By Bonnie Delaune and Greg Francois

It’s no secret that as SIPA students, we often feel isolated from the rest of Columbia  University. We have our own organizations, attend our own classes, and rarely find ourselves in any building other than IAB. It is surprisingly easy for the two years to pass without making a connection to the rest of the university.

Unfortunately, this has led to some of us at SIPA to be unaware of an important struggle for workers’ rights at Columbia, a struggle that has included previous generations of SIPA students. Since February 2019, the bargaining committee of the Graduate Workers of Columbia (GWC) has been negotiating with the Columbia administration for a union contract that would provide better pay, benefits, and protections to student workers whose work is related to teaching or research, including students  at SIPA. These negotiations have been possible only because of the generations of student workers, union organizers, and supporters who have waged campaigns for nearly two decades to fight for the rights of student workers everywhere, including a highly successful strike at Columbia in April 2018.

For us two as SIPA student workers, this fight became very personal in the fall of 2019. Having been assigned a teaching assistant position, Bonnie was abruptly notified in late August 2019 that the class, and thus also her assignment, had been cancelled. She heard this not from the administration, but rather other students who realized that the class had been cancelled while trying to register for it. Only last minute was she offered a somewhat suitable replacement.

Greg was assigned to  a teaching assistant position at the Earth Institute. Several weeks into the fall semester, he and his co-TAs encountered what far too many student workers at Columbia face: missing paychecks. They were given no notice and little explanation, and although now they have been paid for the fall, they have yet to be paid by the Earth Institute for their work in the first two months of the spring semester.

Our experiences showed us how precarious it is to be a student worker without the protections of a union contract. Last-minute loss of employment or not being paid on time can easily mean not being able to pay for basic necessities, like rent or food, in one of the world’s most expensive cities.

When such problems are faced by student workers year after year with little redress, the resulting low pay, poor benefits, and inadequate protections threaten the very possibility of obtaining a graduate education at all, especially for those from backgrounds that academia has historically marginalized.

According to SIPA itself, the total cost of attendance including cost of living is a shocking 87,401 dollars per year. Especially for students without independent wealth or other financial resources, the opportunity to work in our second year is key to making a SIPA education slightly more affordable. But instead of ensuring jobs with fair compensation to make its education accessible to all, in 2018 the SIPA administration eliminated a tax-free waiver and cut our pay across the board by approximately 40 percent, without even notifying us. They claimed that funds were diverted to increase financial aid, but that purported increase in aid has  not been made transparent. The consequences are clearly that those who come from less privileged socioeconomic backgrounds are further shut out. Instead of cutting pay and funneling millions of dollars to one of the country’s most anti-worker law firms, the Columbia administration should guarantee adequate and timely pay that gives student workers financial stability.

And compensation is just one factor among many, in the fight for a union contract that will determine whether SIPA and Columbia will be open to all. Not being provided adequate healthcare, exacerbated by the fall 2019 elimination of the higher coverage 100 plan, means that student workers with additional medical needs are excluded. The administration should instead make the university less ableist through comprehensive care that includes access to dental, vision, and gender-affirming care.

Furthermore, not having real recourse against discrimination and harassment makes it more difficult for those from historically marginalized identities and communities to feel welcome and succeed. The administration must end its appalling record on this issue by agreeing to a strong union grievance policy with access to neutral arbitration that will ensure justice for survivors.

Rather than trying to exclude all non-PhD student workers from the contract as in the status quo,, the administration should acknowledge the fact that Master’s student workers, including those at SIPA, are critical to this university’s teaching and research.

Thus, the fight for a fair contract is about not only who is granted the opportunity to learn, teach, and research at SIPA and more broadly Columbia as a student worker, but also who will have the opportunity to become a part of the next generation of policymakers and academics. By agreeing to a fair contract, the administration can better guarantee that everyone has a fair opportunity at a graduate education and the opportunities it offers.

It’s with these demands that we urge all student workers and eligible voters of SIPA to join their colleagues from across the university in voting yes to authorize the GWC bargaining committee, and if necessary, to call a strike to demonstrate to the administration just how essential our labor is. A strong vote will make it clear that a program that has recently fundraised $108 million, located within a university with an endowment of almost $11 billion dollars, whose president is paid millions of dollars, must provide fair compensation, benefits, and protections for its student workers. A strong vote will bolster our bargaining committee by proving that thousands of student workers give them voice, power, and leverage at the table for a strong contract. We can show that we are committed to making SIPA and Columbia truly more inclusive for all.

Bonnie Delaune and Greg Francois are second-year SIPA student workers.