After a weeklong rally, members of a graduate assistant labor union shook the Dean of Students’ hand Friday outside of UF President Kent Fuchs’ mansion as they handed her a box full of messages from graduate assistants.
About 16 members from UF’s Graduate Assistant United walked from their offices in Yon Hall to the mansion to deliver more than 250 notes advocating for lower fees.
Fuchs was in a meeting when they arrived, but UF’s Dean of Students Jen Day Shaw took the notes and promised to deliver them to him.
“Grad assistants are the backbone of this university, and President Fuchs knows that,” Day Shaw said, adding that she knows Fuchs wants to raise graduate assistants’ salaries.
Members of GAU stood on the Plaza of the Americas last week to collect notes from students. Undergraduate students wrote about why they appreciated graduate assistants, and graduate assistants wrote about what they couldn’t afford because of fees.
“Paying for my heart surgery,” someone wrote. “Daughter’s college savings.” “Thanksgiving dinner.”
Charles Shields, the communications chair for GAU, said the union is disappointed they weren’t able to speak to the president in person. Day Shaw told them Fuchs would be open to meeting with them, Shields said.
“We are definitely going to take him up on that,” he said.
He said the union has been working on lowering fees for years, and they can’t let up on the fight. Ten to 20 percent of graduate assistants’ salaries go back to the university due to the fees, Shields said.
Alec Dinnin, a co-president for GAU, said the union is looking forward to talking to Fuchs, adding that he believes the UF president will work in their best interest. Until the fees are lowered, he said the union will continue to advocate.
“We’re not looking forward to collaborating with him next year,” he said. “We want to do it now.”
