LSA reduces GSI allocations by 8% for Fall 2024

The University of Michigan College of LSA began its fall 2024 semester with a reduced number of Graduate Student Instructors, LSA spokesperson John Lofy said in an email to The Michigan Daily.

The reduced number of GSIs reflects the implementation of a new policy for LSA graduate student allocations released Feb. 29. The policy adds several requirements for a course section to receive GSIs, including that the full course must have at least 50 enrolled students and two sections. The requirements also state that discussion sections must have a minimum of 25 students. This minimum was previously as low as 18 for some discussion sections, like those for LSA Honors core courses. 

The policy also outlines a new hiring priority for GSIs, which prioritizes Ph.D. students over masters and professional students. Master’s and professional students also require individual approval by LSA to be hired, whereas Ph.D. students do not. 

According to Lofy, the total number of GSIs in LSA was reduced from 1,300 in fall 2023 to 1,194 in fall 2024, an 8.2% decrease. Daniel Weaver, GSI in the English Department and head steward of the University’s Graduate Employees Organization, wrote in an email to The Daily that the decrease in jobs led the GEO to file two grievances against the University for contract violations.

One grievance, filed on April 24, centered on the University’s responsibility to notify GEO about LSA’s new policy, according to Weaver. Another, filed on May 9, was related to the policy’s new hiring priorities. Weaver said in an interview with The Daily that LSA’s changes to hiring priority allow it to prioritize Ph.D. students, who already receive guaranteed tuition upon enrollment, rather than other graduate students who receive guaranteed tuition upon being hired as GSIs.

“Master’s and professional students tend not to have the kind of guaranteed funding that a Ph.D. student like myself has,” Weaver said. “Whether the University gives me a GSI position or not, they’re obligated to fund me somehow, but if I’m, for example, a law student, there’s no obligation. When a law student gets a GSI position, they not only receive wages for teaching; they also receive a tuition guarantee. The University pays their law school tuition because that’s guaranteed in the contract that governs GSIs, but the University saw that as a place where they can cut costs by hiring fewer law students.”

While the policy does not explicitly prioritize hiring students the University already covers tuition for, Weaver said that is what is happening in reality. 

“(The policy) doesn’t say the University has to place people it would have to pay tuition for at the bottom priority,” Weaver said. “But in practice, that’s what it’s doing. That is a contract violation, so one of the responses within the union was to file grievances.”

According to Weaver, the University denied GEO’s first grievance on May 28 and their second on June 13. An arbitration hearing between GEO and representatives from the University’s Academic Human Resources department is scheduled for Oct. 24 and 25. The labor arbitrators selected for the hearing, Mark Glazer and Barry Goldman, will each be hearing one of the two grievances, as the University refused GEO’s request to have both grievances heard by the same arbitrator.

Lofy wrote that changes in GSI allocation happen every year based on the need for GSIs and that this year is no different. 

“Allocations always change year to year based on enrollment,” Lofy wrote. “As a result of these changes, departments receive more or fewer GSIs than they’d had in previous semesters.” 

The decrease in GSIs is not proportionate to the growth of the student population, however, as undergraduate enrollment has been increasing in recent years. Lofy wrote that LSA’s undergraduate enrollment has increased from 18,656 in fall 2022, to 19,249 in fall 2023 and 19,528 in fall 2024. 

Weaver wrote that the decrease in staff is larger and more significant than the decrease between 2022 and 2023.

“LSA has cut 8.2% of GSI positions from Fall 2023 to Fall 2024, compared to a marginal change of less than 1% from Fall 2022 to Fall 2023,” Weaver wrote. “Additionally, there has been a 53% decrease in the number of professional school (for example, law and social work) students employed as GSIs, and a 32% decrease in the number of master’s students employed as GSIs from Fall 2023 to Fall 2024 in LSA.”

Ph.D. students receive guaranteed financial aid determined by their specific program of study, which can include GSI appointments. Weaver stressed the decrease in GSI allocations may push Ph.D. students to complete their studies faster.

“My understanding of an effect of this policy is to strongly encourage Ph.D. students to get through their program more quickly than they have in the past, because availability of funding through teaching beyond the guaranteed tuition through this position will be rare, or rarer than it has been in the past,” Weaver said.

Ryan McCarty, English lecturer II, said he believes it is important to select qualified GSIs and not rush graduate students.

“I think that it’s important for graduate students, undergraduates, faculty and parents to say that cutting costs is not a good reason for cutting the quality of education at one of the premier institutions in the country,” McCarty said. “We know that having the best applicants possible in these jobs is important. We know that having graduate students able to take the time to produce quality research rather than rushing results or cutting things off is important. These are ways that we’re going to continue to be the leaders and best.”

Dominika Zgid, chemistry and physics professor, said she learned about the policy change in late spring 2024. Zgid said the change in course requirements to receive a GSI has placed more responsibility on her for her fall 2024 quantum mechanics course, which previously relied on GSIs. Under LSA’s new changes, the course lost GSI support because it has fewer than 50 students. 

“Our class structure was three hours a week plus office hours, and GSIs taught two of those hours,” Zgid said. “Now, this got canceled, so I teach one discussion section myself as part office hours, part discussion.”

Zgid said she believes the new requirements are hurting students because there are now fewer resources available to support their learning. 

“This disproportionately affects transfer students or students who were not so well-prepared at the high school level,” Zgid said. “The additional hours the GSIs were providing were addressing the needs of the students who fall between the cracks or students who come from underrepresented backgrounds. Overall, this makes us cater to a smaller population of students.”

Daily Staff Reporter Thomas Gala-Garza can be reached at tmgala@umich.edu.

Related articles