Graduate Student Employee Collective Bargaining and the Educational Relationship between Faculty and Graduate Students
Gordon J. Hewitt
DOI: 10.2190/P07G-C8RF-5GG0-4VH8
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes and experiences of faculty members who teach and advise graduate students who are also members of a graduate student employee union. Administrators at univer-sities where graduate student union organizing drives are occurring state that a collective bargaining agreement for graduate student employees would inhibit the faculty s ability to instruct and advise their graduate students and that the unique educational relationship between graduate students and the faculty would be disrupted. This study examined this administrative theory by analyzing the attitudes of almost 300 faculty members at five university campuses that have had graduate student collective bargaining for at least four years. Results show that faculty do not have negative atti-tudes toward graduate student bargaining and believe that student bargaining does not interfere with their ability to advise, instruct, and mentor their graduate students.
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