Chris Ashley on how he came to support GESO:

When I first heard of a graduate student union my freshman year here, the idea sounded preposterous. Unions, in my mind, were either part of that confusing period of U.S. history between the big wars, like the Haymarket riots, or else fat men in ugly suits posing with Mayor Daley and getting indicted for corruption. I forgot the common sense I knew -- that administrators are more powerful than anyone, and that graduate students are poor and powerless -- and put my faith in the media's image of bad unions. So I believed the stories I heard about GESO harassing and intimidating people into signing union cards. I never asked why no names were ever attached to those accusations, because I sort of assumed that anyone who questioned the union would get a visit from the mob. The idea of some Ph.D. student in Renaissance Studies beating up Marlon Brando on the docks sounded ridiculous when I actually verbalized it. But faculty and administrators who want to discourage union participation have very real threats at their disposal. GESO members have reported such intimidation on the record, especially in the hard sciences. Those threats should chill to the bone anyone considering grad school. Even if you don't believe graduate students should unionize, such threats have far more power to disrupt the student-teacher relationship than any union drive, simply because they're backed up by executive force. When teachers are willing to kill their students' careers to preserve their own power, that's abuse. It stains the school I love. And even if we want to question both sides' abuse claims, my Christianity still compels me to the side of the powerless, which will almost never be the side of capital. What I learned over the dinner table, frankly, was that American graduate education is broken in some respects. Not in all -- that's why I still think grad school sounds like a good idea -- but in some. GESO is working to fix these by creating another power center in the academy, one that could set some limits to the presently unchecked power of administrators. It's not the plan I would have come up with. But who else is even trying?

Also in today's YDN, Kate Unterman describes Monday's MLK Day breakfast:

Despite the grim nature of the report, everyone in attendance expressed confidence that Yale would soon recognize where its best interests lie: with the workers, teachers and researchers who make this University function. In the uniting spirit of Dr. King, GESO cemented ties of solidarity with New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr., State Sen. Martin Looney, the New Haven Board of Aldermen and fellow Yale workers. It's a shame President Levin wasn't there. He could have learned a lot about what genuine commitment to diversity entails.

And Kisten Weld takes issue with Levin's response:

The chimera to which Yale clings -- let's call it LevinWorld -- is a magical bit of whimsy. It looks something like this: First, diversity on campus is being "dealt with," and the Graduate Student Assembly and the Executive Committee are effective bodies for that purpose. Second, Local 1199 "has nothing to do with the University." And third, GESO "[does] not represent Yale graduate students." Now, the cold water: Yale's diversity stats remain damning. Grad and faculty diversity still lurk considerably below the national average. And during my time here, I've never heard a peep from the GSA. I trust they're "representing" me on this one, although they've never even spoken to me. Next, Local 1199 is the Yale-New Haven Hospital workers' union. Yale-New Haven makes millions of dollars for Yale, and Levin sits on its board of directors. To suggest that these workers have "nothing" to do with Yale is insulting. And finally, GESO represents hundreds upon hundreds of graduate students, who are calling upon Yale to recognize their union.