This weekend was exhilarating! Almost 100 cars with grad students and friends circled around Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy’s house on Sunday 3pm, honking their presence and presenting their demands with some incredible signs! Pre-event press coverage here and here. Check out videos and pictures on the Facebook page.

As of yesterday, the coalition demands have been officially sent to Swamy! Worked on by a handful of hardworking grad students (big props to Ragini Jha and Swati Birla on this) and GEO staff, passed by GSS and endorsed by 807 people who signed the petitions. We collectively call on the Chancellor to respond to our demands by 5pm on Thursday April 23rd.
[Read the email with this ultimatum here.]

Escalations

All-members strategizing meetings
  • Membership Meetings: We have two GEO Membership Meetings coming up very soon, so we can put our heads together and make a further escalation plan that will win our demands!
  • These are crucial meetings to attend. Management has made a counter to our proposal that everybody get a payout for Spring Break: Michael Eagen, their lead negotiator, said that people should take their vacation later in the semester, and if they can’t, offered an unsatisfactory 25% payout. We need to discuss a response to this counter.
Next impact Bargaining session…

…is this Friday April 24th, 3pm-5pm [link here] See you there! Management has gotten used to seeing 70-strong GEO members in attendance, let’s not disappoint them this time.

collaborate with other members

There is a Slack workspace geomembers where you can join and get involved in working on ideas for escalation with other rank and file members [see here for a guide to using our Slack]. Remember, many hands make light work! Folks who have been working non-stop on the coalition activities need help. Here are things that are in the works and need volunteers. These will also be some of the topics we cover in Membership Meeting this week.

  • Mail-In Action: In prep. Send (email and snail mail) copies of “fake eviction notice” to the Chancellor. Aim to send hundreds and hundreds of these. Make it clear that if UMass wants to continue grad housing evictions, we’re not going to be silent about it. Especially since Mass. Governor Baker has just signed on this new legislation to block evictions.
  • Op-Eds and other opinion pieces: In prep. Join the Slack and make yourself known if you have something to contribute: press contacts? research that we can use to pressure UMass?
  • Individually contacting local leaders, state reps: In prep. Labour needed, to text GEO members with details on how to call their state rep on the phone, and notes on what to say.
  • Call with local leaders: Volunteers needed to come, speak, take notes. Organized by CEPA (Center for Education Policy & Advocacy), Zoom call with local leaders: Rep Mindy Domb, Rep Linday Sabadosa, Rep Dan Carey, Sen Jo Comerford, and Amherst City Council President Lynn Griesemer.
    Registration link: http://bit.ly/COVID19students
exciting organizing message from college of education

The incredibly courageous grad students College of Ed just last week held a “Reverse Townhall” where they called their faculty and administrators to a Zoom to hold them accountable for the effects that their policies (or lack of them) have on the grad students. There were 103 people in attendance. Most of them were students facing dire situations including (1) being stuck outside the Valley (even overseas) while owing rent here, (2) not having funding guarantees, (3) not having summer income, (4) facing stress of academic deadlines, and more. This event can serve as an organizing model for all of us. Please visit this page for a full update, including student testimonials – full list of organizers there, please contact them or bilgesu@geouaw.org if you want to talk about doing a Reverse Townhall in your own department!
https://geouaw.org/news-college-of-ed-students-hold-reverse-townhall/

Published by GEO