Graduate Student Assistants’ Bill of Rights

Working as GAs, TAs and RAs in universities and colleges, Graduate Students assume the role of employees and provide many valuable services to those institutions.  As students and intellectual workers, we assert the following rights as necessary to maintaining our dignity and self-respect as members of the university community:

  1. The right to a fair living wage;
  2. The right to organize independently in promotion of our interests as Graduate Students;
  3. The right to bargain collectively;
  4. The right to adequate health care which shall meet the needs of Graduate Student employees, their dependents, and their significant others;
  5. The right to adequate maternity leave and child care benefits;
  6. The right to remission of tuition and the cost of books and educational materials when serving as a GA, TA, or RA;
  7. The right to speak as teaching/research colleagues in university or college bodies;
  8. The right to work under clear, equitable, and mutually agreed-upon job descriptions and working conditions;
  9. The right to an impartial, just, and mutually agreed-upon set of procedures for the swift resolution of workplace grievances;
  10. The right to be free from any reprisal of activities related to organizing Graduate Students or promoting their interests;
  11. The right to a workplace free from sexual harassment;
  12. The right to a workplace free from discrimination;
  13. The right to representation at campus, state, and national levels, in order to advocate and advance the interests of Graduate Students;
  14. The right to work at teaching or research jobs related to the student’s field or area of interest; and
  15. The right to employment security for the duration of a particular job assignment.