While the Penn State administration has made it clear that it does not agree with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board decision that graduate students on traineeships and assistantships have union rights, members of its faculty are backing the students they interact with day in and day out.

Seventy-one Penn State faculty members signed a letter penned to President Eric Barron, vice president and provost Nick Jones, and graduate school dean Regina Vasilatos-Younken ahead of the upcoming graduate student union election — supporting the efforts the Coalition of Graduate Employees (CGE) are making to unionize.

“We write as your colleagues — and in a spirit of collegiality — to ask that Penn State drop its needless and counterproductive opposition to the efforts of the CGE,” the letter reads.

Penn State’s position is that it views those in its graduate school as students pursuing an education instead of employees. The administration has expressed that the individual nature of graduate student education is not conducive to a union, and in turn would harm students attempting to create a more individual graduate experience.

The letter references Michigan’s graduate student union, GEO, and how it has not changed the students’ ability to pursue their education.

“In that time, GEO has not harmed faculty-student relations in any way, and certainly has not prevented Michigan from maintaining its status as one of the nation’s most distinguished public universities,” the letter says.

You can read the full letter below.

Dear President Barron, Provost Jones, and Dean Vasilatos-Younken,

As you know, on February 9, the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board ruled that Penn State graduate students have the right to form a union. Accordingly, in the near future, the Coalition of Graduate Employees will participate in an election to be held by the PLRB.

We write as your colleagues– and in a spirit of collegiality– to ask that Penn State drop its needless and counterproductive opposition to the efforts of the CGE. The right of graduate students at public universities to vote for unionization and engage in collective bargaining is widely recognized, and we believe there is nothing to be gained by pretending that our graduate students are not also employees of Penn State who do valuable work– in research, teaching, and service– for the University.

We note for example that at the University of Michigan, graduate students formed the Graduate Employees’ Organization in 1974– more than forty years ago. In that time, GEO has not harmed faculty-student relations in any way, and certainly has not prevented Michigan from maintaining its status as one of the nation’s most distinguished public universities. Since we benchmark against Michigan in so many ways, perhaps it is worth considering whether we might not emulate them in this respect as well.

We therefore hope that Penn State will honor the results of the vote, whatever it may be, and we pledge to continue to work together to make Penn State the best university it can be.

Sincerely yours,

Michael Berube, English
Gary Adler, Sociology
Hester Blum, English
Dan Letwin, History
Nan Elizabeth Woodruff, African American Studies and History
Matt Jordan, Media Studies
Janet Lyon, English
Gail Boldt, Education
Milton Cole, Physics
Cynthia Young, African American Studies and English
Gabeba Baderoon, Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies and African Stu
Mary Bellman, Labor and Employment Relations
Mark Gough, Labor and Employment Relations
Maria Beamond, Labor and Employment Relations
Antone Aboud, Labor and Employment Relations
John Marsh, English
Doug Allen, Labor and Employment Relations
Katherine Maich, Labor and Employment Relations
Rebecca Tarlau, College of Education
Alexis R. Santos-Lozada, Sociology
Léa Pessin, Population Research Institute
Charles L Lumpkins, Labor and Employment Relations
Elaine Farndale, Labor and Employment Relations
Derek Fox, Astronomy & Astrophysics
Kimberley Thomas, Geography
Sarah Damaske, Labor and Employment Relations
Amira Rose Davis, History and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Jonathan E. Brockopp, History and Religious Studies
Alan Derickson, Labor and Employment Relations
Nicolás Sacco, Population Research Institute
Sarah K. Rich, Art History
Elizabeth Kadetsky, English
Jonathan E. Abel, Comparative Literature and Asian Studies
Michelle Rodino-Colocino, Film-Video and Media Studies, Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies
Randall Newnham, Political Science
Charles E. Jones, Arts & Humanities Library
Paul M. Kellermann, English
Esther Prins, Lifelong Learning and Adult Education
Nicholas J. Enoch, Labor and Employment Relations
Matthew P. McAllister, Film-Video and Media Studies, Communication Arts and Sciences, & Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
John D. Holst, Lifelong Learning and Adult Education
Tim McNellis, Plant Pathology & Environmental Microbiology
Glenn Palmer, Political Science
Daniel George, Humanities, College of Medicine
Erica Frankenberg, Education Policy Studies
Mike Eracleous, Astronomy & Astrophysics
Rena Torres Cacoullos, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese
Samar Farage, Sociology
Marc Friedenberg, Information Science & Technology
Paul Whitehead, Labor and Employment Relations
Carrie Jackson, German and Linguistics
Gary King, Biobehavioral Health
Gretchen Kuldau, Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology
David Gamson, Education Policy Studies
Kai Schafft, Education Policy Studies
Erik Solevad Nielsen, Sociology
Peter Buckland, Penn State’s Sustainability Institute