Fellow workers,
We are writing to you with an important announcement about the academic calendar for the spring semester.
TLDR: For the week of 1/15/23-1/21/23 all graduate student employees have a period of non-responsibility, during which you will be paid but cannot be asked to do work. After that, your supervisor can ask you to perform work. But during this week you have the right not to work, and you should absolutely take that time!
Last spring, the Faculty Senate voted to change the academic calendar, extending the winter intersession by 2.5 weeks and pushing back the start of the spring semester until the first week of February. The reason for this was to expand the number of UWW courses UMass can offer (which, in practical terms, means expanding the for-profit arm of the university). This change has some important practical implications for GEO members—especially TAs and TOs, as well as the ARDs who work in the dorms.
This year, the beginning of spring contracts for TAs and TOs will include a one-week “period of non-responsibility” from 1/15/23-1/21/23. During this time you will be paid, but you cannot be required to perform work by your supervisors. According to the university, that week of pay is intended to cover the last week of duties a TA or TO will need to perform at the end of the semester: from 5/29/23 – 6/2/23. There will be no break in pay during the winter session for graduate instructors, but our contracts will end a week earlier than they normally do.
Why does this matter? Although the calendar change impacts GEO members, the university declined to negotiate over those impacts. They maintained that the academic calendar was a matter of academic policy, not labor relations. But we are all well aware that our student status and our identity as graduate workers are deeply intertwined. It will be incumbent upon us to advocate for ourselves and to ensure that our rights are respected. If you or someone you know is a TA or TO who is asked to work during the next week, let us know right away so we can both address the immediate situation and correct it, and gather evidence in the event (hopefully unlikely) that UMass seeks another academic year with a lengthened winter session.
As always, if you have questions or concerns about this or anything else, please reach out to us at geo.
solidarity always,
GEO leadership
