[Taiwan] Graduate Students | Tuition, Health Insurance, Stipend

[Chou, Ping-jen]

To ALL USF Graduate Students. Others may ignore.
 
Our graduate student union Graduate Assistants United (GAU) needs our
votes today and tomorrow as the Administration needs to see student
support before taking immediate action on the proposed changes to our
current health insurance, stipend, and tuition.  Our fellow GAU officers
have fought hard to increase our benefits, please take advantage of this
opportunity and do ourselves a favor!  Thank you for your vote!  Hope to
see you all at Marshall Center.  Message below is from GAU:
 
 
Hello,

This email is a reminder that the contract ratification vote will be
held tomorrow (Tuesday 7/17) and Wednesday in the Marshall Center.
The Tuesday session will be from 10:00-2:00, and Wednesday's vote will
be from 1:00-5:00.  Both votes will take place in the Marshall Center
study / common area on the main floor, which is the room with the fish
tank and computers that is right next to the USF Card office.

We will try to have a sign, but in any event at least two GAU members
will be present at all times.  We will have copies of the proposed
changes available to look at, but you can also read a copy of the
email that was sent out last week, and look at scanned copies of the
articles, at our website:

http://uffgau.ourusf.org/
<https://hscwebmail2.hsc.usf.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://uffgau
.ourusf.org/> 

We hope to see everyone tomorrow or Wednesday!  Thanks for your
support during the negotiations; the large turnout by members of the
bargaining unit was helpful and sent a great message to the
administration.

In Solidarity,
USF GAU


 

From: usf-gau at googlegroups.com on behalf of USF Graduate Assistants
United
Sent: Wed 7/11/2007 11:26 PM
To: usf-gau at googlegroups.com
Subject: GAU: Bargaining Results and Ratification Vote






Hello,

As many of you may have heard, USF-GAU reached a tentative agreement
with USF administration on June 28 on Articles 3, 12, and 23 that were
part of this round of
contract negotiations.  WE NEED YOUR RATIFICATION VOTE before these
changes officially become part of the contract.  First, here are some
of the major changes to the contract, which will be followed by
information related to voting (when, where, etc.):

1.  Article 23 (Stipends and Health Insurance):  We made major gains
for the unit in this article.  First, we raised the minimum stipend
for Master's students by $300 (raising it from $7,800 to $8,100).
This is for .50 FTE employees, so as always the minimum for .25 FTE
will raise proportionately, or in this case by $150.  We raised the
minimum for Doctoral students by $1,000, from $8,580 to $9,580.
Perhaps most important, the
administration agreed to pay $940 per year towards the student health
insurance premium, up from $600 (they will now cover about 75% of the
total
premium instead of about 50%).

2.  Article 12 (Fees and Tuition Payment):  The administration has
agreed to form a committee with GAU to investigate the possibility of
spreading out fee payments over the course of the semester.
Currently, fees must be paid within the first week of the semester,
which can be a major financial hardship.  Under our proposed plan, any
balance remaining after that first week would be deducted from your
payroll check in equal amounts throughout the semester.  The committee
will research the logistics of implementing such a plan and will
release a preliminary report by Dec. 1st of this year.

3.  Article 3 (Performance Evaluations):  The administration opened
Article 3 in an effort to standardize the evaluation process that each
graduate employee is supposed to have annually.  The major change now
requires
the signature of the graduate program director (or equivalent) on the
evaluation form stating that the employee is making satisfactory
progress towards degree completion.

The ratification vote will be held next Tuesday and Wednesday (the
17th and 18th) in the Marshall Center study lounge (the room with the
fish tank, right next to where the USF Card center is).  On Tuesday,
you can vote from 10:00 until 2:00, and on Wednesday from 1:00 until
5:00.  There will be a member of the bargaining team on-hand to answer
any questions you have or to discuss anything else GAU or bargaining
related.

Note that the next round of negotiations opens on or before January
15, at which time the entire contract is open.  We will be speaking
with as many of you as possible over the coming months to learn what
YOU think should be in the contract.  As always, you can respond to
this email with any questions or concerns.

In Solidarity,
USF GAU


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