05/12/2022
Make your labor visible! Come join us next Tuesday 12/13 as your schedule allows!
Modeled after the “sit-in” style of protest, our upcoming grade-in is intended to raise awareness about the inadequate and inequitable compensation that many graduate student workers continue to face, especially in light of the ever-increasing cost of living in Austin. Some of you may remember that Underpaid led a similar action in 2019, campaigning against the Tuition Reduction Benefit (TRB) gap that existed in many departments, causing many graduate students to pay thousands of dollars out of pocket for their own tuition.
Before the grade-in, we will release a statement to the UT administration that summarizes our demands for improved wages, cost of living increases, and a closure of the current healthcare coverage gaps. On the 13th, following the release of our statement, we will meet in front of the UT Tower at 9am and proceed to collectively assemble in the hallway around the Provost’s office (on the second floor of the Main Building), where we will remain until 5pm. While there, we will perform the labor we provide to the university, whether it be in the form of grading, writing, or research.
This will be the second of a series of actions we have planned for this academic year leading up to the next Texas legislative session and May Day. It is our hope that graduate student labor organizing can serve as a link between campus workers, who are similarly underpaid and overworked amid staff shortages, and the rest of the student body who also find themselves in this affordability crisis.
See you there!
In solidarity,
Underpaid@UT Organizing Committee
