Graduate assistants contribute valuable research, creative, and scholarly activities to our respective institutions and Nevada as a whole. Graduate assistants teach over 100 different undergraduate class sections, provide research assistance and mentorship, and directly contribute to the prestigious Carnegie R1 classification of both UNR and UNLV.

Currently, there is no overarching framework for graduate assistants to guarantee cost-of-living adjustments or other increased monetary support. There is both an urgent need to increase graduate assistant compensation, and to encourage graduate assistant collective bargaining to ensure fair wages, benefits, and workplace protections.

We, members of the public signed below, demand the following:

1) Graduate assistants shall be granted the right to unionize and to bargain collectively the terms of their contracts with NSHE and their respective institutions.

2) Nevada Graduate Student Workers shall serve as employees’ representative for collective bargaining with UNLV.