Indiana University graduate students are well known for their excellence in research and teaching. All of us here at the university benefit from their contributions. They are an integral part of the university’s identity as a research institution, and are essential to the Department of Religious Studies as a scholarly community.
Graduate students work hard as associate instructors, instructors of record, editorial assistants, managing editors, research assistants, and researchers. We support graduate students’ efforts to secure better working conditions for themselves, and we as Religious Studies faculty will continue to advocate for higher stipends, lower fees, and other improvements to graduate education at IU. Graduate students deserve to be able to exercise their rights to unionize and bargain collectively for better working conditions.
We ask the Indiana University administration to recognize the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition—United Electrical Workers Union (IGWC-UE). For our part, we as faculty pledge not to retaliate against any graduate student choosing to strike, and urge the University to do likewise.
The College of Arts