs of various graduate student employees. It would also be wise to reach out to other college campuses where graduate student employees are already unionized or other universities where non-unionized graduate student employees have happy working relationships with their respective university. GSO should not rush into the decision to form a union, and it should not make the decision hastily.

While GSO was successful in getting SU to re-evaluate its health care policy, it should not abandon the possibility of unionization. This step deserves the careful consideration and input from all graduate student employees, and should continue to be discussed in the future.