Graduate Employee Organization UMass Boston

The GEO at UMass Boston has been instrumental in advocating for graduate assistants. Since our inception we have successfully:

-Secured over a 50% increase in our stipends since our first contract
-Guaranteed Tuition and Fee Waivers (we had no fee waiver before our first contract)
-Secured an 85% subsidy for the Student Health Insurance Plan (we had no coverage before our first contract)
-Secured

an 18-hour full-time work week for full-time assistants
-Received funding for our Scholarly Support Fund for grad assistants to attend academic conferences.
-Secured employee status and related legal protections for grad assistants.
-Ensured the opportunity for grad assistants to have the option for pre-tax parking and public transportation passes.
-Ensured Grad Assistants receive free access to proprietary software through the university. In the 2013-2014 academic year, we took on some new projects:

- Wrote, edited and printed two issues of the Graduate Advocate featuring 15 articles about grad assistant pay, UMass parking and national labor issues
- Hosted 6 documentary film screenings on campus in our Radical Thoughts Film Series
- Hosted 3 successful parties for grad students and members to meet
- Worked with the Office of Graduate Studies to create a plan for addressing late grad assistant pay including new orientation protocol and greater accountability
- Collaborated with members to resolve several grievances
- Test piloted a department "meet and greet" model to meet our members and hear about grad assistant issues
- Organized a UMass-wide GEO meetup for sharing ideas
- Attended the Greater Boston Labor Council's "Future's Committee" training session
- Awarded $6,000 in Scholarly Support Funds
- Entered into bargaining for a new contract for 2014