MU graduate students rally for change
Hundreds of University of Missouri graduate students rallied on campus in front of the columns demanding change Monday.
Earlier this month, the university took away health care from graduate students a day before it was set to go into effect. Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin reversed the university decision last Friday restoring health care. But Wednesday students said more needs to be done.
The Forum on Graduate Rights, a group that has grown to about 1,600 graduate students, and some faculty members rallied in front of the Mizzou columns wearing red shirts. The group then marched to Traditions Plaza holding up signs and chanting.
“A lot of people don’t have child care assistance,” MU gradute student Mitch Johnson said. “And it’s not a long term plan right now. They’re just trying to buy us out for the short term period, but there’s no long term. Is there gonna be health care next year? I mean we’re gonna have the same issue here.”
In a letter to the Mizzou community, the forum said, “Over the past few years we have lost access to childcare and house, seen a reduction in our real wages, seen many of our colleagues living in poverty and had more of our already low wages taken back by the university in fees.”
“My husband and I together made $18,000 a year as full time graduate students,” MU graduate student Jayme Cisco said. “So that’s just not, that’s deplorable, and it’s certainly below other universities that are similar to us.”
Abc 17 reached out to the university Wednesday.
“The chancellor, along with the rest of the university’s administration, fully supports and values our graduate students – in fact our mission of education and research depends on them,” Christian Basi with the MU News Bureau said.
The chancellor’s task force to look into how MU can continue to officer students health care legally met for the first time Tuesday.
“I know that they want to work with us,” MU graduate student Katie Steen said. “So I think going forward, a unified approach with both the administration and the students is what’s gonna be able to improve the lives of graduate students on our campus.”
The chancellor also plans to meet soon with the graduate student experience task force and will talk with them about their additional concerns, Basi said.
The forum said it will continue its campaign until students are given “decent working conditions and provisions.”
The task force’s recommendations are due to Chancellor Loftin by October.
