Thanks to the active involvement of our members we continue to become more effective each year at improving conditions for Academic Student Employees (ASEs) and advocating for a stronger, more accessible higher education system. In 2013 we
- Won relief from new fees that should not have been charged to 50% ASEs with waivers
- Used this victory to ensure that the newly imposed International Student Fee could not be charged to International ASEs with waivers
- Ensured ASEs who should have received reimbursements for fees to get re-classified and afforded full protections of the contract
- Helped fight off efforts by the Legislature to increase international student tuition
- Increased the profile of harmful sequester cuts to research, resulting in WA Congressman McDermott drafting a letter urging House Leadership to support science and other key programs. 39 members of Congress signed on to the letter in support
- Defeated UW efforts to prevent Law Student ASEs from having collective bargaining rights
- Experienced our hard-won wage increases after 3 year hiatus (as high as 10% for base pay GSSAs) and an increase to the quarterly childcare subsidy
- Secured back-pay for hundreds of hourly ASEs who had been underpaid in recent years
- Won agreement from UW to reimburse ASEs in fee-based programs who were being required to pay a portion of their own tuition
- Worked with coalition partners to register 15,000 new voters in Washington State
- Supported community efforts to improve standards for other workers in the community (Walmart, Fast Food Workers)
When we weren’t putting time into strengthening our rights as ASEs we continued maintaining quality in the classroom and tutoring centers and continued to innovate in research. UW works because we do! Check out the University’s Top Ten most viewed stories to see how many of the work that gets publicly recognized is carried out by ASEs.