The Star-Advertiser story, “UH graduate assistants’ fight to unionize reaches high court” (Jan. 27), gladdened my heart. As someone who taught at the University of Hawaii at Manoa for more than 40 years, I often have wondered why the university treated its graduate assistants so badly.

These are, after all, the people whose teaching and mentoring skills have long enhanced the education of our undergraduate students. If truth be told, some courses could not be taught without their presence and commitment. Yet graduate assistants have always been paid low enough wages to make living in Hawaii a real struggle. There is also an issue of lack of respect for their contributions.

Unionization would provide our UH graduate assistants real protection (just as it does the full-time faculty) and the right to negotiate with the state over their grievances.

But the university administration refuses to consider unionization. Many of us UH faculty who have long valued the work of graduate students in the classroom hope that the Hawaii Supreme Court will find in their favor.

Noel Kent

Manoa

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