Graduate team
CMU's graduate team doesn't get the coverage the football team does.
Graduate students recently formed a union because, being outnumbered four to one, they don't get much of a voice at CMU.
While some of what the union asks for may be too much, they deserve to be heard in a more useful way than through the Academic Senate. Giving potential grad students another reason to come here leads to a more competitive process, in turn improving the quality of research published, which helps attract administrators, students, professors and money.
But some of the union's requests, like in most bargains, are not reasonable. Offering a financial promise to graduate students would bind CMU's hands during shaky financial times.
Undergraduate programs should remain the first mission of CMU and no agreements should be made to put that goal at risk. It's just a question of degree and that's where negotiating with the union comes in.
Some of their issues are better dealt with through other methods than increased stipends; accreditation forces some grad students to enroll in more classes than CMU can afford to pay them for.
Sometimes that's the price you pay to go to an accredited program, but the individual schools should do all they can to inform students and deal with their concerns. If the problem is at the program level, either abandon accreditation or adapt to the national schedule.
But for the larger problem of graduate representation, having a union is another incentive for the best and the brightest to come to CMU. Our tuition helps support athletics and advertising to appeal to potential students.
Think of graduate students as pony-tailed walking billboards for CMU; researching and publishing billboards advertising CMU's educational strategy and lineup.
Academics are the sport where CMU should really focus on leading the MAC, and grad students are key players we need to attract and keep.
