Fellow Workers,
As you might have seen in previous emails, we are soliciting responses to our Issues Survey from now until March 1st. GEO’s Bargaining Committee will use this information to inform our next contract, and in general to guide us on issues that we mobilize around. Fill it out using this link.
Our next General Membership Meeting will be Thursday, March 2nd from 4-6 PM. Location TBD. You can view a geo by Wednesday, March 1st.
Upcoming events:
Black History Month Trivia Night with the Graduate Students of Color Association!
Join us Monday, February 27th from 6-8 in Campus Center 193. We’ll provide food, drinks, and prizes for the winners of our trivia night. All are welcome, we just ask that you RSVP here – see you there!
Rally to cancel student debt: Sunday, Mar 5th at 2pm.
Next weekend, the Western Mass Area Labor Federation (of which GEO is an affiliate) is organizing a rally for full student debt cancellation at the federal courthouse in Springfield. The more people we can get there, the better! Check out the event details here: https://facebook.com/events/s/rally-to-cancel-all-student-de/1740616119719396/
Higher Education for All Advocacy Day; let’s get student debt canceled folks!
As you know, GEO has been working in conjunction with the Higher Ed Coalition, a consortium of labor unions and campus organizations from public universities across Massachusetts. The coalition is fighting for increased funding to public universities and is committed to the elimination of student loan debt for graduate workers at UMass campuses. To have your voices heard, please join us for an Advocacy Day at the State House in Boston on February 28th. This is an all-day event and buses will depart at 8 am from the UMass campus. If you would like to take the bus to Boston, please register here. For more information, please see the flyer below.
Abolition Committee Stop Cop City Solidarity Event
The Abolition Committee’s event has been postponed to March 9th, 5-6:30 PM. It will still be in Campus Center 915 and all are invited to attend, learn more about the efforts to stop Cop City in Atlanta and write letters to detained activists.
International Student Caucus
The first caucus meeting of the semester has been postponed – please look out for details in the coming week with the updated meeting information!
GSS Game Night, March 3rd, 6-11 in Campus Center 162
After two years of increasingly popular Halloween board game nights in the Computer Science department, with the support of the Graduate Student Senate, Board Game Night will be coming to graduate students across the university (or more accurately, graduate students across the university will be coming to the Board Game Night). This event will be a part of the GSS First Friday series of social events meant to bring graduate students from across campus together and build a cross-departmental graduate student community. You’re also encouraged to bring your own board games, although don’t worry if you don’t have any: there’ll be plenty provided.
While this event is free to all UMass grad students thanks to sponsorship by the Graduate Student Senate, we still need volunteers to make it happen. We’re still looking for a DJ and an official event photographer, as well as folks to mind the food lines and the sign-in tables. Please RSVP here, and if you’d like to volunteer please indicate your interest in the form.
