UH English TFs UNITE

Congratulations to our friends at UConn, whose sit-in ended successfully today in a tentative agreement with their University. Collective action WORKS!

We Won A Tentative Agreement! As hundreds of GAs poured into the Student Union today to come together for a better UConn, we continued to bargain with the University and are excited to announce that we have reached a tentative agreement! We've seen time and again that when we band together for a common goal, the University li...

Two years ago today, our story got picked up by the AP news circuit. Want to relive the glory and hear how we did it? Come to our AWP panel at 10:00 AM tomorrow (Friday) where we'll be taking your questions, live and in person.

UH leader agrees to fellows' demands after sit-in | Latest State headlines from AP | New... The University of Houston's chancellor has agreed to higher wages for English department teaching fellows after they staged a sit-in outside her office.

Hard to believe it's been two years since our sit-in! To learn how we did it, attend our panel at AWP, Friday, April 10, 10:30-11:45 am, Room 101 F&G, Level 1. See you in Minneapolis!

"The University of Oregon administration has told international graduate students that they will be deported if they join the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation strike, according to UO assistant professor of philosophy Mark Alfano."

Oregon Grad Students Warned of Deportation | Daily Nous The University of Oregon administration has told international graduate students that they will be deported if they join the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation strike, according to UO assistant professor of philosophy Mark Alfano. Additionally, the administration is attempting to undermine the str…

This past year, we received the invaluable advice (from Erika Meitner, Kevin Prufer, Oliver de la Paz, and Christian Teresi, to name a few) that we resubmit our panel on principled protest for AWP 2015. We're happy to announce that our panel, "Principled Protest in Academia: The National Significance of the University of Houston Sit-In," will be presented this coming year in Minneapolis.

Thank you, too, to Becky Tuch, the folks at the Chronicle of Higher Education, and Jacket2 for helping to spread the word about our cause and its need for a platform. We are so pleased to finally get the word out about how our story can help writers and teachers seeking a living wage, and we're thrilled that AWP has given this conversation a home.

More details to come as the date nears. For now, here is our event description:

In 2013 graduate students and faculty in the University of Houston Creative Writing Program staged a sit-in and other collective actions to protest teaching stipends that had not been increased in at least twenty years. Their efforts received national attention and resulted in a raise of over 55 percent. This panel will provide student, faculty, and administrative perspectives on the sit-in and will discuss its national implications at a time when funding for the arts is at an all-time low.

Happy Revolutionniversary, English TFs!

Student Sit-In Ends After UH President Commits More Money For Teaching Assistants A four-day sit-in at the office of University of Houston Chancellor Renu Khator ended today after English teaching fellows had protested their wages that they say have been unchanged for 20 years.

One year ago, we were sitting in!

Here we are heading to the E. Cullen building on the first day of our sit-in, April 3, 2013. The sit-in lasted for four days, culminating in the allocation of one million dollars from the University's Student Success Budget to address graduate Teaching Fellow stipends on Monday, April 8, 2013.

Friends, today marks the one-year anniversary of the sending of our official petition and list of grievances to the UH administration-- the document that led to our sit-in and, eventually, our raise!

Remember this?

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March 25, 2013

Dear President Khator, Provost Short, Dean Roberts, and Dr. Herendeen,

We, the Teaching Fellows of the University of Houston English Department, petition the University administration to engage in a conversation with its students and department representatives about the conditions of our employment. The UH English Department has brought prestige to the University for many years; its students publish widely and go on to successful careers as writers and professors. Despite its high ranking, the UH English Department does not currently offer a salary that is competitive with that offered by other programs of similar rank (see attached charts; each has multiple tabs).

The PhD program in Creative Writing and Literature is currently ranked fourth in the nation, having slipped from first several years ago. It would take only a small amount of money for the program to regain its status as the top-ranked program in the nation, which would attract high-quality applicants and bring additional prestige to the University.

By collectively offering our signatures, we express our discontent with the circumstances outlined below:

1. MFA and PhD TFs in the English department have been making $9,600 and $11,200 per year, respectively, since at least 1993. Adjusting for inflation over the last twenty years, this would equal $15,298 and $17,848 per year in 2013. No such adjustments have been made in the last two decades.

2. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s living wage calculation for the city of Houston is $19,213. TFs in the English department earn about half this living wage and are unable to meet their basic living expenses on their current salaries. Moreover, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, TFs are paid significantly less than the bottom 10th percentile of Houston salaries, which comes in at $16,000.

3. TFs pursuing PhDs currently pay about 16% of their $11,200 per year income straight back to UH through fees, which were increased last year to nearly $1,685.70 per year. For TFs pursuing MFAs, this amount is closer to 19% of their $9,600 per year income. This is a problem not only because TFs are not actually taking home the salary we were offered in our recruitment letters, but also because workplace law obligates students to work only for the university.

This obligation is impossible for most students to obey since they are unable to live off of the approximately $9,400 (for PhDs) or $7,800 (for MFAs) that they earn per year after fees. A recent survey revealed that 71% of English TFs at the University of Houston work an average of 1.9 outside jobs in order to cover basic living expenses, receiving an average of 42% of their income from outside sources. 87% of TFs feel that it is necessary to work additional jobs “because they cannot adequately live on [their] TF stipend[s].”

4. Responses given by University of Houston English TFs display their inability to uphold the University’s mission statement of “creating an environment in which student success can be ensured” (“University of Houston Goals”).

On average, University of Houston English TFs are working 36.9 hours per week, including all teaching responsibilities and non-teaching related work--work that they feel is necessary to cover basic living expenses. This does not include any time spent attending or preparing for the graduate classes in which they are students, or any additional professional development activities. 81.6% of English TFs believe they “would be able to deliver a better educational experience to UH undergrads if I did not have to work additional jobs.”

5. TFs on the University health care plan currently pay $766.71 per year in insurance costs which is subtracted directly from take-home pay; this represents another 8% of MFA salaries and 7% of PhD salaries.

We hereby petition for:
- A fair and just salary of $19,213.00 (Houston’s living wage).
- Full remission of fees: $1,685.70 per year.
- All insurance expenses to be covered by the University: $766.71 per year.
= $21,665.41 per student per year

We would love to hear back from you by the end of the week. We look forward to your response.

Sincerely,
University of Houston English Teaching Fellows
[email protected]

Minute 2:45 begins an important interview with Becky Tuch, Editor of The Review Review. And she mentions again the success of the UH English TFs Sit-in....check it out!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axM9c47n0A0 =627

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Becky Tuch's article from earlier today (that mentions our movement) has been picked up at SALON. Check it out!

http://www.salon.com/2014/03/17/professors_in_homeless_shelters_it_is_time_to_talk_seriously_about_adjuncts/

Professors in homeless shelters: It is time to talk seriously about adjuncts Adjunct abuse is one of higher education's great sins. So why is a leading writing conference not discussing it?

Becky Tuch at Beyond the Margins has mentioned our movement in her post "In Defense of Adjuncts, Students and Writers: An Open Letter to AWP." Thanks, Becky!

In Defense of Adjuncts, Students and Writers: an Open Letter to AWP | Beyond The Margins Hi there, AWP, We’ve known each other for awhile. We first met in 2009 in New York and it was love at first sight. You plied me with talks about writing craft, you offered table after table of literary magazines and small presses. I got the idea to start a ...

CHECK THIS OUT! Our sit-in makes national press again!

http://chronicle.com/article/To-Improve-Equity-Focus-on/144759/?key=SmNxJ1c9MC1LbSowMTdDa21XPCFpMxh4Mn4YYy52bl9cGQ==

To Improve Equity, Focus on Stipends, Graduate Students Say Graduate students aren’t being paid enough, but that’s changing.