As finals week is in full swing, graduate workers at Indiana University have once again voted to extend their strike. This time, as classes end May 6, the strike continues into graduation weekend.
Looking toward the fall, the university will be putting together a task force to implement changes, IU spokesperson Chuck Carney told WFIU last week.
“The task force is going to begin meeting and some changes that they may want to implement right away could take place as early as this fall,” Carney said. “And that's one of the things that we'll be looking at. It won't be that we'll be waiting for a report to come out and then implement changes.”
A task force was started by the College of Arts and Science in 2019, and endorsed by the university, said sociology Ph.D. candidate Nora Weber.
Weber, a member of the Graduate Workers Coalition, said the task force was ineffective in the past.
“That task force came up with clear recommendations, the task force outlined specific, specific ways in which IU was falling behind,” Weber said. “And then the university refused to take any meaningful action to shift money towards resolving those problems.”
The coalition has voted every Tuesday on whether to extend the strike into the follow week.
Weber continues to feel optimistic that meaningful conversations with the provost and IU will occur in the coming weeks. The coalition will vote this Sunday on next steps and whether to continue the strike into the summer.
