BYLINE: By Alejandra Cancino, Independent Florida Alligator; SOURCE: U. Florida

LENGTH: 380 words

DATELINE: GAINESVILLE, Fla.

August 30, 2006 Wednesday

The University of Florida’s history department has increased the salary of new graduate assistants by $3,000, leaving returning students with questions about how much the department values their work.

The returning assistants in the department — about 30 — will be paid $9,000 a year, and the department’s eight or so new students will earn $12,000 a year.

Department Chairman Joseph Spillane said his department asked the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to increase the salary of all graduate assistants, but college officials said they did not have enough money.

“The department is not happy about it, either,” Spillane said, adding that the college left him with no choice but to raise salaries for new students. To do that, the department hired fewer students.

CLAS Dean Neil Sullivan said the history department increased salaries to compete with other universities, as well as to respond to a review that advised the department to increase graduate students’ salaries.

Todd  Reynolds, chief steward for Graduate Assistants United, said his organization conducted a study that revealed that other institutions pay graduate assistants significantly more than UF does.

For example, he said, the University of Michigan pays its graduate assistants about $21,492 a year.

“I agree that graduate assistants are underpaid, but this is a slap in the face to current workers,” Reynolds said.

Jason Antley, a UF doctoral student who works as a teaching assistant in the history department, said he was disappointed at the way administrators handled the situation.

“The administration tried to hide it,” he said, adding he did not hear the news about the salary increase until Thursday, when students met the department’s graduate student coordinator.

Sullivan said that though the circumstances are unfortunate, the college has to compete for new students every year.

Additionally, he said, returning graduate assistants are receiving a 3 percent salary increase this year.

But Reynolds said the college is essentially telling returning students that their jobs are not as important as new students’ jobs.

“When you are getting paid significantly less than the person you are training, it does not makes you happy to be a Gator,” Reynolds said.

(C) 2006 Independent Florida Alligator via U-WIRE