The IU Board of Trustees said they will not recognize the graduate worker union, despite the faculty vote calling for them to do so, in a letter to the Bloomington Faculty Council May 31.
The Board of Trustees said in the letter that they wanted to ensure no further disruptions from the graduate worker strike.
“Existing, long-standing university policies that were developed through shared governance recognize this, and any member of the community — whether staff or tenured faculty or associate instructor — who fails to uphold their responsibilities in this regard will be subject to the consequences stated in these policies,” the trustees said in the letter.
The trustees said the minimum stipend increase for graduate workers is only the beginning of necessary improvements and thanked graduate workers who submitted grades on time.
They also said President Pamela Whitten and Provost Rahul Shrivastav had responded quickly with listening sessions and collaboration with the Bloomington Faculty Council to establish a committee to investigate graduate worker issues.
The graduate workers have indicated they will continue to strike in the fall despite suspending the strike for the summer.
