Workers of the world

The New Criterion ^ | 4.20.2004 | by James Panero

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The temperature hits seventy and, just as Armavirumque predicted, students at Columbia University took to the streets. As that great hacky-sacker Karl Marx once said, "Students of the World, unite on the quad for Ultimate Frisbee."

The cause this season? Graduate student unionization. Two years ago the graduate students at Columbia voted on whether to unionize with the National Labor Relations Board. The vote count---as at other schools--was never released due to court appeal by the University. About four hundred graduate students on Monday walked out of class and refused to grade papers in protest of this action.

That's the skinny. But you might ask the larger question as to whether it is appropriate or wise for Ivy League graduate students to seek labor rights and collective bargaining--especially through the book-loving folks at United Automobile Workers (UAW). Columbia and other schools--but especially Columbia--are certainly notorious for misusing and abusing their graduate work forces. And when its finals time and the dons sets off for the Cape leaving you with 70 papers to grade, well, who wouldn't want Lucca Brassi on their side? But at schools with unions in place, the UAW has proven ineffective at delivering on its promises. (And frankly, as someone who was at Brown University during its unionization drive, I would like to add that the UAW is one sleeeeezy organization.) Autoworkers--that is, people who build cars--have been leaving the big unions left and right. Shouldn't our future PhDs get the message? Maybe not. Our Man in Columbia writes in:

In the sea of parading placards, I noticed what looked like a pink parasol. The curious appearance of this elegant accoutrement at a rally for workers' rights was a reminder that these students, at an elite university, with their fellowships and subsidized housing, have nothing to complain about. Indeed, Joseph Epstein once called graduate school an "extended summer camp for undergraduates." Of course, the administration will not do the sensible thing by issuing a condemnation and punishing those who disrupt academic and campus life. So, maybe our graduate student radicals should forget about Marx and, instead of waving parasols, read Proust for a change. They should also come to Mr. Kimball's upcoming lecture at Columbia, entitled "Culture or Multiculturalism?" (Monday, April 26, 2004 at 7pm. Location: Jerome Hall, Columbia University, Corner of Amsterdam and 116th Street. Sponsored by The Intercollegiate Studies Institute RSVP: Dawn Steeves 212-247-6980. Open to the public!)

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How the UAW got in the business of unionizing grad students, I don't know. This further advances the hypothesis that American academia has devolved, like the human appendix, to the point of having no legitimate purpose.

Here are the links cited in the original article..

http://www.newcriterion.com/weblog/2004_03_01_cano.html#107912980500717062

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/20/nyregion/20strike.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1082519601-utET3c0gz/bW3jP/zL+6Nw

http://www.newcriterion.com/constant/tr.htm