Graduate students fight for insurance

Ursula McTaggert's employer does not provide her with dental insurance. When she developed an abscessed tooth three years ago, she had to pay for the $1,000 surgery out of her own pocket. With a salary of $12,000 a year, she said there was little money for the operation.\n"I had to go out and take a loan," she said. "It was pretty dire."\nMcTaggert is an associate instructor in IU's English department, and she, like the rest of IU's graduate student employees, goes without dental insurance because IU does not offer it. \nMcTaggert and other AIs and graders gathered at a rally at noon Thursday in Dunn Meadow to support the creation of a dental insurance program for graduate students. Amos Batto, a grader in the history department, told participants at the rally that to obtain dental insurance, they would have to form a graduate student union, the first of its kind in the history of IU. \nBatto said a union of graduate students would have one voice to bargain with and would be the best way to be heard.\n"We've got to get people involved," Batto said. "It's not going to happen unless we form a union."\nThe current representation for grad student employees, the Graduate Employee Organization, has been working on unionization for nearly a year. Batto said the group is considering joining the Communications Workers of America, a union of clerical workers already existing on campus. \n"We want to affiliate with them," he said. "It's a natural union, and we would be very happy to be with them."\nMcTaggert said creating a union in the past has been a challenge because grad students get paid differently based on their department. \n"Some of us are happier with our salaries than others, so it's hard to mobilize when we have such disparate conditions," she said. "Dental care unites us. We feel this is a basic health concern that needs to be addressed."\nIU is one of only two schools in the Big Ten that does not offer dental insurance to its grad student employees. Penn State is the other. \nIU media relations was not immediately available for comment Thursday.\nLabor Studies Professor Jeff Vincent, who attended the rally, gave encouragement to the unionization process but warned that it's going to be met with resistance.\n"There are a lot of people who (will object), faculty and administration who love the status quo and don't want to share much," Vincent said. "Gaining a voice over your working conditions isn't going to be easy, but what choice do you have?"\nHe said grad students at IU who teach introductory courses and grade papers are essential to the success of research universities. \nStudies by the Chronicle of Higher Education show that the number of full-time faculty is dropping while universities look more and more to grad students. \nRandy Pardue, president of AFSCME, the union that represents IU's staff, said dental insurance is the right of working employees. He said the union is glad to offer its knowledge of the campus and University to the graduate students in their campaign to unionize. He said he expects it might be a long process.\n"Nobody ever got anything on this campus without asking for it, so we're going to have to ask, and we're going to have to ask in a very positive voice," Pardue said.\nIU grad students have received health insurance since the 1980s. The GEO is holding a mass call out meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday Sept. 15 in Ballantine Hall 005. \n-- Contact staff writer Adam VanOsdol at avanosdo@indiana.edu .