Court sides with University of Iowa graduate student union

Reimbursement of fees to University of Iowa graduate teaching and research assistants must be a part of contract negotiations, according to a District Court judge, countering arguments from the state Board of Regents.

Members of UI's Campaign to Organize Graduate Students - or COGS - fought for that distinction during negotiations with the board last winter on a new 2015-2017 contract. COGS had proposed 100 percent fee reimbursement for many graduate student employees - depending on their appointment - and instead won scholarships worth 25 percent of mandatory student fees.

Despite that compromise, the Board of Regents maintained its argument that reimbursement of graduate student fees is not a mandatory bargaining topic because it relates to student status rather than employment status. And the board asked the Public Employee Relations Board - or PERB - to weigh in.

That board on Feb. 25 ruled in COGS' favor, finding that fee reimbursements qualify as 'supplemental pay” and therefore constitute a mandatory bargaining subject, according to the July 31 court ruling out of Polk County District Court. That prompted the Board of Regents to petition for judicial review, and a Polk County District Court judge July 24 upheld the PERB finding.

'PERB was not irrational, illogical, or wholly unjustifiable, and did not exceed its authority in finding the fee reimbursement proposal fell within the meaning of ‘supplemental pay' … and therefore constituted a mandatory bargaining subject,” according to the court ruling.

Joseph Cohen, a lawyer representing COGS, said it's difficult to understand why the disagreement over fee reimbursement ended in the courts.

'PERB and the District Court have agreed that the university was required to bargain over the union's fee reimbursement proposal,” Cohen said in a statement. 'Moreover, the parties actually came to an agreement over fee reimbursements months ago. To drag out the process by appealing what amounts to a purely theoretical issue at this point would seem to be a tremendous waste of public resources.”

Board of Regents spokesman Josh Lehman said his office is 'evaluating the decisions and considering our options.”

Ruth Bryant, communications chair for COGS Local 896, said in a statement that the court ruling 'validates and strengthens COGS' fight against mandatory fees.”

The union for years has pushed for tuition and fee support, and many students represented by COGS - including residents in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences - receive tuition scholarships for the costs of their education. During the last round of negotiations, COGS won full-tuition coverage for graduate employees in the College of Education.

And yet, according to COGS representatives, UI has dramatically increased mandatory student fees 'far beyond their original intent” and without accounting for how they're used.

'Fees are a significant part of the growing financial insecurity that graduate students face and create a much larger debt burden that will negatively impact their futures,” according to a COGS news release.

COGS reports that graduate students carry 40 percent of all student debt and have growing insecurity about job opportunities. Meanwhile, UI graduate employees provide a large portion of undergraduate contact hours and research, 'and they deserve to be compensated at a level that does not put them in debt,” according to the news release.

Jeanette Gabriel, a UI graduate student and COGS president, said one way the university can show its commitment to graduate students and to maintaining quality graduate programs is to reimburse all mandatory fees for graduate employees.