海角大神

For the past two years, Sean Wehle has been 鈥� by his own admission 鈥� sitting on the sidelines and watching a landmark fight between his university and his fellow graduate students.

On Tuesday, the graduate students won, as the National Labor Relations Board ruled that those students at private universities have the right to join unions. Depending on who you ask, the ruling could give graduate students benefits commensurate to their increasingly important role in the functioning of a university, or it could trigger a sea change in the academic environment, turning the flexible and personalized higher educational process into a transactional and combative one.

Mr. Wehle, who is in the third year of an Art History PhD program at Harvard University, is largely pleased with the , not least because he will be a teaching assistant (known at Harvard as a 鈥渢eaching fellow鈥�) for the first time this year, and he has lots of questions.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 even know how large my section will be yet,鈥� he says, referring to the subsection of students he will be teaching. He only found out this week which professor he'll be assisting. 鈥淚 do feel like both [student and worker],鈥� he adds, 鈥渟o there鈥檚 this weird conundrum. But I guess that鈥檚 the point鈥� of the board鈥檚 decision.

With its ruling, the NLRB clarified that graduate students at private universities can be considered 鈥渆mployees鈥� as defined by the National Labor Relations Act. This means they have the right to join a union and bargain collectively. The ruling reverses a 2004 decision involving graduate students at Brown University and brings teaching assistants in private universities in line with those at public institutions, who started organizing in the 1960s.

Poison or protection?

The universities themselves have argued that allowing graduate student employees to collectively bargain could poison the school鈥檚 learning environment, harming the work of faculty, undergraduates, and the graduate students themselves.

But for the students involved, it is simply a reaction to larger changes in higher education that have heaped more and more responsibility on nontenured workers and made it increasingly difficult for them to make ends meet.

鈥淭hese campaigns are a response to radically different reality in academics than even one our own professors experienced,鈥� says Paul Katz, a fourth-year PhD student at Columbia studying Latin American history.

The number of tenured and from 45 percent of all teaching staff in 1975 to less than a quarter in 2011, according to the American Association of University Professors. Meanwhile, part-time faculty like adjunct professors and grad students have picked up the slack, comprising more than 40 percent of college instructors, the AAUP reported.

So not only are graduate students doing more and more work, but the reward at the end of all that work is becoming less and less alluring.

鈥淚n the past there was this idea that you suffer through five, six, seven miserable years [of graduate school], you eat ramen noodles, you live in a cockroach-infested hovel, and then you emerge from that cave into the bright light of tenure,鈥� says Mr. Katz. 鈥淏ut universities are not adding tenure lines now, they鈥檙e removing them, and they鈥檙e shifting work to adjuncts.鈥�

Will unions deliver on campus?

There are concerns that union membership could cause more problems than it solves. Harvard graduate students have teamed up with the United Auto Workers for their union drive, but at least whether a union could deliver on the myriad complex issues graduate students face across departments.

Universities have warned that union involvement would interfere with the academic environment. In a letter to faculty and graduate students yesterday, Robert J. Zimmer and Daniel Diermeier, respectively the president and provost of the University of Chicago, wrote that the NLRB decision raised 鈥渢he fundamental question鈥� of 鈥渨hether a graduate student labor union would advance or impede students鈥� overall educational goals.鈥�

The graduate student education process, they argued, was distinct from the well-defined work of employees in the skilled trades and clerical positions.

鈥淚t is vital that we maintain the special and individual nature of students鈥� educational experiences and opportunities for intellectual and professional growth,鈥� they added. 鈥淎 graduate student labor union could impede such opportunities and, as a result, be detrimental to students鈥� education and preparation for future careers.鈥�

Union supporters often counter this argument by pointing to of graduate student unions at public universities showing that unionization didn鈥檛 notably harm faculty-student relations or academic freedom.

If private universities follow the example of public universities, there will be limitations to what can be discussed during collective bargaining, according to Angela Cornell, director of the Labor Law Clinic at Cornell Law School.

鈥淐ertain kinds of material that have to do with academic freedom and a range of other factors are really going to be off the table,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think there鈥檚 any reason to be concerned about this decision when it comes to causing major disruptions at private universities, because that just hasn鈥檛 been how it's worked at other institutions.鈥�

Wehle has his own concerns 鈥� about the details of the union鈥檚 priorities, about its possible effect on the academic climate 鈥� but when Harvard graduate students finally gather to vote on whether to form a union, he plans to vote 鈥榶es.鈥� Not just for his own benefit, but for future graduate students as well.

鈥淒o I need, or do I want, or should I have a legacy here?鈥� he says, waving his hands at the old crimson buildings of Harvard Yard. 鈥淭hat is a conversation that I鈥檓 having, especially with the prospect of being exploited as an adjunct professor.鈥�