Protest chants rang through the halls of the University of Iowa Iowa Memorial Union Thursday as the Campaign to Organize Graduate Students, or COGS, met with representatives of the Iowa Board of Regents.
“The university works because we do! Education is a right not just for the rich and white!” the group shouted.
COGS’ UE Local 896 Bargaining Team, the union representing graduate student workers at the University of Iowa, met with negotiators for the Iowa Board of Regents (a group that runs the state’s public universities) to discuss their terms on contract updates regarding teaching assistant wages and benefits for the 2025-2027 agreement.
The agreement hopes to implement three new guidelines: A 25 percent wage increase over the next two years, an updated pay schedule, with salaries beginning Aug. 1 of each academic year as opposed to September, and welcoming back a paid time off provision, with clear and structured guidelines.
“This contract expresses a series of demands that we hope to be carried into the future, but this future is continuously being threatened by decisions made by the [Iowa] Board of Regents in the present,” said COGS President Cary Stough.
This particular agreement comes after the 2017 removal of Chapter 20 of the Iowa State Code, drastically limiting collective bargaining rights for most public-sector workers.
“By gutting our contract in 2017 . . . the Board of Regents has shown us that though they respect their force of right to appropriate the fruits of our knowledge discoveries, they care nothing about the hours of labor that grow it,” Stough said.
UI graduate student Olivia Jones pointed out data compiled by COGS. A graph of the Big 10 showed that Iowa ranked 16th in the Big 10 for teaching assistant salaries, only higher than Nebraska and Purdue. She also pointed out that the wage increases provided to teaching assistants each year have not kept up with inflation.
“What do the regents plan to do to entice students to come to Iowa for grad school if their pay does not equal the work they are expected to do?” she asked. “The excuse that it’s cheap to live in Iowa is no longer valid. There are no limits to the rent prices skyrocketing in Iowa City.”
Jacob Payne, a UI graduate student, delved further into the problems COGS has with wages. He cited that a living wage in Johnson County is $35,000, while the minimum salary for a teaching assistant this year was $21,969.
UI graduate student Regina Napolitano stated that while teaching assistants have a minimal amount of paid leave, the guidelines for paid leave are left unclear. Regina claimed that when sick, teaching assistants are encouraged to do the work of finding a substitute, providing materials to teach class, teaching via Zoom, or even in person.
“In my first semester at Iowa, I contracted both COVID and another viral infection, which caused me to miss a week and a half of teaching,” she said. “I still had to use the little energy I had to prepare lesson plans, even when I was too weak to leave my bed.”
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Michael Calloway, an attorney representing the Board of Regents, appreciated the presentation provided by the COGS but stated that the Regents representatives interpreted the data differently.
Instead of the 25 percent wage increase that COGS called for, the regents are coming into the bargain offering 3 percent.
“This proposal is very similar to what you’ve seen in past years, except we are coming out, as I noted, that the [minimum] requirement would be 2.5 percent as a requirement. We are not doing that. The Board of Regents is proposing a 3 percent each year for a total of 6 percent,” Calloway said.
He then stated that while the regents also look at teaching assistant salaries compared to other Big 10 schools, the UI’s pay is more impactful, considering the cost of living is cheaper than other Big 10 schools.
Calloway also pointed out that the $21,969 minimum teaching assistants are paid, equating to $32.69 per hour when divided by 672 hours of yearly work, which is well above the Johnson County living wage. As the COGS members pointed out, this hourly rate is impossible when restricted to 20 work hours per week.
A shared feeling among COGS members was one of disappointment that the regents didn’t attend themselves. Calloway pointed out that the regents never meet for contracts at the first opening session and that a more in-depth negotiation would occur behind closed doors between the two parties on Feb. 20.