Howdy y’all! We hope everyone has been having a great summer so far and finding ways to stay cool in the Texas heat. This summer we’ve focused on canvassing and our efforts continue to build momentum across campus! We’ve now reached Chemistry, Physics, Math, Astronomy, Psychology, Neuroscience, and Integrative Biology, gathering valuable feedback from graduate student workers along the way. Student workers have been candied about stories about retaliation concerns from PIs a

Voting on the updated role proposal is open now in the UTGWU Announcements chat on Signal! Organizing Meeting Updates -- July 7, 14 At our July 7 meeting, we finalized our reevaluation of union roles. The proposal for roles can be found here. Elections will be held in October to give those joining the union at the beginning of the semester an opportunity to run, and term-length will be a year. If there are any questions/concerns about the proposal, feel free to let us know

UTGWU finds ourselves writing yet another statement condemning the UT administration’s recent changes to our campus’s departments, centers, and resources. On February 12th, UT faculty, staff, and students received an announcement via email regarding the consolidation of seven independent departments into two new conglomerate departments. African and African Diaspora Studies (AADS), American Studies (AMS), Mexican American and Latinx Studies (MALS), and Women’s, Gender, and S

On Friday, January 16th, a number of programs and centers received news that they would be closing at the end of the academic year. This includes the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL), the Office of Community Engagement, the Vick Advising Excellence Center, and the Office for Undergraduate Research. The CTL’s entire staff was unceremoniously fired by UT administrators - including graduate research assistants and teaching fellows. While all of these cuts are unnecessary,

Whether you’re a longtime union member or just getting started, now is the time to deepen your involvement in our growing movement. And if you're a graduate worker interested in joining the union, this is the perfect opportunity to learn more about what we do. Join us for UTGWU's Union Member Orientation, at 3:30-5:30pm on Wednesday, January 21st at University Baptist Church (2130 Guadalupe St., Austin, Texas, 78705). Come to learn more about your union, take part in practic

On November 6th, the UT Graduate Workers Union officially reached a 100 union members, with at least one union member in over 40 academic departments. This represents dramatic growth since our launch event in September. The union members, who come from different walks of life and academic backgrounds, have all made a pledge to engage in labor actions that have been democratically decided on by the union. In doing so they have chosen to stand with their fellow students in the

Over the last few months, the Trump administration and its acolytes in state governments have launched an existential challenge to academic freedom in university research and teaching. The federal government is slashing funding for entire fields, from environmental research to gender studies, based not on scientific reason but on a fundamental denial of established scientific conclusions that challenge the worldview of those in power. In Texas, the government has seized curri

We are excited to announce that we are now recruiting union organizers! ​ As a recruitment organizer, you'll be talking to your coworkers about the union and getting new members signed up. Any UT graduate student passionate about fighting for their fellow workers is eligible - no experience necessary! ​ Sign up here: