Over 45 individuals gathered outside of the Administration building on Stony Brook University’s campus in order to protest what they said are poor working conditions for graduate students and an unwillingness on the part of New York State (NYS) and State University of New York (SUNY) to bargain in good faith.
The protest was part of a statewide action at different SUNY campuses held by the Graduate Student Employees Union (GSEU). Kaya Turan, an organizer at GSEU, said they hoped to show the Stony Brook administration that graduate students on campus “were suffering.”
“We want that pressure to spill onto the bargaining table where we will be treated, hopefully, with some respect,” he said.
GSEU does not bargain with Stony Brook directly, but instead with NYS and the central SUNY administration. Despite this, Turan said there was still value in demonstrating at one of SUNY’s flagship campuses.
The protest began just after 1 p.m. After gathering outside of the Administration building, demonstrators began to chant for a more favorable contract and quicker turnaround on negotiations, which they say have been happening for nearly a year with little progress.
Protesters then headed into the Administration building, and made their way to the third floor, outside of the office of Interim President Richard McCormick. There, demonstrators unveiled a petition several feet long that was signed by over 1900 individuals statewide. Demands listed on the petition included a clear grievance process for recording workplace concerns and the end of non-disclosure agreements on cases of sexual harassment.
Another large concern GSEU has been focusing on has been possible issues for international graduate students under President Trump’s administration. Trump pushed for much stronger restrictions on immigration throughout his campaign, and since taking office has moved to send thousands of armed soldiers to the southern border and promised to deport international students, studying on visas ,who participated in pro-Palestine protests on college campuses.
Andrew Dobbyn, the statewide president of GSEU, expressed concern that the new Trump administration could make it significantly harder to attract and retain international talent.
“The situation will only get worse with [Trump] in office, because the ability to recruit international [graduate and teaching assistants] will decline,” he said. He also pointed out that many international graduate students who come to Stony Brook end up unprepared for the high cost of living on Long Island.
“When they get their offer letter in dollars, they don’t realize how pricey Long Island is because they do the conversions to their own domestic currency,” he said. “If they don’t have those students here because it’s becoming more and more difficult to come here legally on an F-1 or J-1 [visa], I don’t know where they are going to get folks.”
After the petition was presented by the graduate students, they began to chant for better working conditions outside the president’s office. A representative for the president quickly arrived and accepted the petition from the demonstrators, after which they left the building and gathered outside.
Turan announced to the crowd that GSEU would continue to advocate for better working conditions and a more favorable contract for graduate students, and attendees began to disperse.
In response to the protest, a spokesperson for the SUNY administration wrote in an email to The Statesman that “SUNY is actively at the table with the State and our GSEU/CWA students to negotiate a new contract,” but declined to comment further. A spokesperson for the University declined to comment.
After the protest ended, Daniel Greeson, a GSEU organizer and a student in his fourth year of a PhD program in linguistics, said that he had helped organize and attended the demonstration because he wanted to help “show SUNY and Stony Brook that we are tired of waiting for a new contract.”
“A lot of people who don’t have additional sources of income have been forced to take on credit card debt,” he added. “That’s a thing that a lot of graduate students I know are dealing with, in addition to student debt that a lot of people already have. Which I think is really unfortunate because we bring a lot of value to the University.”
