Opinion
Assisting the Assistants
These are uncertain times for the University of Washington. Within the last few weeks the university has announced a new president and Olympia has passed legislation giving more authority to the university to increase tuition and fees while considering dramatic cuts. I’m hearing from a number of working parents—proud past or future Huskies—who are concerned about the future of our region’s flagship university. Their question: In this tough environment can we count on UW to make leadership decisions that will maintain access and excellence?
To be sure higher education is being dealt a difficult hand: declining state support coupled with increasing tuition and fees. Much has been written of late about how this affects UW, whether it’s out-of-state students subsidizing in-state students, larger classes being coupled with tuition increases, or programs being consolidated or eliminated. I’m the first to admit that UW has done a lot right and deserves its world-class reputation. But I have great concern about how—in response to this changing funding model of higher education—UW is dealing with one of its critical workforces: the 4,500 academic student employees (mostly graduate teaching and research assistants) who are key to UW’s ability to fulfill its core missions. [pullquote]How is UW dealing with one of its critical workforces: the 4,500 academic student employees (mostly graduate teaching and research assistants) who are key to UW’s ability to fulfill its core missions?[/pullquote]
As the costs of higher education shift increasingly to students, UW has failed to mitigate the effects of tuition/fee increases on academic student employees. This is not just a problem for that group of employees, who make around $15,000 per year while struggling to complete their degrees, serve the community, and raise their families. This is a problem for the UW and all working families who want access to a great education.
Top-flight faculty at UW can only reach so many students in a population of 40,000, so teaching assistants, graders and tutors complement their work, providing more than 50 percent of the face-to-face instruction for undergraduates. This results in the opportunity for smaller class sizes and one-to-one attention from highly-motivated, highly-qualified academics. As research assistants, academic student employees perform the bulk of the cutting-edge research that generates more than $1 billion per year in grants and contracts to UW and the state. This research also significantly contributes to new businesses, innovative job creation and further economic development throughout our region.
This contribution is immense, and yet UW is not taking steps to remain competitive nationally and globally in attracting the best and the brightest. UW is already well behind peer institutions– about 18 percent below average in minimum salaries for TAs and RAs. And it’s getting worse. In the next two years mandatory, un-waived student fees will increase by nearly 50 percent, and the typical academic student employee will have to pay back roughly 8 percent of his/her yearly salary.
While other universities are finding ways to stay competitive, UW has not and their continued inaction will make it worse. In addition to inaction on this front, they have mismanaged the academic student employee health insurance plan to such a degree that they recently filed a lawsuit to try and recover millions of dollars the UW overpaid to the plan’s insurance carrier for several years.
These are the kind of problems UW needs to fix to inspire confidence in the community. The union for academic student employees has stepped up and agreed last year to a wage freeze, and for the past two years has proposed a simple, inexpensive solution to the fees problem: waive them. Despite the fact that various other students on campus enjoy this benefit, so far UW has not agreed to take this simple step for academic student employees whose commitment and labor is so essential.
I am confident that this economic crisis will end. But until that time we need to demand first-rate leadership from places like UW. The choice is theirs: will UW demonstrate responsible, creative leadership or jeopardize its long-term credibility and viability as a world class institution?
By David Freiboth, Executive Secretary Treasurer, M.L. King County Labor Council
To be sure higher education is being dealt a difficult hand: declining state support coupled with increasing tuition and fees. Much has been written of late about how this affects UW, whether it’s out-of-state students subsidizing in-state students, larger classes being coupled with tuition increases, or programs being consolidated or eliminated. I’m the first to admit that UW has done a lot right and deserves its world-class reputation. But I have great concern about how—in response to this changing funding model of higher education—UW is dealing with one of its critical workforces: the 4,500 academic student employees (mostly graduate teaching and research assistants) who are key to UW’s ability to fulfill its core missions. [pullquote]How is UW dealing with one of its critical workforces: the 4,500 academic student employees (mostly graduate teaching and research assistants) who are key to UW’s ability to fulfill its core missions?[/pullquote]
As the costs of higher education shift increasingly to students, UW has failed to mitigate the effects of tuition/fee increases on academic student employees. This is not just a problem for that group of employees, who make around $15,000 per year while struggling to complete their degrees, serve the community, and raise their families. This is a problem for the UW and all working families who want access to a great education.
Top-flight faculty at UW can only reach so many students in a population of 40,000, so teaching assistants, graders and tutors complement their work, providing more than 50 percent of the face-to-face instruction for undergraduates. This results in the opportunity for smaller class sizes and one-to-one attention from highly-motivated, highly-qualified academics. As research assistants, academic student employees perform the bulk of the cutting-edge research that generates more than $1 billion per year in grants and contracts to UW and the state. This research also significantly contributes to new businesses, innovative job creation and further economic development throughout our region.
This contribution is immense, and yet UW is not taking steps to remain competitive nationally and globally in attracting the best and the brightest. UW is already well behind peer institutions– about 18 percent below average in minimum salaries for TAs and RAs. And it’s getting worse. In the next two years mandatory, un-waived student fees will increase by nearly 50 percent, and the typical academic student employee will have to pay back roughly 8 percent of his/her yearly salary.
While other universities are finding ways to stay competitive, UW has not and their continued inaction will make it worse. In addition to inaction on this front, they have mismanaged the academic student employee health insurance plan to such a degree that they recently filed a lawsuit to try and recover millions of dollars the UW overpaid to the plan’s insurance carrier for several years.
These are the kind of problems UW needs to fix to inspire confidence in the community. The union for academic student employees has stepped up and agreed last year to a wage freeze, and for the past two years has proposed a simple, inexpensive solution to the fees problem: waive them. Despite the fact that various other students on campus enjoy this benefit, so far UW has not agreed to take this simple step for academic student employees whose commitment and labor is so essential.
I am confident that this economic crisis will end. But until that time we need to demand first-rate leadership from places like UW. The choice is theirs: will UW demonstrate responsible, creative leadership or jeopardize its long-term credibility and viability as a world class institution?
By David Freiboth, Executive Secretary Treasurer, M.L. King County Labor Council
