I have recently stepped into a new role as the Associate Provost of Graduate Affairs at Boston University. As many of you are likely aware, BU (like many schools) recently experienced a graduate student unionization and strike. We’ve made great progress implementing many aspects of the new collective bargaining agreement but are running into challenging issues that I was hoping to get feedback on from this community. First, if your institution has a unionized graduate student body, how have you defined work in non-grant fields? Specifically, when humanities or social science students are not teaching and need to travel abroad for their dissertation research, how have you managed their work requirements related to their employment as “workers”? Secondly, and related, how have you paid them when their are abroad as workers rather than students?
Any guidance appreciated.
-Sean
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Dr. Sean P. Mullen
Associate Provost of Graduate Affairs
Boston University
UMBC doesn’t have a union for GAs. If a GA is doing field work away from campus (in another state or another country) they would be treated the same as someone doing work on campus. They would still be enrolled and submit the required completion of duties (used in place of timesheet since they do not have employee status) form. They are treated as though they are on travel and receive direct deposit into their US bank account.
Can you clarify what you mean by “abroad as workers rather than students” here? I assume they are in regular contact with their faculty research mentor while away. Couldn’t they track their time in a manner that is similar to the way it is done when they are “working” as a research assistant on campus?
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