FAQs

The Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) bargaining unit includes approximately 1,500 graduate teaching and graduate assistants.

All UIC GEO members receive a stipend or wages based on the full-time equivalent (FTE) of their assistantship appointment (e.g., 0.25 FTE=10 hours per week, 0.50 FTE=20 hours per week).

In addition, GEO members receive a tuition waiver, as well as additional waivers of some student fees.

Currently, GEO members receive a minimum stipend of $20,615 for two semesters of 20 hours of work per week. UIC departments cover these costs from their budgets with some paying higher than the minimum.

In addition to the stipend, GEO members receive an additional benefit, on average, of $17,226 in the form of a tuition waiver over the two semesters (assuming full-time tuition of 12 credit hours or more for two semesters), as well as waivers for some student fees.  UIC also subsidizes 62% of the premium costs for those GEO members enrolled UIC’s Campus Care student health care program.

Our primary objective will be to continue normal operations for the benefit of our students, including minimizing the disruption of instruction, meeting course objectives and ensuring timely grading. We expect classes to continue and students and our campus community will be provided with additional information.

Yes, please come to class, unless your instructor, the department head/chair, or dean provides other instructions.

In some cases, your instructor may contact you, but if they don’t, please contact them, even if they are a TA. Alternatively, contact the departmental home of the class or lab. You will be able to access a central website where departmental contact information will be linked to your courses. This website can be found at coursecontact.uic.edu.

Please wait for at least 15 minutes before leaving and then contact the instructor and/or the department that houses the class using this website.

Instructors are the students’ first point of contact. Instructors are expected to tell students in advance regarding all class assignments and arrangements. The staff in the department offering the course will also be available to respond to questions or problems that might arise. This contact information can be found at coursecontact.uic.edu.

Responses to missed classes will be handled at the departmental level. While it is impossible to predict exactly what will happen and describe all possible responses, the campus has made a concerted effort to plan for a variety of contingencies.

Units and the supervising faculty must determine the most appropriate solution for each course.

Students have a right to attend classes. Students, employees and members of the public have a right to enter academic and administrative buildings and to do so without being intimidated, coerced or threatened. Picketing on public property is usually lawful so long as the picketing is peaceful, does not create a disturbance and does not block entrances and exits. Picketers must not block a door, passageway, driveway, crosswalk or other entrance or exit. Union officials or picketers have a right to talk to people going into or out of campus buildings. Attempts to intimidate, threaten or coerce are not permitted, either by verbal remarks or physical action.

Please call the Office of the Dean of Students at 312-996-4857 for assistance.

Please contact the Provost’s Office at 312-413-3450.

Instructors are the students’ first point of contact. Instructors are expected to tell students in advance regarding all class assignments and arrangements. The office staff in the department or college offering the course will also be available to respond to questions or problems that might arise.

Sherri McGinnis Gonzalez, associate vice chancellor for strategic marketing and communications, will act as the official spokesperson to the media. You may forward media queries to her at smcginn@uic.edu or 312-996-2398.

You may contact the Office of Human Resources, specifically Keino Robinson, Associate Director of Labor and Employee Relations, keinor@uic.edu or Michael Ginsburg, Associate Vice Chancellor for Human Resources, ginsburg@uic.edu.

Before a strike may occur, the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act requires that the parties to have engaged in mediation without success and that the union has filed a Notice of Intent to Strike at least 10 calendar days prior to calling a strike. On April 7, the GEO filed a Notice of Intent to Strike. The strike began April 18.

Only current members of the bargaining unit represented by the GEO, namely Teaching Assistants (TAs) and Administrative Graduate Assistants (GAs) holding covered assistantships, can strike. Certainly, employees in other employee groups may elect to not cross picket lines; however, the university’s normal procedures governing approved absences remain in effect.

Graduate students who are appointed as teaching assistants and graduate assistants receive a tuition and fee waiver, a stipend, and insurance benefits in exchange for performing job duties. Any deliberate refusal to fulfill job objectives could result in the assistant’s pay being withheld.

No, as long as they remain students at the university.

Faculty and non-GEO staff are expected to perform their job duties as usual. Students and parents who have paid tuition in order to receive a quality education have reason to expect that the objectives of their courses will be fulfilled. If there are interruptions, make-up arrangements must be implemented to ensure that the instructional objectives are delivered as promised.

Faculty members do not have the right to strike in sympathy with GEO. We would look to the deans of the colleges to meet with department heads to emphasize the university’s mission of teaching and our obligations to students.

The current collective bargaining agreement between UIC and GEO expired on August 15, 2021. It is not unusual to negotiate a contract long after its expiration, and GEO members have and will continue to receive compensation and certain benefits under the terms of the existing contract until a new agreement is reached.

Negotiations began in April 2021. Since then, the university and union have met at least every other week except during the summer, when we met monthly at the GEO’s request. The parties had been meeting weekly for several months and are now meeting multiple times per week. To date, we have had more than 30 bargaining sessions – including three sessions in the week leading up to the strike.

It is not uncommon for bargaining to continue well past the expiration date of an existing contract agreement. In February, the parties agreed to engage an independent mediator from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service in hopes of successfully reaching agreement on the last key issues. The university is committed to ensuring that a new agreement is reached as expeditiously as possible.

Since beginning negotiations in April 2021, the university and union have met at least every other week except during the summer, when we met monthly at the GEO’s request. The parties met three times in the week leading up to the strike. We believe much can be resolved through continued dialogue, and the university remains willing and available to meet more frequently to accelerate a final agreement.

Initially, both UIC and the GEO agreed to first focus solely on resolving non-economic issues. We began exchanging proposals to address key economic issues, including stipend, tuition waiver, health care and other student fees, in mid-December 2021. GEO did not present its first wage proposal until January of this year.

In February 2022, the parties agreed to engage an independent mediator from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service to accelerate the pace and progress of negotiations. Mediation is often a very effective tool to help negotiating parties continue their work in a productive manner, and UIC is fully committed to the mediation process. We are hopeful that an impartial mediator’s broad knowledge, and input as a neutral participant, will help us reach a fair and fiscally responsible contract agreement as soon as possible.

The next negotiating session is planned for April 25. We believe much can be resolved through continued dialogue, and the university remains willing and available to meet more frequently to accelerate a final agreement.

To date, the university and the union have reached a tentative agreement on 22 of 27 contract articles, including grievance procedures, union rights, worker rules and more.

Key outstanding economic issues include stipends and tuition waivers, health care fees and student fees.

As of April 22, UIC is proposing a 13.4% raise over the three-year contract (9.4% first year, then 2% and 2%) including $260 toward payment of the general student fee, in addition to having several student fees fully waived. GEO members presently get four student fees waived at 100% totaling $2,062 over a full academic year.

In addition, UIC has offered a lump sum payment to all members who are in the bargaining unit at the time the contract is ratified and signed. That portion of the offer is as follows:

• $1,750 to members who have fall and spring appointments
• $1,000 to members who have a spring only appointment

Graduate assistants are students first and are subject to the same student fees as all other UIC graduate and undergraduate students, which total approximately $1,700 per semester. UIC waives $1,031 or 62% of student fees for GEO members. In addition, UIC graduate and undergraduate international students pay a $130 per semester fee to support all services associated with international students — UIC currently waives 50% of this fee for GEO members.

As of April 22, UIC proposes that GEO members continue to pay the general student fee and, if applicable, any international student fee. In addition, UIC has proposed to waive any newly created fee during the term of the agreement.

The GEO only wants to pay a flat $100 of the general student fee while other students pay over $950 per academic year; a 100% waiver of the international student fee; and a waiver of any increase in student fees over the contract term. That is, GEO is demanding that UIC cover all but $100 and waive any future increases during the life of this contract.

UIC provides a full tuition waiver to most GEO members; however, there are some academic programs that are more expensive due to increased instructional or equipment costs, thus requiring a tuition contribution (“differential”) from GEO members enrolled in those programs. For those GEO members for whom the waiver does not cover the full tuition cost, their average balance or “differential” is just under $600 per semester.

Approximately 70% of GEO members choose to enroll in UIC’s Campus Care student health care program, with the balance obtaining insurance coverage elsewhere.

While all other UIC students pay the full premium cost of $697 per semester for this coverage, UIC currently subsidizes the majority (62%) of the premium costs for GEO members, who currently pay just $260 per semester. As is the case for all other UIC employees eligible for insurance coverage, GEO members also have the option to purchase discounted dependent coverage for their spouse and/or child(ren).

During the 37th bargaining session, held April 24, a tentative agreement was reached on the non-discrimination and anti-harassment policy.

The university is committed to fulfilling its obligation to ensure continuity of instruction for our undergraduate and graduate students during any labor disruption, including a strike.

All UIC contracts, including the current GEO contract, include language that allows the university to restrict campus access for employees participating in any work stoppage. It is important to note that this language does not impede GEO members from their academic pursuits as students, including attending classes, participating in student research and other student activities.