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Meister Supports Striking Graduate Employees
November 16, 2009
Jacob Meister, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, rallied behind striking graduate employees at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Monday, imploring the UIUC Board of Trustees to grant the student employees’ request and secure tuition waivers.
“Bottom line, this boils down to how we best prepare today’s college students to become the workforce of tomorrow,” Meister said. “And by eliminating tuition waivers for graduate employees at the University of Illinois, the Board of Trustees seriously undermines its ability to attract the most qualified and passionate teachers, depriving undergraduate students of the instruction and mentoring they need to grow into job-ready members of our community.”
Tuition waivers allow graduate and teaching assistants to attend the school at reduced or no cost.
Meister applauded the members of the Graduate Employees Organization, American Federation of Teachers/Illinois Federation of Teachers Local 6300, AFL-CIO, for standing together and fighting for tuition waiver guarantees, underscoring the importance they play in ensuring graduate assistantships remain competitive and fair.
“Graduate employees, most often graduate students themselves, depend on tuition waivers to supplement the rising costs of a post-graduate degree,” Meister said. “Without tuition waivers the University will significantly limit access to post-graduate degree programs and marginalize the social and economic diversity of their faculty.”
