University of Iowa grad students shut down regents meeting, demand pay raise

IOWA CITY — Dozens of University of Iowa graduate students and supporters shut down the Board of Regents meeting Wednesday afternoon with a raucous protest, during which they demanded a 25-percent “emergency” pay raise.

“What do we want?” one graduate student leader asked the crowd of protesters, who shouted back, “A real raise.”

“When do we want it?”

“Now,” came the unified response from protesters, who marched into the regents’ meeting on the UI campus Wednesday afternoon — interrupting a presentation from UI Health Care leadership, including new Vice President for Medical Affairs Denise Jamieson.

The UI student union — which goes by Campaign to Organize Graduate Students, or COGS — followed up that call-and-response with another one, asking, “If we don’t get it?”

“Shut it down,” protesters answered, as the board did just that — ending their meeting early for the day, with plans to reconvene on schedule at 9:15 a.m. Thursday.

The COGS demands include not just an immediate wage hike but a “more equitable state university system for all.”

“It’s our right to be here,” one UI library science graduate student said during the protest — after regents ended the meeting and left the room. “It’s our right to demand more. We are all speaking up for people who can’t be here to do it for themselves.”

In making their demands, the graduate students said a “living wage calculator” produced by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology showed the average UI graduate student worker makes 25 percent below the living wage for a single adult in Johnson County.

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“This gap between the living wage and the current wages of graduate workers means that many are rent burdened, food insecure, and going into debt as they contribute essential labor to the university through their teaching, research, and administrative roles,” according to a COGS statement on their demands. “The Board of Regents have the power to raise wages for graduate workers at the University of Iowa and for workers across the Iowa public university system.”

And yet, according to COGS, wages remain stagnant relative to inflation and the cost of living.

“All while the university system brings in billions in revenue,” according to COGS.

In a statement, regents spokesman Josh Lehman said graduate students make “significant contributions to the University of Iowa's success as a leading institution for teaching and research.”

He noted that graduate assistant positions are a “distinct category of part-time employees,” who benefit from substantial contributions toward tuition, fees, and health and dental insurance — in addition to receiving compensation.

They also often are eligible for other forms of financial aid, he said.

“Both the UI and Iowa Board of Regents continuously evaluate multiple factors when considering graduate assistant compensation, including comparisons with Big Ten peer institutions, other UI employee groups, and the local cost of living,” Lehman said.

Graduate students on Wednesday criticized the board for its contract negotiation tactics — including sending attorneys and negotiators in their stead.

“They come to Iowa City about once a year, other than that we don’t see them,” one student said. “When we go to the collective bargaining table to bargain for our wages, they do not send the regents themselves, they send their lawyers.”

The protesters said regents don’t show up and don’t stick around during protests because, “They know they’re wrong.”

“Cowards,” one student shouted.

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The minimum UI grad assistant salary is $21,329 for a nine-month, half-time appointment, according to UI officials. That, they said, converts to an hourly rate of $31.74 an hour. At full-time, that pay would convert to an annual salary of $66,019.

The MIT calculator puts Johnson County’s living wage for a single adult without children at $16.90. It is $26.65 for two adults without kids and $33.31 for two adults and one child. At full-time, the MIT-calculated living wage for a non-married person without kids is $35,152.

The university reports also covering “all or most” of many graduate students’ tuition — a benefit worth about $11,256 a year — plus health benefits for grad assistant employees with an appointment of 25 percent or more, which amounts to 10 hours a week.

"Most graduate assistants, however, receive nine-month, half-time appointments with the possibility of earning additional funding during the summer,“ UI officials said, noting the Big Ten Academic Alliance indicates UI grad assistant stipends are ”close to the middle of the pack.“

"When cost of living measures are factored in, we are highly competitive with other Big Ten institutions in the Midwest,“ according to the university.

The 1,900-member COGS negotiated for a 3-percent raise, which they called “woefully inadequate to address the disparity between graduate workers wages and the current living wage,” but still better than the board’s 1-percent initial offer.

“COGS negotiates their contract with the Board of Regents every two years, making the 2023-2024 academic year a non-negotiation year,” according to the student union. “This makes it all the more essential that graduate workers have a voice at this meeting so that the regents can hear directly the impacts their choices are having on this group of the Iowa public sector labor force.”

A half dozen students signed up to speak to the regents during the public-comment portion of their meeting Wednesday. But they never got that chance after shutting down the meeting.

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“This action COGS is taking at the Board of Regents meeting comes amid a wave of union activity across the country in response to similar grievances — rising cost of living with wages that are not keeping pace, and working people feeling increasingly squeezed while executives continue to collect record-breaking salary increases,” according to COGS, which has been organizing UI graduate workers since 1993 and was officially established as a labor union in 1996.

“Since then, the efforts of the union have resulted in full-tuition remission, 50-percent reduction in mandatory fees, and much improved health care coverage for graduate workers in the COGS bargaining unit,” according to COGS. “With this track record, union members are energized to take action … to demand an emergency wage increase and continue the campaign until the demand is won.”

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com