2020 GAGE Bargaining Committee
GAGE has a large, diverse bargaining committee that reflects a wide range of disciplines, demographic groups, and experiences as graduate workers at Georgetown. The committee negotiates with Georgetown University administrators on behalf of all graduate employees, including research assistants (RAs), teaching assistants (TAs), and instructors of record.
For more information about the election process, duties, and eligibility click here.
Marya Hannun, 7th year Phd in Arabic & Islamic Studies
While I’m technically a doctoral student, I’ve spent more days than not during my six years at Georgetown working. I’ve served as a TA for language and content courses, as the instructor of record for my own course, and also as the graduate representative for my department. All of these positions have been integral to the functioning of the university, and yet, until we officially began to unionize last year, the administration insisted I was not a worker. This disconnect is what prompted me to get involved with GAGE back in 2016 before it was even GAGE. Simply put: we are workers. As workers, we deserve a say in our working conditions and in determining the benefits and safety nets that will guarantee us security in our jobs. Over these six years, I have witnessed firsthand what it means to not have this security. Personally, I’ve suffered physical injuries, broken glasses, and mild labor exploitation (a professor I was TA’ing for once made me babysit his kids during class!). In my three years as the graduate representative for my department, I’ve also helped my fellow graduate workers navigate their own difficulties: from inadequate maternity leave to a lack of mental health support to visa fears following the tepid response from the university after the 2017 immigration ban. While all of these issues have had a tremendous impact on my and my colleagues’ ability to do our jobs, they remain inadequately addressed under current university policy, which unrealistically emphasizes our role as students. I’m committed to negotiating a contract that will be driven by our needs and priorities as graduate workers.
Ari Janoff, 3rd Year PhD in Linguistics
Hi! My name is Ari, and I am a second-year PhD student in the Linguistics department. In my research, I investigate institutional discourse, naturalized and/or hegemonic discourses, and language policy. I hope to dedicate my doctoral studies to investigating the linguistic inequalities perpetuated against migrant, refugee, and asylum-seeking communities. Before joining Georgetown's PhD program in 2017, I received an MA in English Sociolinguistics from NC State University and a BA in Linguistics from Pitzer College. In my non-academic free time, I enjoy yin yoga, competitive latin dancing, and social-deduction board games. I joined GAGE as a Vote-Yes captain this past fall because of my status as an unfunded graduate student. The Linguistics department used to allow students to begin their studies with no guaranteed funding, and each semester we are re-considered for a funded position for our entire tenure at Georgetown. In the process of navigating being hired as a graduate worker this spring, and with my previous history of being a graduate worker at North Carolina State University during my Master's degree, I have come to understand the complexities and intricacies of the student-worker system. My experience as both an unfunded and funded student puts me in a unique position of seeing what Georgetown does offer us and how they could improve. With this contract negotiation I am excited to build a more streamlined, straightforward, and supportive hiring process that allows graduate student workers to focus on excelling in their work and their studies rather than being stressed about a lack of institutional support.
Deidre Nelms, 5th Year Phd in Philosophy
I've been involved in building a union at Georgetown for almost four years, and in that time have learned a lot from the conversations I've had with student workers across departments.
As a member of the bargaining committee, I would emphasize the fact that a large percentage of graduate students struggle with mental health issues at some point in their time here, and that Georgetown hasn't done enough to make mental health care affordable or accessible. I'd make it a priority to continue collecting stories from grads who can speak to this personally. We don't have a sufficient number of in-network mental health care providers, and many of us have had extremely negative experiences with CAPS.
Graduates comprise ~75% of those enrolled in the Student Health care plan, but this plan is tailor made for undergraduates. We deserve an adult health care plan that meets our needs. Women graduate workers should not have to explicitly lie to our doctor about our reasons for using contraception and should have more options. All of us should get paternity/maternity leave should we need it. All of us should be able to afford dental x-rays, cleanings and routine care without going into debt. And our $5k out of pocket maximum (just lowered from 6k) is bananas, given the limited network and coverage of our plan.
I <3 our union, and want to make sure that the concerns of grads I've talked to over the last few years are brought to the table, before stepping aside to make way for capable new voices.
Gerald TAylor, 5th Year Phd in Philosophy
The Graduate School’s attempt to unilaterally increase our workload in the summer of 2016 opened my eyes to just how little influence we, the graduate workers of Georgetown, seemed to have in setting the terms for our own working conditions.
But I would emphasize that this is merely a seeming. In the nearly two years since GAGE’s inception, we have taken monumental strides toward the goal of rectifying the problems that became so obvious during that fateful summer. And we have demonstrated the considerable power that we have by coming together as a community of workers, sharing our diverse experiences with one another, and envisioning a better way forward.
Our landslide victory in the Fall’s campus-wide union election was just the latest exercise of the power that we have built. We signaled to the administration that we are many, we are strong, and we are ready to fight for our vision. But our work is far from over – indeed, much of our hardest work lies ahead. And it would be my honor to serve as a member of GAGE’s Bargaining Committee, to step into the arena with our administration, and to help realize the vision that we have been working so hard to achieve.
Jewel Tomasula, 3rd year PHD in Biology
I believe that our graduate union contract is the best tool to make graduate work accessible and inclusive. As things are now at Georgetown, people who can’t rely on their family’s financial support struggle to make ends meet. Many of us here, myself included, have safety nets that allow us to be here. But we are at risk if something goes wrong. I am always thinking about who can’t be here - who is excluded from our graduate community in the first place and who gets pushed out.
I aim to be a voice at the bargaining table to speak up for the future graduate workers who are from underrepresented groups in science (Latinx, Black). I want to see major improvements go into effect in August 2020 so that my friends struggling right now can finally thrive.
Vaughn Shirey, 2nd year Phd In Biology
As a first year, graduate worker at Georgetown, I have experienced first hand housing and food security issues posed by delayed payments from summer employment, forcing me to rely on a network of friends for necessities. Graduate study and graduate work are stressful enough, and this anxiety should not be further compounded by not knowing how you may afford to live or eat. My primary issues are concern for housing a food security among the graduate worker population given the high cost of living in the DC area, coupled with often high out-of-pocket costs from a healthcare plan that is not suited for an older population. In addition, coverage of vision and dental well-being is of extreme importance to me, and I recognize that the importance of this issue permeates throughout the GAGE membership at large. Finally, and although I have not encountered these issues at Georgetown personally, as a queer man I recognize the persistent difficulties faced by our community in the workplace and will be an advocate for LGBTQ+ visibility and issues throughout the bargaining process.
Brent McDonnell, 4th year phd in history
As a third-year PhD in the History Department and an alumnus of the MA program in German and European Studies, I have experience as both a Teaching Assistant and a Research Assistant on campus. During my time at Georgetown, I have come to recognize that our work is indispensable to the university, yet the compensation and benefits we receive for our labor are insufficient. Through my organizing work with GAGE, I have heard from numerous grad workers about the issues that matter most to them, which has demonstrated to me the wide array of issues grad workers have encountered in the workplace. On a more positive note, this organizing has also introduced me to the vibrant and diverse community of graduate workers at Georgetown. In negotiations, I believe that a better health insurance plan, ensuring clarity and transparency in working conditions, and a living wage are essential improvements for which we should fight. If elected to the Bargaining Committee, I will work to secure the best possible contract for all grad workers.
Daniel Solomon, 2nd yeAr Phd in Government
As an undergraduate student at Georgetown, I had my first brush with the inadequate preventive care options available to graduate workers. In the spring of my sophomore year, I booked an appointment with Student Health Services to check in on a few health complaints. The nurse drew a regular blood sample for a panel test. The blood test should have revealed that I was beginning to experience symptoms of Type 1 diabetes, but the Georgetown health providers failed to identify the early signs of the disease. I only received my diagnosis three weeks and 25 pounds of weight loss later, when I returned home for spring break and checked into a New York City ER.
I am fortunate that I no longer rely on Georgetown for preventive care--I am on my wife's insurance plan--but I shouldn't have to be. Healthcare costs are high and rising across the United States, and Georgetown should ensure that all of its graduate workers have flexible access to high-quality, affordable care. I will represent GAGE at the bargaining table as a Type 1 diabetic concerned with the physical and mental health of all graduate workers at Georgetown. And I will use my experience on the GAGE Research Committee to help identify areas where GAGE might secure genuine gains in health coverage, health options, and fair pay for all workers.
Simon Belokowsky, 7th Year PhD in History
As universities have evolved administratively over recent decades, an increasingly significant burden has fallen onto the shoulders of workers engaged in a severely distorted academic labor market. At Georgetown, this has been particularly problematic in the case of graduate workers (among other groups) who have alternately been treated as students or workers as it suits the administrative needs of a bureaucracy struggling to meet its stated goal of “care for the person.” Moved by this ethos as well as the honorable desire to at least consider the best practices of its peers, Georgetown administrators have occasionally done right by graduate workers. On the other hand, over my several years at Georgetown, I have seen repeatedly that decision-makers most often revert to disinterest and assertions of helpless regarding the systemic, every-day problems affecting those who are frequently the face of the University’s main business as a research university.
Recurrently, Georgetown has failed to consider the unique burdens of securing housing in an unusually expensive city and metro area that affords few safe refuges to the cost-conscious. Recurrently, Georgetown has failed to resolve inadequacies in healthcare offerings to its graduate workers, failing to fully uphold its responsibilities within our nation’s system of private-sector healthcare provision. Recurrently, Georgetown has failed to fully consider the duties of graduate workers to their growing children and aging parents as it might for other classes of employee. Our University has now acknowledged that its graduate workers have interests that can be expressed collectively, and time will tell whether it will serve its own stated interests by acknowledging the value of work performed by all strata of university workers, particularly those whose work is especially tightly intertwined with its central purpose as an institution of research and teaching.