The university has agreed to finally honor the professional development fund contract and review the neglected applications. I am honestly stunned that this worked out and I genuinely believe this result belongs entirely to the folks who pushed for fairness. Please keep checking in on the process to make sure …
December 18, 2016
Final supporters
Resolution for the Address and Correction of the TA/GA Professional Development Fund (PDF):
Authored By: Allyssa Sobey and Alexandria Smith
Whereas, the Rutgers AAUP-AFT negotiated a contract with the Rutgers University Administration for graduate students working as teaching and graduate assistants in which a $2.7 million Professional Development Fund (PDF) would be available to all those eligible;
And whereas, Article VIII, Part Four, Section B of the full-time Collective Agreement states that PDF funds are “to be used for activities associated with academic progress toward the degree such as summer support, research support and travel to conferences”;
And whereas, the criteria and process for ranking PDF applications provided by the Administration’s Review Committee did not accurately reflect the language or spirit of the contract;
And whereas, request(s) for meaningful feedback to be given to graduate students whose applications were either rejected or partially funded were agreed upon but not executed by the Administration’s Review Committee;
And whereas, in the most recent round of PDF funding (Summer 2016), the Administration’s Review Committee neglected to evaluate 226 or 45.2% of all applications submitted at the New Brunswick campus by choosing to only evaluate applications ranked a “5” by their Graduate Program Directors;
And whereas, the Administration’s Review Committee refuses to accept responsibility for neglecting to review 45.2% of applications by shifting blame to Graduate Program Directors;
And whereas, Rutgers AAUP-AFT has filed a formal grievance against the Administration for failing to comply with the contract;
And whereas, in various meetings to evaluate the Professional Development Fund this past year, graduate students, Graduate Program Directors, and administrators of the graduate school have admitted to the failure of the Professional Development Fund;
Be it Hereby Resolved that:
- The remaining $1.55 million of the Professional Development Fund will be made available in one final application period that will be completed by March 1, 2017.
- All eligible graduate student applicants will be given an equal portion of that $1.55 million pool of funds that’s paid prior to May 1, 2017.
Updates
Reached 250 supporters
December 5, 2016
Reached 100 supporters
November 14, 2016
November 12, 2016
I am honestly overwhelmed by how many of you have stepped up to support this cause. If we can reach one hundred signatures together then the administration will have a much harder time ignoring the reality of the situation.
44 Comments
I support this resolution. Keep in mind that the issue with the PDF is about dissolving a fund that does not work properly. I have discussed with multiple individuals in my department who have faced issues using the fund or receiving inadequate attention from the fund in cases that should have been addressed. A few have had requests outright ignored and some have received only partial allowances which left them out hundreds of dollars after attending conferences. I encourage everyone who is on this page to actually read the resolution.
I disagree with this plan. I get that equal distribution is "fair" at this point but it defeats the entire purpose of the TA/GA fund. If the fund was to help us with living expenses and research to complete our dissertation this doesn't help much at all. If this was done instead of a salary increase this is a slap in the face, a few hundred bucks isn't going to go far in this area where the cost of living is sky high. This is an easy cop out for the administration to put off meaningful salary increases, which almost all of us need to continue our degrees and research. I do not believe we should sign this agreement and we should go back to the bargaining table to achieve something closer to the original goal of the TA/GA fund, the proposal here does little to help our current situation.
I strongly support this petition. I am a TA and helped negotiate this provision during negotiations for the last collective bargaining agreement. It has been implemented incorrectly and fails to represent both the letter and spirit of the contract. We chose to accept the PDF in lieu of annual salary increases and are receiving neither.
Had to cancel presenting at Society for Neuroscience 2015 due to not receiving PDF funds. That year, some "professional development" funds went to ongoing animal research and dog sitters.
The PDF has not been administered the way it should. Essentially we are all competing for money that should be rightfully ours. As it is my understanding that this money is being deferred from our paychecks to have these funds available for activities that support our research. However, funding was doled out unevenly and unfairly (if at all) as the same metric was not used from department to department. This essentially meant that other students were getting more funding than others which essentially boils down to them getting paid more than their fellow TA/GA's. Therefore in order to help set right the this transgression I fully support the idea that the remaining funds should be given out in equally portions to all students eligible.
I would very much like to see these funds used to support our hard-working graduate students, as they were earmarked to do.
On behalf of the Department of French who voted to endorse the resolution.
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The university has agreed to finally honor the professional development fund contract and review the neglected applications. I am honestly stunned that this worked out and I genuinely believe this result belongs entirely to the folks who pushed for fairness. Please keep checking in on the process to make sure …
December 18, 2016
Final supporters
Resolution for the Address and Correction of the TA/GA Professional Development Fund (PDF):
Authored By: Allyssa Sobey and Alexandria Smith
Whereas, the Rutgers AAUP-AFT negotiated a contract with the Rutgers University Administration for graduate students working as teaching and graduate assistants in which a $2.7 million Professional Development Fund (PDF) would be available to all those eligible;
And whereas, Article VIII, Part Four, Section B of the full-time Collective Agreement states that PDF funds are “to be used for activities associated with academic progress toward the degree such as summer support, research support and travel to conferences”;
And whereas, the criteria and process for ranking PDF applications provided by the Administration’s Review Committee did not accurately reflect the language or spirit of the contract;
And whereas, request(s) for meaningful feedback to be given to graduate students whose applications were either rejected or partially funded were agreed upon but not executed by the Administration’s Review Committee;
And whereas, in the most recent round of PDF funding (Summer 2016), the Administration’s Review Committee neglected to evaluate 226 or 45.2% of all applications submitted at the New Brunswick campus by choosing to only evaluate applications ranked a “5” by their Graduate Program Directors;
And whereas, the Administration’s Review Committee refuses to accept responsibility for neglecting to review 45.2% of applications by shifting blame to Graduate Program Directors;
And whereas, Rutgers AAUP-AFT has filed a formal grievance against the Administration for failing to comply with the contract;
And whereas, in various meetings to evaluate the Professional Development Fund this past year, graduate students, Graduate Program Directors, and administrators of the graduate school have admitted to the failure of the Professional Development Fund;
Be it Hereby Resolved that:
- The remaining $1.55 million of the Professional Development Fund will be made available in one final application period that will be completed by March 1, 2017.
- All eligible graduate student applicants will be given an equal portion of that $1.55 million pool of funds that’s paid prior to May 1, 2017.
Updates
Reached 250 supporters
December 5, 2016
Reached 100 supporters
November 14, 2016
November 12, 2016
I am honestly overwhelmed by how many of you have stepped up to support this cause. If we can reach one hundred signatures together then the administration will have a much harder time ignoring the reality of the situation.
44 Comments
I am a fifth year PhD candidate at Rutgers NB-- not only are GA/TA salaries not commensurate with cost of living, the largely punitive method by which this fund was dispensed was deeply troubling and provided a glimpse of the contempt that Rutgers has, as an institution, for one of its largest and most contingent labor pools. It's time to make it right and then give us the actual salary raise we deserve.
I support this resolution. Keep in mind that the issue with the PDF is about dissolving a fund that does not work properly. I have discussed with multiple individuals in my department who have faced issues using the fund or receiving inadequate attention from the fund in cases that should have been addressed. A few have had requests outright ignored and some have received only partial allowances which left them out hundreds of dollars after attending conferences. I encourage everyone who is on this page to actually read the resolution.
I disagree with this plan. I get that equal distribution is "fair" at this point but it defeats the entire purpose of the TA/GA fund. If the fund was to help us with living expenses and research to complete our dissertation this doesn't help much at all. If this was done instead of a salary increase this is a slap in the face, a few hundred bucks isn't going to go far in this area where the cost of living is sky high. This is an easy cop out for the administration to put off meaningful salary increases, which almost all of us need to continue our degrees and research. I do not believe we should sign this agreement and we should go back to the bargaining table to achieve something closer to the original goal of the TA/GA fund, the proposal here does little to help our current situation.
I strongly support this petition. I am a TA and helped negotiate this provision during negotiations for the last collective bargaining agreement. It has been implemented incorrectly and fails to represent both the letter and spirit of the contract. We chose to accept the PDF in lieu of annual salary increases and are receiving neither.
Had to cancel presenting at Society for Neuroscience 2015 due to not receiving PDF funds. That year, some "professional development" funds went to ongoing animal research and dog sitters.
The PDF has not been administered the way it should. Essentially we are all competing for money that should be rightfully ours. As it is my understanding that this money is being deferred from our paychecks to have these funds available for activities that support our research. However, funding was doled out unevenly and unfairly (if at all) as the same metric was not used from department to department. This essentially meant that other students were getting more funding than others which essentially boils down to them getting paid more than their fellow TA/GA's. Therefore in order to help set right the this transgression I fully support the idea that the remaining funds should be given out in equally portions to all students eligible.
I would very much like to see these funds used to support our hard-working graduate students, as they were earmarked to do.
On behalf of the Department of French who voted to endorse the resolution.
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I am a fifth year PhD candidate at Rutgers NB-- not only are GA/TA salaries not commensurate with cost of living, the largely punitive method by which this fund was dispensed was deeply troubling and provided a glimpse of the contempt that Rutgers has, as an institution, for one of its largest and most contingent labor pools. It's time to make it right and then give us the actual salary raise we deserve.