Bargaining Session: 8/07/2025

We met with the USF BOT Bargaining Team again this week to continue discussion of previously introduced articles, and introduce a new one of our own! I’m happy to report that we were able to sign a tentative agreement for our retaliation article. We also introduced a new article, Representation. This article aims to make sure that GA voices and perspectives are included in University governance spaces. It is important for GAs to be included in the decisions that will affect our work and our lives at USF, so we are asking for a place on the agenda at Board of Trustees (BOT) meetings, seats for GAs on the Graduate Council, representatives on the Academic Health Plan committee, and other university governance spaces.

We have not yet heard back from USF on our International GA rights article, though they seemed like they were close to getting us a response on that one. They also informed us that we will not be receiving a response on our stipend proposal until OCTOBER. This was really disappointing news. They said that the university is currently conducting an internal audit, “being DOGE’d”, and that the audit will be done sometime in September. Once the audit is complete, USF says that they should have a better accounting of their finances and be able to provide us with a counteroffer to resume stipend negotiations. Hopefully that comes sooner than later.