The University of Illinois and members of the Graduate Employees' Organization came to a tentative agreement Tuesday, suspending a two-day long strike about tuition waiver security.

Peter Campbell, GEO communications officer, said around 450 GEO members voted to accept the tentative agreement. The three year contract, which applies retroactively starting August 2009, does not reduce tuition waivers for graduate and teaching assistants who meet three conditions: they must have qualifying assistantships, they must be making progress toward graduation in the program they started in, and they must be in good academic standing.

The agreement also includes increased student health insurance fee subsidies, giving graduates a 65 percent subsidy in the first year of the contract and 75 percent in the following years.

Rich Potter, member of the GEO strike committee, said a coordinating committee will meet to call for a two-day contract ratification vote, likely to happen before Saturday.

Kerry Pimblott, lead negotiator for the GEO, said though the group made some concessions, they could be confident in the security of the tuition waivers.

“The language basically says there will be no change to the ongoing tuition waiver policy,” Pimblott said. “If violated, we can grieve it.”


More info from The Daily Illini at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign