This email was originally sent to faculty on October 2, 2025, and is archived here for reference. It may not reflect the most current information. For updates on the 2025–2026 GEO negotiations, please visit the GEO bargaining updates page. To receive ongoing updates, you may also subscribe to the GEO negotiations newsletter.

Dear Colleagues,

As we approach the beginning of bargaining with the Graduate Employees’ Organization in November, I want to speak with you about how we, as faculty, fit into this process and what values will guide the university’s approach.

Our graduate student instructors are essential to the university’s excellence. They are gifted scholars, dedicated instructors, and future leaders in our fields. Their voices and concerns matter, and our commitment to supporting them is unwavering.

Our shared responsibility is to sustain the whole of this institution, including its students, its research, its public mission, and the integrity of its degrees. That means we must view bargaining with a wide lens. This is not a contest measured by who wins or loses; rather, what is important are mutual gains that strengthen our community at a crucial moment in the story of higher education.

Decisions made during these negotiations have ripple effects across departments, campuses, and disciplines. GEO has communicated that a Graduate Student Research Assistant organizing effort is underway, which means even more in our community may be involved. When we succeed in finding reasonable, sustainable arrangements with graduate student employees, we succeed in ensuring undergraduates receive excellent instruction and research projects move forward. Our goal is to craft agreements that elevate and sustain all parts of the academic community, in line with our collective mission.

We also recognize the importance of learning from experience. We listened to you during the last negotiations and have reflected carefully on what you shared about transparency and frequent communication. My commitment is that we will communicate clearly and consistently with you, and that we will center our decisions in the values of respect, academic integrity, and the well-being of our students and colleagues.

You can find messages from me regarding negotiations in the News and Communications section of the Office of the Provost website. Once negotiations begin in November, a dedicated negotiations update page will be available on the U-M Human Resources website.

Faculty have a vital role to play, engaging in dialogue, mentoring graduate students, and maintaining the quality of teaching and research during this process. By holding to our values together, we can help minimize polarization and foster the trust necessary to reach an agreement that honors everyone’s contributions.

All of us – faculty, staff, administrators, and students – have an opportunity to show what it means to be the University of Michigan: principled, collaborative, and united in purpose to our students and to one another.

I welcome your thoughts. Please feel free to email me at [email protected].

With gratitude for all you do,

Laurie McCauley
William K. and Mary Anne Najjar Professor
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs