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TABLE OF CONTENTS

OVERVIEW

Your Graduate Student Union needs your help to win your strongest possible Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with UMass Dartmouth! A CBA is a legally binding and enforceable document regarding our pay, hours worked, and other aspects of our employment at the university.

To be honest, our negotiations are not going well. The university hasn't agreed to one single item we've proposed! Their proposed CBA is entirely status quo — same pay, fees, health insurance, parking, same everything.

To pressure the university to start agreeing to our demands, we may ask all ~1,700 UMassD graduate students to delay their Fall 2025 course registration (if they can) until after the new fiscal year starts on July 1st. This proposed "Delay Your Fall Registration" collective action is intended to disrupt the university's budget projections for the upcoming fiscal year, which should reach up to the UMass President's Office and the Board of Trustees (our employers).

If this "Delay Your Fall Registration" collective action participation is strong, we may get a better CBA for all current and future UMassD graduate student employees. However, if the action doesn't go well, we may have to accept the university's proposed CBA, which is sickening. Everything they've proposed is basically the status quo, with NO improvements to our employment.

We know that you have questions! See the FAQ section below for detailed answers. Briefly:

Classes can't be canceled if they have 6+ registrants
This action shouldn't harm anyone or impact the university's actual budget or income
Your advisor should be supportive

MOST IMPORTANT: If this action might jeopardize any aspect of your life, DO NOT participate!! Do not risk anything for this action. Even if you are just uncomfortable delaying your Fall registration, DON'T! We love you and want to protect you. We are confident that others will step up -- that's the power of a UNION!

UPDATES

The survey we sent to all graduate students on March 7th-8th 2025 has shown strong interest in this proposed "Delay Your Fall Registration" collective action! So far, 38% of respondents have pledged to delay their Fall registration for as long as possible, and another 23% are interested! If the survey results continue to be this strong, we will officially launch the campaign to all ~1,700 UMassD graduate student employees and non-employees (for solidarity and as potential future employees).

Also, we are talking with the other 6 unions on campus (Maintainers, FacFed, ESU, AFSCME, IBPO, and UFCW) to evaluate our "Delay Your Fall Registration" escalation campaign from all possible angles and gather their support.

Update 3/24/2025: So far we have spoken directly with FacFed, ESU, and AFSCME about this campaign, and notified IBPO. We are pursuing conversations with the Maintainers and UFCW.

FAQ

1. Won't my Fall course(s) be canceled?

Any graduate course with 6 or more registrants can't be canceled (according to #1 of the Course Cancellation Guidelines published on the Provost's Office webpage). We would be asking you to not register yet for any Fall graduate class that already had 6 registrants.

Also according to the Course Cancellation Guidelines document, a course can't be canceled until May 7th 2025 at the earliest (one month from the registration open date on April 7th 2025).

2. What if delaying my Fall registration might jeopardize me in some way?

If delaying your Fall 2025 registration could possibly impact any aspect of your life, please DO NOT delay your Fall registration! We completely understand, and we do not want this action to jeopardize any aspect of a graduate student's life.

Before participating in this campaign, consider the potential risks to your:

academics
student housing
student health insurance
student employment
student visa
etc.

3. Will this escalation action reduce the university's budget and/or income? The university needs money!

No; this escalation action is intended to only disrupt the university's budget projections without harming the university's actual budget or income. To be clear: We absolutely want all students to eventually register for their Fall classes, and we definitely want the university to receive their tuition & fees money as usual! UMass Dartmouth needs every penny it can get (just not our pennies).

4. Will delaying our Fall registration harm faculty, staff, departments, etc.?

We are communicating with the other 6 unions at UMassD to be sure that this "Delay Your Fall Registration" action will not impact others; it is designed to pressure only the university admins.

5. What if my advisor insists that I register ASAP?

We are speaking with the Faculty Federation union to coordinate and get their support in advance (as well as the other unions on campus). Since this escalation action shouldn't affect your advisor in any way, there should be no need for them to pressure you into registering for Fall classes.

6. What are we negotiating for?

The Graduate Student Union is fighting the most for these 4 issues:

Increased pay
Reduced costs of tuition / fees / parking permits / health insurance
Faster processing of waivers / reimbursements / subsidies
Better parking privileges

These top priorities were identified as the most important for UMassD graduate student employees based on a survey we sent to all UMassD graduate students on March 7th-8th 2025 (and Oct 12th 2023, with the same results!). If you didn't receive the recent survey email from us, please let us know.

7. How can I get updates on this "Delay Your Fall Registration" collective action?

Your Graduate Student Union will update this Delay webpage with the latest info, answers to questions, and all other relevant info.

We'll also email everyone when we have a tentative Collective Bargaining Agreement, and when you can register for Fall classes!

8. When can we finally register for Fall 2025 courses?

For our escalation campaign to be successful, we must disrupt the university's budget projections for the new fiscal year (which starts on July 1). We would ask you to delay your registration until at least after July 1, and even longer as necessary to secure our best possible CBA!

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