Our public universities are somewhat unique among state agencies. In 2003, the Legislature delegated much of its oversight of universities, including tuition regulation and pay raises, to the governor-appointed Boards of Regents. In the 2019 legislative session, we fought for and won increased funding and cost-of-living adjustments for TRS—a system that remains under legislative control. However, in order to win all of our demands we must also appeal directly to each system’s Board of Regents. Largely as a result of legislative de-regulation, university employees have not received an across-the-board pay raise in over 15 years.
Last Fall, TSEU members at UT and Texas State University began a campaign to pressure their respective Boards of Regents to give a pay raise to every state university employee and cover all graduate student tuition costs. Members spoke to graduate-worker orientations, staff councils, and hosted happy hours. We tabled, leafleted, and canvased offices with petitions in hand and spoke with our co-workers about the issues. And, at our last University Caucus meeting, we voted to expand the campaign to every state university campus, and each system administration, in Texas.
TSEU is committed to pushing back against wage inequality and privatization at our universities. We work in coalition with organizations, such as Underpaid at UT (a graduate-student lead campus organization), who share our goals. Our work with groups like Underpaid at UT builds solidarity between workers on every corner of every campus in Texas.