The Graduate Employees Organization held a rally Thursday afternoon to celebrate the University agreement to continue tuition waivers for students in the Master’s of Computer Science program.

The main objective for the organization is to protect tuition waivers for graduate students, especially for international students who have had to pay tuition.

Co-president and formal grievance officer Becky Schumann emphasized that “tuition waivers are one of the things that our members care about the most.”

GEO member Paul Atienza said a lack of tuition waivers could hurt future educators.

“Tuition waivers really allow grad students to be able to do research and teach at the same time,” Atienza said. “If we don’t have the waiver, we would have to find ways to pay for our education and the teaching and the research that we do in connection with all the colleges we belong with, it’s important that we’re focusing on that.” 

In the future, the organization plans to work with the University to get tuition reimbursed for MCS students — who were previously required to pay tuition and work as hourly RAs. If disagreements surface, the GEO will work with the arbitrator for alternative actions or proceed toward legal procedures.

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