Fellow grad students, fellow grad employees,

Hello! On behalf of GET-UP, its members and its leadership, we want to welcome you . As GET-UP’s co-chairs and as fellow grad students (Shonni in Comparative Literature and Walt in South Asia Regional Studies) we struggle with our workloads, and, like you, we are fascinated (and occasionally frustrated!) by our disciplines, and we all enjoy the same privileges of belonging to this academic community .

There are trends in the academy, however, that we cannot as graduate employees ignore. We’re concerned about the casualization of the academic workforce, with tenure-track jobs getting phased out only to be replaced (if at all!) by untenured TA and adjunct positions.  To make matters worse, one of our deans recently stated that grad employees are dispensable and that the skilled work we do through teaching could be done by “anyone off the streets.” We’re concerned about affordable health care for ourselves and our dependents. We’re concerned about the future of the academy, about what will happen if we continue to let corporate boards run our universities, about our scholarship and intellectual freedom.

This is where GET-UP comes in. We as graduate students and employees can have a say in what the system of higher education will look like in the future. GET-UP allows us to influence the current system, right here at Penn: it gives a voice to our concerns, a voice to assert our rights as students and workers.

So get involved in GET-UP and get your voice heard on campus! Our union is only as strong as its membership, and as representative as we are diverse. GET-UP will be meeting with grad students all around campus in the coming weeks, but don’t wait for us to seek you out: send us an email (info@getuponline.org) to find out about our next meeting or event. Join the national graduate student union movement in defending our rights!

Best wishes for a happy and productive academic year.

In solidarity,

Shonni and Walt