After a 95 percent approval from the Graduate Employees’ Organization, the University and GEO reached an agreement last Friday to end threats of a strike that could have suspended course calendars and thrown a wrench into final exam schedules. Thankfully, an agreement could be reached that was good for all parties involved, including undergraduate students.

Many of the terms seem to be common sense. In fact, it’s surprising that certain provisions, like giving employees the ability to file complaints of harassment by supervisors or granting accommodations for nursing mothers, were not already a part of the expired agreement between the GEO and the University.

Other gains appear simple and hardly groundbreaking, like the continuance of the tuition waiver, paying FAA teaching assistants their rightfully earned money taken away in 2010, or increasing coverage on health care fees from 75 to 80 percent. During the first five years of the new contract, the employees’ minimum wage will increase by 2.5 percent during the first two years, and by 1.5 percent for the last three years.

Given the tensions of professors and teaching assistants who were not supposed to use class time to discuss the possibility that classes could be cancelled — but did so anyhow — it’s most surprising at first that the contract will expire in five years. When it terminates, we’ll be right back where we started.

But the expiration of a contract allows for the issues to be revisited, revalued, revised. Things change over time and need to be reconsidered. It creates an opportunity for these seemingly minute or common sense gaps in contracts to be fixed. Collective bargaining allows the voice of the employee to be heard, and especially in the University environment where that employee’s dissatisfaction affects the molding of minds, that voice is significant.

In February 2011, Wisconsin made headlines when 14 Democratic senators fled to Illinois in an attempt to block the passage of a controversial law that restricted collective bargaining rights. Though its implementation could have saved the state considerable amounts of money at a time when it was facing over $3 billion in debt, the legislation was declared unconstitutional in September 2012 because it limited employees’ rights to free speech and association.

Despite ever-rising tuition costs and a state in financial distress, the University will need to follow suit and continue to honor the GEO’s first amendment rights. The University will undoubtedly need to carefully and collaboratively renew its contract in five years to preserve an environment that attracts quality graduate students — but we hope that next time it can be done smoother.

A student paying over $27,000 per year to attend the University should not have to worry that their last weeks of already-paid-for classes will be cancelled. The University needs to take seriously the needs of the GEO with much more efficiency — starting earlier with these negotiations, let’s say four and a half years from now, would be a helpful first step to avoid the threat of an academically debilitating strike.