Meet the Grads Standing Up to Admin's Crackdown

25 February 2026

Ever since UIC first announced the graduate hiring freeze at the outset of bargaining in Spring 2025, graduate employees have noticed increasing workloads and tightening supervision practices--despite the union's warning to UIC admin to bargain in good faith. But graduate workers haven't taken these new austerity policies sitting down. Across campus, workers are stepping up our resistance to worsening conditions.

In Computer Science, workers challenged a pattern of unfair teaching evaluations that threatened their funding. The department has since promised a directly affected worker that the discipline would be wiped from the record after a year, and additionally promised a policy to that effect--but still hasn't made any of these commitments formally in writing. Furthermore, in subsequent communications with the union, department leadership contradicted these terms, walking back its promises, instead merely offering to "gather suggestions" and "listen carefully." It demonstrates that by simply bringing the union into the conversation, we can win immediate relief for individual workers--but it will take broader efforts to win lasting guarantees. 

Meanwhile, in Criminology, Law, and Justice, workers pushed back against unfair appointment changes with inadequate compensation. From Department Steward AC's point of view, it's a clear case of "departments dropping the ball on logistics for instructor and teaching assistant positions and expecting graduate workers to overwork themselves in order to bail out the department". After gathering more than 15 workers for a meeting with department leadership, administration has responded with partial concessions - but still falls short of the workers' demand for increased compensation. AC explains why grads are still unsatisfied: "Throughout the entire grievance process, the CLJ department has attempted to pin the blame on [the worker] for taking an unfair assignment that is resulting in an exceeding of their contract's work hours, when realistically the choices we as grad workers are given are not made in a vacuum; our careers and livelihoods as workers are grounded in our ability to teach and work for the university, so the choices we are provided with may not be truly informed or fair."

In Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, workers have just filed a collective grievance about late appointment letters and last minute additions to course assignments. In doing so, MIE workers challenge several contract loopholes administration takes advantage of to pack appointments with extra unpaid work. For Department Steward CC, the case proves the importance of winning a comprehensive contract: "I've made good friends with department faculty and staff over the years who keep telling me how much they appreciate graduate students and our mental health. Yet their inaction to make enough noise to get the department to respect us via fair contracts and transparent communications shows that we can only rely on ourselves and, most importantly, a legally-binding contract. Otherwise, the university will continue to use vague wording, loopholes, and the feeling of futility among graduate students to squeeze as much uncompensated labor from us as possible." After multiple meetings, walkthroughs, and conversations, we've uncovered numerous other potential violations in the department that contribute to a climate of fear among graduate workers, many of whom are understandably concerned about retaliation and visa status. Despite the hardships, CC encourages us to persevere. "Bravery in the face of adversity may feel unobtainable. Hell, my stomach has been in knots for the best few weeks. But the administration is a house of cards that is built on a foundation that can't survive collective voices and actions speaking out against their wrongdoings."

In each of these cases, workers are documenting the negative consequences of the administration's austerity practices for the quality of teaching and research at UIC. These efforts also demonstrate that, when workers push back, UIC can be forced to give in and make concessions. The union difference is decisive: where departments are unionized and organized, we have the greatest shot at pushing back. 

Tired of settling for the status quo? Ready to flip the script on UIC's austerity playbook? Join our campaign for a fair contract: take the first step by signing our "Fair Contract for a Fair Future" petition, share with your coworkers, and then sign a membership card!