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COGS News

May 2004

Choose your own injustice (and take action!)

Because there are many problems we are working on at the moment, I’ve decided this month’s report demands an easily digestible format. Get upset about the issue(s) of your choice:

Your department says you can’t take a sick day unless you find a substitute for your class; if you do get someone to cover your class, that person won’t get paid for their time and effort.

Graduate instructors in many departments have long-standing unofficial “quid pro quo” arrangements, where instructors sub for one another’s classes. The University is currently trying to make these arrangements official and mandatory, while ignoring the fact that these subs are not getting paid for their extra class time and preparation, except perhaps by the colleague they sub for (who as a result actually loses money by canceling class). No one should be forced by department policy to cover classes for free.

COGS filed a grievance with the UI, demanding that it clarify to departments our rights under the contract and accept as a fundamental principle that people who cover classes should get paid for their trouble. The administration has failed to accept these terms. Therefore, we are currently preparing a second grievance, which will name as many individuals as we can find who have substituted for a colleague and not received payment. Help us protect our members from being forced to work for free. If you have covered someone’s class without payment, contact the COGS office (cogs@cogs.org).

You are a Western Civ. TA in the History department, and you regularly work 10-30 hours a week over your appointment.

If you have ever seen a syllabus for History’s Western Civ. courses, you know they make a generous “thump” when you drop them on a table. COGS has filed a grievance on behalf of History TAs, who must work 30-50 hours a week to meet the demands of the syllabi. Overwork in these classes is only an extreme example of a problem that grad employees across campus suffer every semester. If you and your department colleagues are regularly working more than your appointments specify, contact the COGS office for advice on how to address the problem.

You search ISIS to check enrollment for the course you teach, and find that your course supervisor’s name is listed alongside yours as an instructor.

At some point after the start of the spring semester, the University began adding supervisor’s names to instructor listings on ISIS. This gives the mistaken impression that the course is being co-taught, or that the second name listed (often the grad instructor’s) is only a TA for the course. Their reasons for doing this haven’t been made clear to us (though we have our suspicions), but what is clear is the confusion to registering students and the disservice done to the time and effort that grad instructors put into teaching (and often designing the syllabi for) the UI’s courses.

However, the Provost has recently told us that UI is not currently requiring departments to list their courses this way, and departments can ask to have their listings return to the way they were. If you agree that this will cause needless confusion, ask your DEO to make the necessary changes with the Provost and restore ISIS’ former clarity.

You will be receiving your first paycheck for fall employment in September, but you discover you have to start paying tuition in August.

The University recently announced that semester tuition payment plans will begin a month earlier. This presents a problem to grad employees (especially incoming grads) who will be asked to pay several hundred dollars in fall tuition before they get paid in September. The UI has recommended its automatic payroll deduction plan to grads who want to avoid late fees (go to www.uiowa.edu/~cashier/ for more information); however, grads should not be forced into such a plan as the only way to avoid late fees. We are meeting soon with University administration to discuss other options. If you have suggestions for how problems for our members can be prevented under this new plan, or you foresee other problems, contact the COGS office.

--Kevin Esch Campus Chief Steward

COGS Congratulates New Officers