Kelsey Volkmann, The Examiner
2008-02-12 08:00:00.0
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BALTIMORE -

Graduate students at Maryland’s public universities say they want to unionize to negotiate better salaries and workloads.

Many struggle to pay rent as they take classes, teach undergraduates and conduct research for faculty.

Now, following the lead of other states, Maryland lawmakers are considering legislation that would grant collective-bargaining rights to graduate students and adjunct professors at Maryland’s public universities.

“Nobody’s trying to get rich off of being a graduate student, but it has to be at least affordable,” said Laura Moore, president of Graduate Student Government at the University of Maryland, College Park, and a master’s candidate in entomology.

Stipends for grad students at the University of Maryland average $13,826 after a 4.5 percent increase last year. But rents for graduate student housing also climbed 9 percent, and tuition rose 4.5 percent.

Half of students at U.Md.’s Ph.D. program drop out, and Moore said that shows students are leaving because they can’t afford to continue.

University officials oppose the legislation, arguing that graduate teaching assistants are students, not employees.

“It’s an educational relationship with the university, not an economic relationship,” said Patrick J. Hogan, lobbyist for the University System of Maryland.

Moore countered: “If we stop working, we stop getting paid. That’s an employer-employee relationship.”

But others, including some of the 3,000 graduate students at University of Maryland Baltimore County, oppose unionization.

“We have a really good relationship with our administration, and if we start unionizing, that would create antagonistic negotiations,” said Evan Perlman, a Ph.D. public policy student and vice president of external affairs for UMBC’s Graduate Student Association.

“Now, we have the luxury of being able to walk into the president’s or provost’s or dean’s office with concerns.”

Several public research institutions, including University of Michigan, the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Illinois, have graduate student unions.

kvolkmann@baltimoreexaminer.com