Grad Expectations

Who will grade the midterm exam and run Tuesday’s discussion section? Who will set up the lab (Atwood machines, yes?) so that undergraduates can prove Newton’s second law (Σ F = ma), and understand its application in rocket science? 

Who literally gets their feet wet, exploring how to remove microplastics from local watersheds? Or their hands dirty, as they dive into colonial archives for lessons on today’s tax codes? In other words, who ensures the U.S. sets the pace for global innovation? And teaches the first-years? 

Faculty and staff know the answer, but outside of academia, many don’t. It’s the unsung, underpaid, overworked hero of higher education: The graduate assistant. 

Campuses can’t function without them. But they’re hardly paid like the mission-critical workers they are. Nick Filannino, a graduate worker and botanist at the University of Florida (UF), makes about $2,000 a month and drives a 23-year-old Crown Vic. Meanwhile, molecular geneticist Lisa Coe bartends to pay her bills. 

Life as a graduate employee is a series of financial problems and power imbalances. But UF grad workers know the solution. It’s to strengthen their NEAaffiliated union, UF-Graduate Assistants United (UF-GAU), which represents more than 4,000 on campus. 

Thanks to the union, Filannino has dental insurance for the first time in his adult 
life—and for just $20 a month. Health insurance costs him about the same, “and it’s very good insurance,” says Filannino, who is the union’s new co-president. “I’m not afraid to go to the doctor!” 

More and more U.S. grad workers see the power of unionizing. Indeed, they represent one of the fastest growing sectors of U.S. organized labor, according to a 2024 Hunter College study.

Recently, NEA Today visited UF to document the work of UF-GAU members and their efforts to grow their union.

While Lisa Coe studies for two graduate degrees at UF, a Ph.D. in biology and a master’s degree in science education, she works four jobs. By day, she’s a research assistant, paid by UF through a U.S. National Science Foundation fellowship, who works with phytoplankton and bacterial cultures to understand the molecular genetics underlying sulfur metabolism. Eventually, these experiments will better inform the connection between the sulfur and carbon cycles. “To put it simply, I like figuring out how microscopic organisms that we can’t even see with our own eyes have such a big impact on Earth,” Coe says.

The other three jobs? She works as a freelance photographer, hosts a weekly trivia game at a local restaurant, and mixes drinks at a Gainesville bar a few times a week. “You’d be surprised at the similarities [between lab and bar work],” she says—and  not just the stir-and-poof! Both are seemingly singular pursuits that depend on collaboration. “A lot of solutions in the lab come through interactions with others,” she says. 

You’ll not find Ellie Bollich’s name in a course catalog. But she has taught hundreds  of UF students about plant biology, plant taxonomy, photosynthesis, the sensory 
biology of vertebrates, and more. Three times a week, she runs three-hour Intro to Bio labs, which include giving and grading quizzes, lecturing for 10 to 40 minutes, and guiding students through the lab activities. Additionally, Bollich holds weekly office hours, proctors exams, and grades piles of student assessments. As a paid teaching assistant (TA), Bollich is the point person for students with questions.

“At the end of the semester, I spent two straight weeks answering emails!” she says. Lately, reading those emails has been a tougherthan-usual task: “My glasses broke, but I can’t afford to get new ones,” she says. For her TA work, Bollich is paid about $2,000 a month. Her biggest expense? Food. (She can’t live on ramen alone!) 

Meanwhile, Bollich is also pursuing a Ph.D. in biology through the mammal lab at the university’s Florida Museum of Natural History. “My main thing is small mammals, specifically shrews, and the relationship between species,” she says. 

Since taking office a few months ago, Filannino, alongside co-president Hannah Jacobs, and other UF-GAU members have been hustling. The challenge? To grow their union in the face of a new state law threatening to decertify UF-GAU and other higher ed unions. 

No union means no collectively bargained contract, plus the loss of a powerful counterweight. “[Grad assistants] can get into a sinister place,” Filannino notes, unable to say no to unreasonable or rapacious demands by supervisors who hold all the power over assistants’ potential degrees and academic careers. “[The union] can step in and say, ‘These are the rules and everybody needs to abide by them, and if everybody isn’t, we’ll have to go into the grievance process.’” 

In talking with current and potential union members, Filannino is encouraged. “I don’t know if hopeful is the right word,” he says. “But I am realizing there is so much more love and community in my spaces and in this world, and even in the state of Florida, than anyone would have you believe.”