In a recent letter to the editor, Brooks Schaffer denounces the GEO, arguing that paying grad employees a living wage will serve to reduce the number of graduate students at Illinois.

This claim is unfounded considering that the number of available teaching assistantships is strongly tied to undergraduate enrollment.

The University cannot cut the number of TAs without dramatically increasing class sizes, which is doubtful considering that Illinois already boasts a highly uncompetitive student to faculty ratio.

Schaffer goes on to say “Without the GEO, graduate employees would be paid the market rate for their respective disciplines.” Clearly this is not the case.

Currently, the magic of the market has produced a scenario in which Illinois pays grad employees substandard wages in relation to comparable institutions such as other Big Ten universities.

But even if we grant Schaffer his dubious claims, we are still left with an incredibly flawed rationale for not supporting the union. The GEO’s efforts are about much more than the bottom line.

The goal is to begin to reorganize the university’s priorities around increasing rather than undermining opportunities for people of working class backgrounds to have access to higher education.

I encourage the entire campus community to support this broader mission, of which the GEO contract negotiations are an important first step.

The union is no “virus” as Schaffer alleges.

The real infection here is the reductive market fundamentalism that has taken hold of public higher education, which too many are content to uncritically repeat.

Matthew Crain

graduate student