To the beat of plastic bucket drums, the graduate teaching assistant union, or GTAC, held posters and cheered in front of Strong Hall as it ceremoniously opened negotiations for GTA contracts at the University of Kansas yesterday.

Every three years the contracts for GTAs open up for changes and amendments. The current contracts expire on Oct. 1.

A group of about 30 students rallied in front of Strong Hall before heading to the provost’s office to deliver a petition with more than 150 signatures and a letter listing requests for negotiations.

Delivery of the letter to the provost’s office was a courtesy, Provost David Shulenburger said. To officially open negotiations, the GTAC must deliver a letter and petition to Human Resources.

A group of graduate students delivered the letter and petition to Faucher after the union left the Provost’s office, Brian Azcona, New Orleans, La., graduate student and GTAC co-president, said.

Contract negotiations ended in success for the union three years ago, with increases in salaries and the University advocating better health insurance for GTAs to the state.

Since then, new policies have appeared that limit that success, Azcona said.

“There are ways outside of the contract for them to interpret it,” he said.

One of those policies was the 10-semester limitation on GTAs. A student may serve as GTA for only 10 semesters and must then convert to the status of lecturer to continue working for the University.

Lecturers do not receive the same benefits of a GTA he said, and it takes some students seven to eight years to finish all of their graduate studies, Azcona said. The policy was a way to get back at the union for concessions they made three years ago, he said.

The policy was also causing a reduction in the number of GTAs at the University, he said.

Shulenburger acknowledged the policy, but said that GTAs had not decreased at the University. In 2000, there were 921 GTAs, he said. Currently, there are 935.

The GTAC also wants to address the grievance procedure against the University for GTAs. Currently, the University does not have to acknowledge and enforce rulings made through the procedure, Azcona said.

“It’s a GTA’s one way to enforce their contract and it doesn’t have any teeth to it,” he said.

There have been few grievances in the last few years, Shulenburger said, but that concern and others would be addressed during the negotiations.

Both parties hope that negotiations go quickly. At least one meeting between students and the University may occur before the end of the semester, Shulenburger said.

No negotiations will occur during the summer because of the absence of many GTAs. They will meet again at the beginning of the Fall 2005 semester, he said.

— Edited by Austin Caster