History department first to back GEO
Teachers worried about upcoming strike vote and results if GEO is not heard

by Sarah Schiltz
Daily Illini reporter

The University's history department passed a resolution endorsing the Graduate Employees Organization on Wednesday with the hope that University administrators and graduate employees will find a solution to the GEO's eight-year battle for union recognition.

About 30 history faculty members unanimously passed the resolution, said department chair James Barrett. The resolution asks the administration to bargain with the GEO.

"I think that there is, in general, a lot of sympathy for grad students for the amount of work they do," Barrett said. "The solution seems to be for the University to talk to the graduate employees."

The history department is one of more than 100 departments on campus, but it is the only department that has officially endorsed the GEO, said University spokesman Bill Murphy. He added that administrators might be influenced to compromise if more departments support the GEO.

"It is part of the administration's job to listen to and consider the opinions of employees," Murphy said.

Protests in recent weeks, including a 20-hour sit-in by GEO members, have prompted another discussion of graduate employees' rights to unionize. The University has consistently refused to talk to GEO representatives, saying that talking to the group would be the same as recognizing the group as a union.

In a 1997 union election, 64 percent of graduate employees voted to have the GEO represent them. In a March student government election referendum, 77 percent of voters, including undergraduates, supported the GEO's right to bargain.

Barrett said graduate employees, who receive tuition waivers and monthly stipends, do a large portion of the work at the University, but are still underpaid. The history department worries that graduate employees will strike soon if administrators do not talk to them.

"We had the undergrads in mind when we passed this," Barrett said.

The resolution, which encouraged other departments to show support for the GEO, will be forwarded to other departments.

"I would hope other faculty would sign on," said Toby Higbie, a GEO organizer.

Higbie said the GEO would like to compromise with the University to prevent a disruption of classes.

"(The history department) realizes that the way the University administration is handling this has the potential to create a disruption," Higbie said.

The department has been supportive of graduate employees in the past, he said.