Reports that universities are citing a 26-year-old federal law, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA), to withhold information about teaching assistants from the unions trying to organize them. The graduate students say FERPA is being misapplied to squelch their organizing drives. Both students and administrators are quoted…

Discusses the increasing influence that the graduate student caucus is having on the Modern Language Association. Graduate students are now well represented on the organization's delegate assembly and executive council. Critics see the students as using fear and intimidation to press their needs in a bleak job market over other organizational…

Reports on initiatives of the American Association of University Professors to reach out to graduate students and part-time professors and the association's increasing involvement in unionization battles. Notes plans to form partnerships with various groups, including the American Conference of Academic Deans and teaching assistant unions. The…

Over five years, nearly a dozen graduate students and twice as many undergraduates have pursued jobs in labor after leaving Yale University (Connecticut). Most participated in activities of the Graduate Employees and Students Organization on campus during a period of unrest among teaching assistants. More aggressive labor leadership has been…

Leaders of the movement to unionize graduate teaching/research assistants are learning organizing tactics through the Coalition of Graduate Employee Unions, and plotting strategies for a critical campaign year. Graduate students at 20 universities already have collective bargaining units, students at 15 institutions are campaigning for union…

The National Association of Graduate-Professional Students has passed resolutions calling for reforms intended to improve the lives of graduate students, including increasing health care and making faculty and institutions accountable for better advising. Although the association is not dominated by union activists, the issue of collective…

Conflicts in many states between administrators and disgruntled college employees have led to a surge of labor activism in academe, including strikes and protests, votes to unionize, disputes over evaluation and compensation, and court litigation. Conflicts involve teaching assistants, adjunct faculty, and tenured faculty alike. (MSE)