Graduate student employees
are the lowest paid skilled work
force in the nation, say members
of a campus organization that
want more bargaining power for
graduate assistants.

The Georgia Graduate Forum
is holding a rally today at 4:30
p.m. at Legion Field in an effort
to spread information about the
forum’s cause.

The purpose of the Georgia
Graduate Forum, according to a
forum pamphlet, is to "engage in
an ongoing, sincere and consci-
entious dialogue with the
administration as the legitimate
negotiating arm of graduate stu-
dent employees at the
University."

Literature on the forum will
be available at the rally.
Graduate students will also be
able to register to vote, partici-
pate in surveys, sign petitions in
support of the forum and for-
merly join the organization.

Speakers, including a repre-
sentative from Labors
International Union North
America and University stu-
dents and faculty, will begin at
5:30 p.m.

One of the scheduled speak-
ers is Robert Cohens, an associ-
ate professor with the school of
teacher education, who has writ-
ten on educational unions and
helped the University of
California at Berkley graduate
students form a union.

About 2,600 of the
University’s 5,000 graduate stu-
dents are graduate assistants,
said rally organizer Aristide
Sechandice.

Sechandice, a doctoral stu-
dent in history, said the gradu-
ate forum hopes to recruit 500
student and 200 faculty support-
ers by the end of the quarter.

He said so far 220 students
and 80 faculty members have
signed petitions supporting the
forum’s efforts. The Georgia
Graduate Forum began seeking
support in the Spring.

Sechandice said the positive
support led members to plan a
big membership push this fall.

"We’ve got a lot of momen-
tum," Sechandice said.
He hopes the history depart-
ment and the anthropology
department will soon sign a for-
mal resolution supporting the
forum’s efforts.

Sechandice said different
departments have different
working conditions but health
care is the most universal con-
cern for students.

He said the first issue that
must be addressed is a consis-
tent definition for student work-
ers who are now alternatively
defined as apprentices or
employees.

If defined as employees, grad-
uate assistants are denied for-
mal collective bargaining rights
under Georgia state law, accord-
ing to forum members.