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Despite heavy snow on the first day of classes, over 160 people gathered outside Hendricks Chapel Tuesday morning to hear an update from Syracuse Graduate Employees United on its ongoing negotiations with Syracuse University.

Along with its affiliate Service Employees International Union Local 200United, SGEU organized the press conference after negotiations reached an “apex” last week, according to a Monday press release. Along with issues over pay, SGEU is working toward improved healthcare and further graduate employee protections, according to Tuesday’s press release.

After 21 hours of bargaining with SU’s administration over the past week, SGEU said SU proposed a starting salary on Friday that is approximately $10,000 below Syracuse’s minimum living wage, according to MIT’s living wage calculator.

“This offer, among others that the administration has brought to our bargaining committee, are an insult to us and to every worker on campus,” graduate student Anne Getz Eidelhoch said. “I love learning with and teaching my students and fostering their creativity and imagination … but I don’t think Syracuse has the same love for me.”

SGEU and SEIU Local 200United also wrote in Tuesday’s press release that the lack of a livable wage for graduate student workers at SU is “unacceptable at a school that reported a $1.9 billion endowment (in 2023).”

Currently, 97.3% of SU graduate employees make less than Syracuse’s living wage, SGEU wrote.

After SU graduate student workers voted to form a union in April, SGEU’s bargaining committee has been engaged in negotiations with the university. So far, SGEU has had 16 bargaining sessions with SU since they began in September.

“The offers that the administration has brought to our bargaining committee degrade the value of the work that we and all workers perform at the university,” graduate student Alexandra Scrivner said. “As humans, we deserve not only a living wage, but a wage and support that can allow us and our families to flourish.”

Joe Zhao | Asst. Photo Editor

A university spokesperson said the negotiations have been “productive” since they began in September.

“As the graduate students shared over the weekend, the University has been working in good faith throughout the negotiations since they began in September. The process has been productive and we are optimistic that a continued commitment to working together will result in a fair contract,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement to The D.O.

As of Tuesday, the university and SGEU have come to “tentative agreements” on sick and parental leave, academic freedom, intellectual property rights as well as protections from discrimination and harassment, according to Tuesday’s press release.

“It is our labor that enables SU to educate over 15,000 undergraduate students,” Ph.D. candidate Sara Jo Soldovieri said. “It is our labor that maintains SU’s prestigious R-1 research institute status. It is our labor that enables SU to win multi-million dollar grants. Despite all that … after months of negotiation, the administration gave us offers that neither reflect the extent of our work nor respect our labor.”

Cassaundra Guzman, a doctoral candidate who received both her master’s and Ph.D. at SU, said the weather did not impact her decision to attend the event.

“I think it’s of critical importance for anybody to show out — rain, sleet, sun — in order to get what we deem fair for us, whether that is higher pay, better benefits, more support for international students, which is severely lacking,” Guzman said. “I’m here to support all underrepresented and marginalized graduate students.”

Also in attendance were local members of Adjuncts United, the American Association of University Professors, the Undergraduate Labor Organization and the Buildings, Grounds and Food Service workers organized with SEIU Local 200United.

“If the administration won’t give us what we deserve, we’re not going to roll over,” Getz Eidelhoch said. “Syracuse works because we do. Isn’t it time we started getting treated like our labor is as valuable as it is?”

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article stated that over 75 people attended the event. In total, the event had over 160 attendees. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on January 17, 2024 at 12:23 am

Contact Katie: [email protected] | @katie_mcclellan