IU Grad Workers Vote “No Confidence” in IU President Pamela Whitten; Endorse a Process to Explore Strike Readiness
BLOOMINGTON, Ind.—On Sunday, February 4, the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition (IGWC) lodged a vote of no confidence in IU President Pamela Whitten at the union’s general membership meeting and in a subsequent online vote. Graduate workers also endorsed a resolution on strike assessment and education to explore whether IGWC members would pursue a strike as a strategy to win their demands.
The vote of no confidence comes as a result of President Whitten’s failure to respond to an IGWC demand, signed by 1,300 graduate employees, for a union election and a living wage. The letter, which was sent on January 16, gave Whitten’s office a deadline of January 29 to respond to the demand. The administration still has not responded to the IGWC letter, nor has the IU Administration responded to any of IGWC’s attempts to open a dialogue since President Whitten joined IU in 2021.
Read the full vote of no confidence resolution here.
Graduate workers, like Maddie McReynolds in the Department of Biology, voiced their disappointment with the administration.
“The majority of graduate employees have repeatedly asked for a real voice when it comes to our wages, benefits, and working conditions,” said McReynolds. “The Whitten Administration has never even once responded to an email from IGWC. It’s totally disrespectful, and we’ve had enough.”
Others, like Nuzrath Jahan, an international student and graduate worker in the IU School of Public Health, noted the administration’s ignorance of working conditions for graduate workers.
“We do not make enough to pay rent in Bloomington; food inflation is out of control,” said Jahan. “If you are an international student, you are barely going to survive here. We need a seat at the table. Whitten has demonstrated repeatedly that she doesn’t have our best interests in mind.”
Katharina Schmid-Schmidsfelden, an international student and graduate worker in the Department of Germanic Studies, indicated that graduate students are not the only group that Whitten and her administration are ignoring.
“We have zero faith in President Whitten’s ability to lead our university,” said Schmid-Schmidsfelden. “The Bloomington Faculty Council voted back in 2022 for the administration to allow us a pathway to unionization, but the administration hasn’t even listened to the faculty. In fact, they are ignoring more and more voices everyday.”
The vote of no confidence also cites the recent suspension of Professor Abdulkader Sinno and the cancellation of IU alumna Samia Halaby’s exhibition as evidence that the Whitten administration is not only acting against the best interests of the university but is also suppressing fundamental rights.
“It’s clear to our membership that the university leadership is threatened by those who exercise freedom of speech, as in the case of artist Samia Halaby or Professor Sinno, or those who exercise their democratic right to form a union, like us,” said Adri Cruz, a graduate worker in the Department of Physics. “We hope that other undergraduate, graduate, and faculty organizations will join us and publish their own votes of no confidence in President Whitten. Practically everyone at IU is angered with this administration, and if we band together, they will be compelled to listen.”
The general membership meeting also concluded with discussion on other collective actions the IGWC might take in response to the administration’s failure to answer the union’s demands.
“Whatever collective action we take, we only do it together after we have a majority consensus among our members,” said Anne Kavalerchik, a graduate worker in the Departments of Sociology and Informatics. “Our members are considering sit-ins, rallies, and even a strike. Everything’s on the table right now.”
IGWC members endorsed the resolutions at the membership meeting and then voted on the resolutions online afterwards to ensure broader participation. Voting concluded on Monday, February 5, at 6:00 p.m.