Undergraduate student workers in teaching roles at Harvard are unionized under the Harvard Graduate Student Union, which represents both graduate and undergraduate students. After months of tense negotiations and a brief strike in late 2021, HGSU ratified their latest contract that included, among other changes and concessions, broad pay and benefit increases and additional Title IX support. Both undergraduate and graduate student workers benefited from these changes, but it is important to note that HGSU has very little undergraduate participation relative to graduate students — including no members on the Executive Board — and thus, contracts are primarily shaped by graduate workers and university officials.
Since undergraduate workers have unique needs and a distinct relationship with the university, the contract may not be best suited to supporting undergraduate workers. Closely examining clauses from the current version of the contract for their impact on undergraduate workers reveals several necessary improvements for future iterations. If HGSU implements these changes — namely, addressing students’ financial needs, offering increased flexibility, and making undergraduate participation in HGSU more accessible — the next contract will help undergraduates be more engaged in their work, strengthening the essential relationship between the university and all of its student workers.
As in any union contract, pay and benefits are often the most visible and the most contentious elements. The current HGSU contract provides a number of benefit funds to student workers, including childcare funds, legal funds, and funds to support international student workers. However, other than an emergency and bicycle fund, most of these funds are unavailable to undergraduate student workers because eligibility guidelines restrict access to only those working over 280 hours in a semester.
Harvard undergraduates can work a maximum of 20 hours per week during the academic term, which lasts approximately 15 weeks. So only those working near the maximum number of hours per week are eligible for these benefits. This rarely occurs — many students are hired for fewer hours per week, and work approaching 20 hours can hinder academic success. Certainly, in typical work settings, benefits are reserved for full-time workers, and Harvard and HGSU cannot be expected to extend their most significant benefits to undergraduate workers. Nor would they need to, since Harvard College provides many of those resources already, like healthcare and financial assistance.
However, undergraduate workers still have monetary needs and expenses, compounded by the high tuition costs of college, that Harvard and HGSU should support. Doing so would be to their advantage – benefits tend to help employees feel appreciated and more secure in their employment, which is essential in a workplace so dependent on student employees. Plus, HGSU already deducts 1.44% of members’ weekly paychecks for dues, so members should feel that their investment in the union is worthwhile. HGSU might consider offering a stipend for printing or laundry costs, or discounted MBTA passes to assist with transportation costs around Boston, a benefit currently restricted to graduate students. These discounts would be inexpensive and would reduce some of the financial stress undergraduates face, improving their loyalty towards the university and HGSU in the process.
Another way HGSU can reduce stress for undergraduates in their next contract concerns the disruption of work. Sickness, family emergencies, and other interruptions occur frequently. Unfortunately, there is little guidance from the University about how to manage these situations. Regarding sick leave, HGSU contract simply states that “Student workers shall have a right to a reasonable number of days per semester or summer session of sick leave with no loss of compensation.” Individual hourly student worker contracts do not mention the number of sick days that are allocated, nor do they describe a formal process for requesting one. Since teaching positions for undergraduates are inherently more flexible and on an hourly basis — office hours can be rescheduled, grading can be done at a student’s convenience — it is difficult to discern whether it is even possible to take a sick day since there would appear to be no actual reduction in work. Clear communication is necessary.
Adding a clause to the contract specifying a maximum allowance of leave days, if there is one, for hourly undergraduate workers and detailing the steps a student should take to request a sick day would relieve much of the confusion about sick days and the hesitancy to take one. Students will thus have time to give due attention to both work and personal life, instead of their personal life detracting from their work, and they will feel more comfortable and supported in their work environment.
Beyond chance events, there are many other consistent time strains for undergraduate workers. Some weeks, especially those later in the term, are much more intensive for student workers due to an increased academic and extracurricular workload combined with the simultaneous additional grading and teaching responsibilities. Undergraduate workers are especially in need of flexibility to help support them through the challenging and often unfamiliar experiences of college life. The only hourly-worker specific information HGSU contract provides about such workload is a restatement of the College’s 20-hour limit on work hours, without addressing the inherent variability of working during a college semester. Of course, each job is different, but providing general guidance about support students should receive when they struggle to fulfill their work obligations would establish an important standard.
HGSU’s next contract must stress advanced communication of increased work responsibilities so that students can have time to plan ahead. It should also encourage professors to extend flexibility by moving deadlines or offering alternative arrangements to complete work responsibilities, avoiding situations where student workers are scared to ask for help or fail to complete their work. Both in terms of leave and schedule flexibility, clear communication within the contract about those policies and procedures for students would encourage students to reach out, better support themselves, and make use of the resources available to them.
Nevertheless, the above changes only address current (not future) issues with the contract, and they do not establish a permanent place for undergraduates at the bargaining table. To best ensure the continued representation of undergraduate student workers, more undergraduates must be actively involved in the union to advocate for changes they need. Undergraduates have already been an essential part of previous HGSU strikes and activism, and they could be of great benefit to the union’s internal operations as well. Unfortunately, official union participation by students at the College is very low, which may be due to a number of factors: the cost of dues, hesitancy about unions, lack of peer participation, and feelings of disconnect from graduate students, among others. The contract itself, in terms of recruiting undergraduates, mentions only that “to allow the union time to address current and potential SWs [student workers], the University will provide the union one week advance notice of any orientations pertaining to bargaining unit positions.” This clause enables the union to speak briefly to any incoming undergraduate workers about joining the union as general members, but it specifies nothing about the roles undergraduates may take on to help shape the union’s contracts and bargaining decisions. If (as evidenced by HGSU’s recruiting efforts) undergraduates are so essential to the union, shouldn’t their policies reflect that?
An ideal solution would be to update HGSU’s bylaws to outline a seat on the union’s Executive Board specifically designated for an undergraduate representative and reduce the dues of undergraduates since as hourly workers, they have limited access to the benefit funds provided by the union. Reducing barriers to entry and empowering student workers to take on leadership roles within the union would ideally create a chain reaction where as union membership among undergraduates becomes more widespread, others would be more willing to join. Everyone would benefit: the union from increased membership, and undergraduates from needed union representation and support.
Ultimately, the current HGSU contract provides many great benefits to all student workers, but undergraduate workers have an especially precarious level of financial constraints, leave and scheduling needs, and union hesitation that the contract can do better to address. By not only modifying their bylaws to include undergraduate-friendly policies, but working to make union membership more accessible and more common among undergraduates, HGSU can help ensure the long-term success of both its contracts and its student workers.
