The following message was sent by the faculty members of Cornell’s bargaining committee to faculty on March 18, 2025.

Dear Colleagues,

We are writing as the faculty who have participated this past year on the university bargaining team for a graduate student contract. We all joined the team because we were ourselves graduate students at one time and we take our role as graduate mentors very seriously. For the four of us, working with graduate students is a highlight of our career as faculty. We respect the right of Cornell graduate students to organize, and we wanted to contribute to a fair outcome for both faculty and graduate students.

At this critical moment in the bargaining process, we would like to share our perspective on three key areas that remain under negotiation.

We believe the university has put forward a very generous economic package. It includes a stipend increase, free bus pass, 12 weeks of parental leave, a benefits adjustment that addresses the request for dental, vision, and gym membership, additional paid days for vacation and immigration purposes, and a one-time payment for ratification or matriculation. The university also affirms its commitment to pay tuition and keep work-related duties to an average of 15 hours per week so students can prioritize their scholarship. 

In addition to economics, we are negotiating over union security. The university has put forward a proposal that would offer students three options: become a member and pay union dues; decline membership and pay a fee to the union that offsets the cost of bargaining; or decline membership and direct that fee to a local charity. Given the very high percentage of students who voted for union representation, we expect the number of non-members to be small. We hope the union has confidence in their positions and can afford graduate students the right to choose.

The third key area is the application of just cause language in the collective bargaining agreement. We support the application of just cause solely in relation to appointment matters. It must be very clear that faculty have authority over academic decisions. 

We hope that we will be able to negotiate these last three pieces of the contract with constructive conversations. 

Sincerely,

Pat Cassano, Alan D. Mathios Professor in the College of Human Ecology

Lois Pollack, John Edson Sweet Professor of Engineering, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies, Cornell University College of Engineering

Eric Rebillard, Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities, Departments of Classics and History, College of Arts and Sciences

Wendy Wolford, Robert A. and Ruth E. Polson Professor, Department of Global Development and Vice Provost for International Affairs