On July 11, the second-year cohort in the M.S. ILR program received news that every graduate worker dreads: none of the five members of the cohort who applied for funding would receive assistantships for the fall semester. In place of what had been assistantships in previous semesters, the department offered them roles as graduate teaching and research specialists, an unfamiliar title in a department where virtually all Ph.D. and M.S. workers had been fully funded through assistantships.
Despite the new title, the GTRS roles are similar to what had previously been a teaching assistantship — they’d work in the same course with the same instructor and largely the same responsibilities. However, they would lose healthcare coverage, tuition support and the protections of Cornell Graduate Students United's contract, which include just cause, nondiscrimination, and workload protections. Graduate workers would also need to come up with an unexpected $18,000 per semester in just a few weeks to stay enrolled in the program. Some of these M.S. workers are also international graduate students, so this would jeopardize their visa status as well.
When the group informed ILR Dean Alexander Colvin, Ph.D. ’99 that the abrupt financial hardship would force all five members of their cohort to withdraw — likely killing the small M.S. program entirely — the dean suggested they secure loans to make up for the unexpected shortfall, which would be due in under two weeks.With their concerns brushed aside by ILR administrators, the graduate workers wrote a series of joint emails to the ILR leadership and alumni to restore their assistantships. In about a week, the ILR School reversed its decision and procured TA or RA assistantships for all but two of the affected graduate workers.
On July 24th, members of the second-year M.S. cohort and their union representatives met with Dean Colvin to demand the reinstatement of in-unit assistantships for both of the remaining cohort members. Dozens of graduate workers from all over campus crowded into the meeting to show solidarity for their colleagues. The collective pressure worked: on July 29th, Dean Colvin emailed the last two members of the second-year M.S. cohort to inform them that he converted their GTRS positions back into teaching assistantships.
However, on the same day, one of the incoming first-year M.S. ILR workers reached out to the ILR School to inquire about their fall assistantship assignment and funding status, as they had not received any prior communication. They received an email back notifying them that their "guaranteed two semesters of funding" would be allocated at the ILR School’s discretion, and that they would not be receiving an assistantship for Fall 2025. With less than a month’s notice, they were expected to move to Ithaca and enroll in their first semester at Cornell with no source of income, while also paying the cost of tuition and health insurance.
After a series of correspondences from the first and second-year M.S. ILR cohorts, on Wednesday July 30, the incoming first-year M.S. ILR workers received another email stating that the program was able to secure fellowships which would cover their tuition and health insurance only for the Fall 2025 semester. No provisions for assistantships or other salaried employment were included. The ILR School has repeatedly attempted to sacrifice the financial wellbeing of its graduate workers in their labor program — one it has referred to as its “mission program” — to cut costs.
ILR is union busting, an ironic turn given its international reputation as a leading institution for labor research. Their actions are a classic example of unit erosion: a time-honored union-busting strategy of management to weaken union power by replacing union jobs with positions excluded from the bargaining unit, or in the case of the first year M.S. cohort, no positions at all. As part of the involuntary reductions in headcount they announced in June, Cornell is simultaneously trying to divide graduate workers, exclude as many graduate workers as possible from the union, and make budgetary cuts at our expense. At a time when higher education is under attack, we have repeatedly called on Cornell to prioritize its research and teaching education missions.
The bottom line is, Cornell will not stop at the M.S. ILR program. They have and will continue to target both the funding and in-unit status of other graduate workers whom they think are vulnerable or not sufficiently organized to fight back. If the ILR School assumed that CGSU-UE would not stand in solidarity with both cohorts of ILR M.S. workers, they severely miscalculated. While isolation tactics, revisionist narratives and fearmongering are tools of the boss, graduate workers and CGSU-UE will continue to rely on coalition-building and militant organizing on behalf of all grads.
Graduate workers do not accept the unannounced, last-minute withdrawal of funding for the incoming cohort of M.S. ILR workers, and neither do the program alumni, CGSU-UE members and concerned donors who have demanded the reinstatement of Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 assistantship funding for all M.S. ILR workers. If you are a member of the Cornell or greater Ithaca area community and also find these actions unacceptable, make your voice heard.
Contact Dean Colvin to urge that he make it a priority to secure Fall 2025 assistantships for the first-year M.S. ILR workers via email or a phone call to his office.
Signed,
M.S. ILR Graduate Workers
Zanaya Hussain, 2nd-year M.S. ILR graduate worker
Matt Chaffinch, 2nd-year M.S. ILR graduate worker
Dina Ginzberg, 2nd-year M.S. ILR graduate worker
Findley McSevney, 1st-year M.S. ILR graduate worker
Saumya Monga, 1st-year M.S. ILR graduate worker
Gabrielle Sanchez, 1st-year M.S. ILR graduate worker
Amalia Schneider, 1st-year M.S. ILR graduate worker
CGSU-UE Local Executive Board
President Ewa Niżałowska, graduate worker in the Department of Government
Vice President of Membership Jared Farley, graduate worker in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Campus Head Steward Jenna Marvin, graduate worker in the Department of History of Art and Visual Studies
Recording Secretary Charlotte Albunio, graduate worker in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Financial Secretary Gabe Sekeres, graduate worker in the Department of Economics
Communications Secretary María Bulla, graduate worker in the Department of Music
Region 1 Lead Steward Hannah Zonnevylle, graduate worker in the School of Integrative Plant Science
Region 2 Lead Steward Thea Rugg, graduate worker in the Department of Mathematics
Region 3 Lead Steward Ryan Randle, graduate worker in the Medieval Studies Program
Region 4 Lead Steward Joe Denisco, graduate worker in the Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering
Region 5 Lead Steward Evan Dong, graduate worker in the Department of Computer Science at Cornell Tech
Region 6 Lead Steward Federica Bologna, graduate worker in the Department of Information Science
Region 7 Lead Steward Zanaya Hussain, graduate worker in the School of Industrial Labor Relations
Ryan Randle is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Medieval Studies Program. She serves as the Regional Lead Steward for the Arts, Humanities, and Architecture. She can be reached at communications@cornellgradunion.org.
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