GESO demands are still a threat to undergraduates

BY MICHAEL RUBIN

GESO success will mean the end of Yale life as we know it, and it's time to be afraid--very, very afraid. The GESO juggernaut is on the move and, while its target is the sometimes tactless Yale administration, it is the undergraduates who will actually suffer the most from a graduate union. Now is the time to speak up, because a successful graduate unionization drive will be the metaphorical laryngectomy on the undergraduate voicebox.

Unionized graduate students will have the law behind them to interfere in University politics. Undergraduates, on the other hand, will be left with no group to appeal their interests to except the legally restricted administration.

GESO will not talk about what its program means for you, the undergraduate, but a look at their platform and past actions speaks for itself.

Shopping period, one of the most popular aspects of Yale, could be eliminated, since GESO has long argued that it is unfair that graduate students cannot be guaranteed jobs in advance. Barring implementation of the Kutzinski report, job guarantees are possible only if undergarduate class enrollment is known before classes start.

Timely grades can become a fond memory. While most graduates will never obey a GESO-called strike, last year's action showed how disruptive 70 TAs can be when they put politics ahead of teaching. The grade strike, though unsuccessful last year, would gain the legitimacy of a collective bargaining tactic. Seniors applying to rolling-admission law schools and medical schools (which require English classes) will be the victims of labor politics, without a University administration to appeal to. Do you think GESO and the AFL-CIO really care about your future?

GESO activists have recently complained that having graduate students teach seminars is exploitative. A unionized GESO will be able to use the threat of litigation to compel the University to make undergraduate curriculum changes as seen fit by TAs. The obvious ramification is a limitation of choice for undergrads.

Yale University, with its famous residential college system, is known for placing emphasis on undergraduate education and life, something that the Admissions Office rightly trumpets. It is probably the reason why most of us who could have gone anywhere chose Yale.

GESO has no inkling of how undergraduate life works. Experiment: ask a GESO-nik where any residential college is or how the meal plan works and see if they can answer. This might explain GESO's adamant adherence to the Flex Dollar boycott ("Heck," they say, "fried scrod in the dining halls can't be that bad."). The prospect of GESO involvement in labor issues completely unrelated to graduate teaching is scary given their relative apathy toward undergraduate quality of life.

What GESO proposes is a fundamental realignment of Yale, against the University's wishes. Undergrads will descend from whale to plankton on the food chain of the ocean of Yale. Speak up now, or beware of filter feeders for the rest of your academic career.

Michael Rubin is DC '94, GRD '00, is a graduate student in Iranian studies.

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