Academic unions

On April 17, 2005, Yale and Columbia Graduate TAs started a 5-day strike. To read the press release, go to www.yaleunions. org/geso/strike/strikevote.pdf. Two Graduate Employees Student Organization (GESO) publications are relevant for the strike. The first, "The (Un)changing Face of the Ivy League," reports on the number of minorities and women who have positions at Ivy League Universities, including a breakdown of tenured, tenure-track, and non-ladder positions (www.yaleunions.org/geso/reports/Ivy. pdf). The other is GESO's "Declaration of Principles for Collective Bargaining in Higher Education" (www.yaleunions.org/geso/strike/declaration.pdf)

* For additional information on GESO, go to www.geso.org.

On April 20, 2005, Columbia University hosted a joint strike rally for striking teachers at Yale and Columbia, for State University of New York (SUNY) and City University of New York (CUNY) Research Foundation workers fighting for the right to a union, and for CUNY and New School faculty fighting for fair contracts.

On March 1, 2005, Los Angeles teachers threw out most of their current leadership, electing as president a special education teacher and a slate of activists campaigning on a social justice agenda (Los Angeles Times, March 2, 2005).