UE Local 1498 members at New Mexico State University recently won full tuition remission, allowing graduate workers to enroll in classes full-time without the burden of tuition payments. The members have been fighting for this since the creation of the local, when a petition for tuition remission was circulated.
The university and Local 1498 signed a memorandum of understanding on February 9, which was ratified by February 14. The win came before a scheduled reopener on wages and tuition. Local 1498 President Caedmon Ragland said, “Even when this is a good win for us, we want to always push them to do better.” The workers plan to do just that during the reopener.
NMSU was elevated to “Research 1” status last year — a designation university administrators have been aiming for since 2019. The prestigious Research 1 status is given to universities that spend over $50 million in research and award at least 70 research doctorates annually. Graduate workers at NMSU have made it clear that without proper tuition remission, the university would not be able to achieve the latter requirement.
Local 1498 was formed in 2021 and has made successful strides towards tuition remission each year, helping the university recruit and maintain doctoral students. At Board of Regents meetings and contract negotiations throughout the years, Local 1498 leaders have been outspoken about the mutual benefits of tuition remission. The administration seemed to finally agree when they presented a memorandum of understanding to the local last month.
When the memorandum was first presented, tuition remission was still tied to a dollar amount. The local was able to push the university into agreeing to a tuition reimbursement plan for up to nine credit hours — a full-time schedule for graduate students.
Ragland said, “We have been pushing for this for seven years and it has finally reached its conclusion. They finally caved because they no longer wanted to fight against us.” The local has plans to make the tuition reimbursement process more efficient during their negotiations and has begun putting together their bargaining team and contract action team. Ragland explained that since this large win has been taken care of, they can spend more time on other issues like wages.
Ragland said, “It makes me extremely proud and honored to be the person that gets to turn the page on something that we have been working towards for so long.” In a press release, Local 1498 member Adam Smith said, “Here's hoping that [the NMSU administration] realize that fighting us is not good for any of us, them or us.”