The College Fix

Columbia let ‘Mattress Girl’ get away with it first

Graduating student union activists crashed Columbia University’s commencement ceremony last week, seizing the celebration and family gathering for political ends.

Graduate students overwhelmingly voted to unionize in December, following the National Labor Relations Board’s ruling that students who work as teaching and research assistants can unionize.

Since then, Columbia has been fighting the 3,500-member graduate student union by filing objections to the election results and declining to meet union organizers at the bargaining table.

During commencement, union activists barricaded themselves into a campus academic building and unfurled a banner inscribed with “We Are Workers,” as a loud blowhorn echoed throughout the ceremony.

The banner was held up for a few minutes, until Columbia police stormed the building and removed the rogue students, according to X-Campus Rank and File, a group that supports “organizing, resource-sharing, and rank and file solidarity among university workers in New York City.”

This was the first banner drop during commencement in recent memory, and possibly the first since 1968. Students then had staged a commencement protest, partially against uncovered ties between Columbia and the Vietnam war, Rank and File said.

But it’s the second ceremony to be disrupted in other ways in the past three years. In 2015, as part of her ongoing protest against Columbia’s refusal to punish the student she accused of rape, “Mattress Girl” Emma Sulkowicz carried her mattress on stage with the help of friends, in violation of rules prohibiting any “large objects” that may disrupt the ceremony.

Columbia would not comment on whether students who disrupt graduation ceremonies could be disciplined.

The day prior, during Columbia College’s Class Day, undergraduate TAs took the stage as graduates’ names were announced and proudly held up a banner in support of the union, much to the chagrin of administrators on stage.

One student, Jared Odessky, decorated his cap with “Union Busting is Disgusting.” Other students wore pins throughout the week that read “We Are Workers. Bargain Now,” as they attended the various graduation celebrations.

Columbia’s graduate student union has been urging the administration to come to the bargaining table for months. The bargaining committee of the union (GWC-UAW Local 2110) wrote earlier this month that they “have all the components in place to bargain with Columbia … except a willing bargaining partner.”

“If Columbia had not dragged out this process, we could be negotiating a contract this summer,” they wrote.

https://twitter.com/jaredodessky/status/864504102637756417

Since January, Columbia has argued that rules were violated during the union vote because of alleged voter intimidation and the presence of surveillance at the voting booth. Students overwhelmingly voted to support the union.

“Actions that could intimidate voters or create the impression of surveillance … are inconsistent with these basic values and violate NLRB election rules,” Provost John Coatsworth wrote in January.

“The prevailing rules must be scrupulously observed by all parties if we are to reach fair outcomes and effectively support all of our teaching and research assistants.”

The only party alleging that students were intimidated during the election is Columbia. No graduate student has expressed feeling coerced on the record.

Yesterday, the Columbia graduate union activists bussed over to Yale University’s commencement for another round of pro-union mischief, according to a form they released earlier this month their comrades to join them.

Yale graduate workers ended their hunger strike after two weeks in an unsuccessful attempt to bring the Yale administration to the bargaining table.

Last week, they hosted a pro-union candlelight vigil and marched outside of the home of Yale President Peter Salovey, holding banners saying “How Much Hunger?” and “How Much Longer”?

Local 33, Yale’s graduate student union, is planning on demonstrating during the members’ own commencement as well, but it’s unclear what form their protest will take.

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IMAGE: Jared Odessky/Twitter