Elections are today from 10-2
May 9, 2012 Leave a comment
Elections are today from 10-2 at the south end of the student center.
GAU Officer elections
May 7, 2012 Leave a comment
The elections will be this Wednesday in the Student Center main level by the craft store. Your nominees are :
President Kyle Cheesewright- Candidate Statement: After being involved with GAU informally for the past four years, I would like to move into a more formal role. If elected to the position of President, I would like to focus on increasing membership, and building our collective power in preparation for the next round of Bargaining. Have a beautiful day, and Vote for Cheese 
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VP of membership Mickey Johnson- Candidate Statement My name is Mickey Johnson, and I would like to have your support as I run for the office of the Vice President of Membership for the Graduate Students United here at Southern Illinois University. I am a second year PhD student of Historical Studies. I received my MA in History in the summer of 2008, specializing in Modern European and American History. My fields of interest included feminism in the women’s labor movement under the direction of Dr. Jo Ann Argersinger.
During the fall of 2011, I became active in the GAU during the run up to the strike and was appointed to Vice President of Membership. With help from fellow officers, I assisted in increasing membership by 200%, and continued to keep activists informed of planning events. It is my belief that we must keep the GAU visible on campus, because we are a source of power against an Administration that would rather see graduate student voices silent. Additionally, this summer I will serve on the Health Insurance Committee to address concerns with the current state of healthcare coverage for graduate students here at SIUC.
Next year, I would like to continue as Vice President of Membership with the ultimate goal of increasing membership by at least another 200% to ensure that the GAU is a powerful voice here on campus. This is a lofty but obtainable objective, now that the Administration guaranteed the GAU a spot in the graduate student orientation in August. The definitive goal that would offer all graduate students considerable power on campus would be hitting the fair share agreement contained in the 2010 contract. GAU is in a precarious position because we typically lose 1/3 of our membership each year, so it will be critical to maintain a visible presence on campus all year long with continual membership drives.
Additionally, I want to assist with grooming new GAU members for potential leadership roles to disperse the responsibilities throughout the coming year and beyond. Equally important to remember is that 2013 is just around the corner and the GAU will need active members ready to develop the next contract. I want to assist our union members with the highest quality membership/leadership so that we can make our next contract stronger and the lives of all of our graduate students better. I would appreciate your vote for me, Mickey Johnson, to serve as Vice President of Membership with the GAU.
Treasurer Dennis McDonald-Candidate statement I have served as the treasurer for GAU over the past year and would like to continue to do so for the next year. I look forward to helping GAU grow and working with the new leadership!
Lynn Galassi as Vice President of Communications
Specific time will be announced soon!
GAU Wants You!
April 23, 2012 Leave a comment
GA United will be holding elections for our union officers on Thursday May 3rd!
Being an officer for GA United is a lot of fun, but can be intimidating for new people who are interested in becoming involved in the union. One way to think about it is that you’ll have the opportunity to meet grad assistants from across the campus, learn a lot about the way a university works, and spend your time making SIUC a better place for everyone!
We need people who are excited and enthusiastic about being a grad assistant and people who understand that we deserve a lot more than we get for the valuable work we contribute to the University. The current officers hope each and every graduate assistant will consider running for office, even if you don’t have any experience–we can help with that. On the other hand, if you decide it’s too much of a commitment then please consider helping with the following efforts as we make a final push before the summer:
*talking to other grad assistants in your area about how important the work we do is and why we deserve better pay, lower fees and better health care–this is the work that builds strong unions
*organizing a department meeting for GAs so we can discuss information about the union and bargaining
*coming to our organizing meetings
*write your GA story and post it to Facebook or to our email below: What is it about being a GA that makes you proud? What about being a GA is difficult? Why are GAs indispensable and important for the University and society? How are you going to make rent and utility bills this month? What has you and your family experience of the health coverage been like?
Officer positions last for the term of one year (July 1-June 30) and include the positions of (please look at the link for basic lists of responsibilities):
President
Vice-President for Communications
Vice-President for Membership
Secretary/Treasurer
Stewards
If you’re interested in running, please send an email to gau.siuc@gmail.com with:
Your Name
The position you are running for
A brief candidate statement that will be released to your fellow GAs prior to the election
If you know someone who you think would be perfect for the position, feel free to nominate them!
Nominations will be open until Monday April 30th at 12pm. Candidate statements will be posted on our website by Wednesday.
Non-retaliation
November 15, 2011 Leave a comment
Language from the Faculty Association’s back-to-work agreement section of the Tentative Agreement:
“The Board also agrees to take no legal or disciplinary action against any student, graduate assistant, civil service employee, administrative professional employee or non-tenure track faculty member for his/her actions in support of the Faculty Association during the strike.”
If you feel like as if you’ve been retaliated against for your support of the Faculty Association during the strike, let me know ASAP.
Public Statement of Protest to the BOT
November 10, 2011 3 Comments
Today I delivered the following public statement of protest to the Board of Trustees on behalf of GAU leadership:
My name is Kristi Brownfield, vice president for communications of the GAU. I am here this morning on behalf of our union to raise a matter of urgent and grave concern to GAU leadership.
During this difficult time on campus, we and many others in the university community have discovered that the administration has put in place new practices such as threatening to arrest students engaged in peaceful sit-ins, restricting the university’s free press, and censoring perfectly appropriate public comments and questions from students and alumni about the university and its policies.
To be specific, the administration purposefully restricted access to its Facebook page, locked the doors of Anthony Hall to keep students out, and even advised student reporters not to interview employees of the university without first submitting their questions to the administration for approval.
That kind of policy change is unacceptable.
We and all other employees come to you as full participants in the vitality of SIUC – as students, as employees, and as valued members of the SIUC community, with a vital interest in keeping a free press at the university and thereby enhancing its reputation as a place where the free exchange of ideas is encouraged.
Graduate assistants are here for two to six years. During that time we participate in the governance of the institution, conduct award-winning research that enhances the reputation of the university, and teach many of the classes undergraduates require to finish their education.
We, together, make the environment we work and learn in.
When that environment is threatened by instituting practices as archaic as putting restrictions on media freedom, stifling free and open expression, unwillingness to hear legitimate public criticism and questions, then we believe that practice harms the university now and in the future.
Censorship marks a shift in policy that must be addressed in order to build a better university. GAU wants to formally protest the actions of the administration which produced that shift.
We protest against the attempted restriction of a free press. We object to the restriction of free speech and the administrative sanitizing of free expression on Facebook. We abhor the misuse of mass communications to create an environment of fear, hostility, and division. While the administration has taken steps to correct one example of wrong-doing by unlocking Facebook comments, their continued public insistence that only “inflammatory posts” were removed despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary and the continued ban from that page of the people who made perfectly innocuous comments further undermines the trust we have in SIUC’s administration or any of their future attempts to correct what they did wrong.
This administration seems more interested in power than people. Any policies that protect the established power of the status quo over the expressive power of a free people are policies that must be overturned. The students here recognize that. It was our voices inside the Student Center, outside of Anthony Hall and the Stone Center, throughout campus, on Facebook, and online — calling for accountability, fairness, and transparency. That is what we want from this university. That is not what we have been getting. We expect better and in the future we hope to work with the administration to ensure we get that better. Together we can heal this damage to create a better SIUC for today and tomorrow.
Thank you.
Notification of Location Change
November 7, 2011 Leave a comment
GAU apologizes for the short notice however the locations of the activist meeting tonight at 6pm and “Know Your Contract” session from 5-6pm and throughout the rest of the week have been changed to The Newman Center at 715 S Washington.
There is also a student-sponsored solidarity rally TODAY starting at Anthony Hall at 3:30pm. We encourage you to attend and support our striking faculty.
In solidarity,
Kristi Brownfield
Vice-President for Communications
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