Also, in September 1999, NYU eliminated the separate job classification for graders and tutors leaving only graduate assistants when the April 2000 election was held. Certain possibilities are suggested by the Board s decision. We have mentioned the important duration, supervisory training and employment audit issues. Those changes would move the graduate assistants back towards their former primarily students classification where, arguably, their relationship to the school is predominately academic rather than economic. Using graduate assistants supplied by an independent outside agency which furnishes its own on-site supervision might change the conclusion that the graduate assistants are under the school s direction and control.
Graduate students are quick to join causes.
They now have one of their own, the opportunity for the first time to require private colleges and universities to grant them union representation. Schools face real challenges. Schools are vulnerable because they depend on the ready availability of the graduate assistant labor pool. Higher education is in for a real roller coaster ride. Emeritus, Willamette University College of Law.