On Aug. 23, the National Labor Relations Board ruled in a historic 3-to-1 decision that graduate students at private universities have the right to unionize. The case, out of Columbia University, reversed a 2004 decision barring graduate student unionization at private schools. In the days since, graduate students nationwide have begun fighting to join unions, including at Yale University and Northwestern University.

Jason Stephany — a media spokesman for the Service Employees International Union Local 509, which represents adjunct and contract faculty at the University — told the Justice in a phone interview that the union has started conversations with Brandeis graduate students in the wake of the decision, along with students at schools across the greater Boston area.

Brandeis graduate students had hoped to join the adjunct and contract-faculty union which formed at Brandeis last year. However, the NLRB barred them from entry under the previous precedent last year. Now that the precedent has been overturned, however, the opportunity is open for a new graduate student union. Both graduate students and adjunct and contract faculty could be represented by SEIU 509, but they might be formulated into separate bargaining groups.

Interim Vice President for Communications Judy Glasser wrote to the Justice in an email, “Along with many universities, we are watching the progress of this decision closely. We believe in the right of eligible employees to decide for themselves as to whether or not they wish to be represented by a union. If there was such an effort at Brandeis, we would follow the process set forth by the National Labor Relations Board.”

Prof. Christopher Abrams (FA), who is a spokesperson for the University’s adjunct and contract faculty union, wrote to the Justice in an email that graduate students “made common cause” with the faculty organizational effort last year and that he personally supports their right to unionization. “During our drive last year, many of the involved graduate students felt that they, too, deserved more significant representation in the process of deciding how their teaching efforts are organized and managed,” he added.

“Many schools make the claim that grad students are ineligible to organize themselves into unions because they are at the University to receive an education,” Abrams wrote. “But universities are increasingly relying on—and often exploiting—whatever low-cost resources they can to provide services to their student constituents. As the institutions demand more from their graduate-student instructors, those grad students feel increasingly ‘squeezed’ by the universities and need a substantive legal voice. This puts them in a similar position to adjunct instructors.”

Graduate Student Association representatives could not be reached by press time.