CGSU-UE ELECTIONS

My name is Ewa Nizalowska (she/her) and I am an international graduate worker from Poland and a fifth-year Ph.D. Candidate in Government. I am running for President of CGSU-UE on the Build / Activate / Mobilize (BAM) slate. Amid attacks from far-right organizations like the National Right To Work Committee; the federal government’s ongoing crackdown on higher education and labor rights; a precarious legal and political landscape for international workers; and persistent silencing of protests against the genocide in Palestine, we need a fighting union that can stand up to the federal administration and hold Cornell accountable to protecting its graduate workers. Our slate, Build / Activate / Mobilize (BAM), has developed a platform dedicated to meeting this political moment at a critical time for harnessing our union power and winning campus-level and national-level fights.

As the current President of CGSU-UE, I have been at the forefront of a culture shift towards a CGSU-UE that is more militant, mobilized, and democratic than ever before. Through my leadership of the first Local Executive Board, CGSU-UE has built a robust steward network of over 115 active stewards who are empowered to take on ambitious fights to enforce our contract and fight for our rights across Cornell’s campuses. Our monthly General Membership Meetings have become avenues for open and transparent member-to-member engagement and collaborative agenda-setting for our union. Through establishing five standing committees, we have built a robust arena for membership involvement across our union’s communications, data management, social events, political action, and action to protect trans workers. Our communications, spearheaded by María Bulla, have opened up more opportunities than ever for member engagement, information-sharing, and education. A culture of openness, robust member-to-member engagement, and worker democracy is crucial to continuing to build a union that can fight and win ambitious fights, both against the boss and against the federal government’s anti-higher education and anti-labor agenda. 

The fights we are waging extend beyond Cornell, and we must continue to build strong networks of solidarity with workers in Ithaca and across the country to collectively weather federal-level attacks on labor and higher education. To this end, in the past two years, I have served as one of the leaders of UE Higher Education Conference Board, a body composed of nearly all of UE’s Higher Education locals representing a total of over 20,000 graduate workers. As part of my work on the Conference Board, I led the campaign for submitting public comment to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) against a harmful proposed federal rule that would limit international graduate workers’ visa terms to four years. I was also one of the co-organizers and co-panelists on a nationwide panel on International Graduate Worker Power, alongside labor leaders from across the country. I also co-led the call for a nation-wide Mutual Academic Defense Compact, which demands that our universities pool legal and financial resources to collectively weather federal attacks on international grads and funding cuts. This campaign involved coordinated local actions at twelve universities, and was covered by major news outlets, including MSNBC. Over the years, I have represented CGSU-UE at UE sub-regional, regional, and national-level meetings and trainings, including the 79th UE National Convention; two UE Eastern Region Meetings; the MIT-GSU Union Leadership Training; and a workshop on strike power at UE Local 506 in Erie, Pennsylvania. 

Prior to serving as CGSU-UE’s first President, I represented Region 3 on our Bargaining Committee, where I led our fight for industry-leading protections and benefits for international workers. During the many major fights to protect suspended graduate workers, I co-led the Communications Committee in carrying out the national and local press strategy to raise awareness of our contract fight and exert pressure on Cornell. As part of my work spearheading our media strategy, I represented our union through direct conversations with local and national reporters, which led to extensive coverage of our contract fight in outlets like NPR and The Nation. Along with Jenna Marvin, I established a robust organizer network in Region 3 and facilitated weekly region-wide meetings to build a strong culture of sustainable worker-to-worker organizing. This culture shift encouraged democratic participation and empowered grads to take ownership over organizing in their departments to mobilize their coworkers, equipping us with the power to reach a supermajority of strike pledges in our region. I also served on the Constitutional Committee to ensure that our union is firmly rooted in the principles of member-run unionism and rank-and-file democracy. 

We have built a strong foundation for harnessing our collective power to transform our workplace. At the heart of our priorities is shifting the culture away from Cornell’s preoccupation with profit and towards valuing people. If elected to continue serving as CGSU-UE’s President, I am committed to continuing to carry out this vision. Our slate, Build / Activate / Mobilize (BAM), is united around an ambitious agenda that puts engaged, militant rank-and-file organizing at its core. To learn more about our slate, visit https://build-activate-mobilize.org.

I’m Gabe Sekeres, a second-year Ph.D. graduate worker in the Economics department, and the current Financial Secretary of CGSU-UE. I began organizing in my first semester at Cornell, and became particularly active during strike escalation. Through mainly conversations with my coworkers – the core of union organizing – I built a unified strike threat from my department, and personally convinced dozens of graduate workers to sign strike pledges. After we ratified our contract, I led the fellows inclusion and ratification bonus working groups that organized to push Cornell to extend all of the economic benefits, including the $1,300 ratification bonus, to over 700 fellows on campus. Since being elected Financial Secretary in July, I’ve begun dues collection, instituted voluntary fellow dues, and overhauled our data infrastructure. The latter is, by far, the most important. Cornell did not deduct dues from 502 people on August 31, and with our new infrastructure we were able to file a grievance within an hour listing the exact mistakes they had made. With the work I’ve started with Max Fan, Stephan Wagner, Andrea Cicirello, and Rebecca Margolit-Chan, this process will be automatic in the future, ensuring that they do not try to steal our dues again.

I’m running for Vice President of Membership on the Build / Activate / Mobilize slate because I am fundamentally an organizer. Our contract is industry-leading, and we have a robust steward network that has been actively and aggressively enforcing it. Regardless of that, our main wins have come by organizing members. It’s how we won MS graduate workers in the ILR school their jobs back, it’s how we’re fighting for graduate workers that Cornell is firing through academic pretexts, and it’s how we join in solidarity with other workers and organizers at Cornell to fight the administration’s austerity measures and “involuntary headcount reductions”. 

I attended the 79th UE national convention in August, and had the opportunity to meet with and learn from leaders and rank-and-file UE members from across the country. Even more than the concrete organizing advice that I received – itself invaluable – the most important thing I learned was how UE members work and organize by the principles that guide the entire union. The three principles that spoke most to me were rank-and-file control, uniting all workers, and aggressive struggle. I look forward to instituting them concretely in CGSU-UE, as your Vice President of Membership.

Specifically, I plan on instituting regular organizing meetings around our priority campaigns, making sure that we have buy-in and support from our organizers, and ensuring that member voices are being heard. Rank-and-file control does not just mean that members run the union, it means that our compass must always be the rank-and-file, not entrenched organizers. Uniting all workers means being transparent in our plans and strategies, to make sure that we all stand together and speak with one voice. These combine to give us the means for aggressive struggle. Aggressive struggle means that we fight together against the boss, not abstractly in small working group meetings or even in grievances, but as an entire united membership of thousands of us. I look forward to coordinating that fight. To learn more about our slate, visit https://www.build-activate-mobilize.org/.

My name is Jenna Marvin (she/her), and I am a fourth-year Ph.D. Candidate in History of Art & Visual Studies and the current Campus Head Steward of CGSU-UE. I am running for Campus Head Steward on the Build / Activate / Mobilize (BAM) slate. I have been organizing with CGSU-UE since before our membership card drive in 2023. In addition to serving as a Region 3 representative on our Bargaining Committee, alongside Ewa Nizalowska, I created and coordinated the humanities and social sciences organizing structure during our strike escalation campaign from the ground up.

As our current Campus Head Steward, I spearheaded the election of over 115 stewards across our bargaining unit. Stewards are the backbone of our union not only because they file the grievances that enforce our contract, but they are also the face of CGSU-UE in their workspaces. I believe that creating a sustainable, community-based, inclusive, collaborative, and transparent organizing structure is crucial to our ability to protect graduate workers. Stewards across our union’s seven regions meet weekly to discuss ongoing grievances and organizing campaigns, in addition to visiting offices and labs in their workspaces and calling department meetings to discuss union business. In the past two and a half months, our steward network has mobilized to secure graduate workers’ seventh-year funding, transitional funding for graduate workers to change advisors, and TCAT passes for all doctoral workers and in-unit Master’s workers, among a number of other crucial wins that make the lives of graduate workers better and more equitable. CGSU-UE is finally becoming the vibrant, visible, and militant community that many of us have fought hard for. 

That being said, we still have work to do. In this term as Campus Head Steward, I will continue to grow our steward network by encouraging active members to become stewards and by working with the VP of Membership to cultivate trust in departments and communities that are under-represented in our organizing and leadership structure. I am currently working with a group of stewards to develop an international graduate worker survey to hear from international workers about how CGSU-UE can best support them.

As our current Campus Head Steward, I am also responsible for keeping our organizing focused on multiple inter-connected fights—Cornell’s blatant attempts to discipline and fire workers to cut costs and appease the federal administration, the fight against the far-right’s attempt to dismantle graduate unions based on false accusations of anti-semitism, and the federal government’s attack on the rights and dignity of international workers. If elected for this upcoming term as Campus Head Steward, I will prioritize robust contract enforcement alongside militant organizing to make sure that our members understand the connection between our union and these national-level fights. 

To learn more about our slate and our platform, visit build-activate-mobilize.org

I'm Andrea Cicirello (she/her), a third-year PhD student in the Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) department. I have been organizing across campus since Fall 2024 and am the current Area Lead Steward for MSE, Operations Research and Information Engineering, and Applied and Engineering Physics. I am running for Financial Secretary with the Build / Activate / Mobilize (BAM) slate to continue the work I have done as a rank-and-file member, to ensure our union dues are being collected and used to further the interests of our members, and to fight back against Cornell’s attempts at wielding financial power against us. 

As a rank-and-file member of CGSU-UE, I have helped build our democracy and apply UE principles to our union. I helped build a credible and unified strike threat among engineers in the spring of 2025. I was a member of the Constitutional Committee where I helped write the basis for our local to fully establish itself. As a steward, I fought for academic rights for grads: I stopped the unjust firing of multiple MSE grad workers over the results of their Q exam and secured them transitional funding in one of our first formal Appointment Security grievances. I also helped enforce our contract by fighting for TCAT access when Cornell failed to activate passes for every grad worker. 

I am also fighting for the rights of trans grad workers such as myself on this campus. Alongside Katrina Davis, Max Fan, and Ewa Nizalowska, I founded and am the chair of the Trans Rights Action Committee. Under my term as chair, TRAC is establishing mutual aid and community connections throughout Ithaca as well as educating and mobilizing membership against the attacks on trans grad workers, students, faculty, staff, and members of the Ithaca community by Cornell and the Trump administration. 

I am running for Financial Secretary with the BAM slate because our dues and the way they are spent is one of our most important tools in the fights we are taking on this campus. I will ensure accountability in the ways the finances of the union are being used and that union expenses are only made to organize, defend, and further the interests of our members. Cornell has already attempted to wield financial power over us. I am working with Gabe Sekeres, Stephan Wagner, Max Fan, and Rebecca Margolit-Chan to secure tens of thousands of dollars in dues from hundreds of members that Cornell failed to collect.  As Financial Secretary I will fight back against Cornell’s weaponization of financial power and ensure that CGSU-UE has the power to support and defend its members. 

To learn more about our slate, visit https://www.build-activate-mobilize.org/

Howdy! I'm Deepanjali (Deepa) Chowdhury (she/her), a second-year graduate worker conducting research in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE), and currently serving as a department steward in CBE and Materials Science & Engineering (MSE). I am running for Recording Secretary on the Build / Activate / Mobilize (BAM)  slate, and I'm excited to bring my passion for meticulous documentation and member advocacy to this critical role.

I got more active in the union when I worked alongside peers in Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) to advocate for and file an Appointment Security Grievance this past spring. Together with Andrea Cicirello and Katrina Davis, I played an integral role in this case, collecting crucial evidence and mobilizing fellow graduate workers who had lost their appointments to seek union support. The grievance made me recognize how union representation translates into real protection for graduate workers when the administration overreaches. Since then, I regularly attend General Membership Meetings, continue fulfilling my responsibilities as a steward, and consistently advocate for graduate workers to receive fair treatment based on the protections outlined in our contract. Currently, I serve on the Communications Committee, where I work on both internal communication to our membership and external outreach efforts to build solidarity and awareness of our union's mission.

I am running for CGSU-UE Recording Secretary with BAM because I understand that comprehensive, accurate record-keeping forms the backbone of any successful labor organization. Throughout my involvement with CGSU, I have witnessed firsthand how important documentation has been in our current union processes – from grievance proceedings to contract negotiations – and I recognize that robust record-keeping will be absolutely necessary for our union's continued success and growth. However, my vision for this role is far beyond administrative duties. I believe that maintaining detailed, organized records serves as a protective shield for every member in our bargaining unit. At a time when unions are under increased scrutiny, I will ensure that our union's documentation and records are thorough and consistent. This commitment to accountability protects not only individual members but also strengthens our collective power.

Furthermore, I am determined to use meticulous record-keeping as a tool to defend our membership against Cornell's systematic attempts to weaponize data and exploit graduate students through bureaucratic manipulation. The administration has repeatedly demonstrated their willingness to use incomplete information, selective data presentation, and administrative technicalities to undermine graduate worker rights. As Recording Secretary, I will ensure that CGSU maintains comprehensive documentation that can counter these tactics and provide our membership with the evidence needed to secure fair treatment. 

To learn more about our slate, visit build-activate-mobilize.org.

My name is María Bulla (she/her). I am a fifth-year DMA Candidate in the Music Department, and currently I am CGSU-UE’s Communications Secretary. In the past few months, and in collaboration with members of the Local Executive Board, I have been in charge of our unit-wide communications: emails, newsletter, zines, flyers, website, and social media posts; as well as the design of our merchandise.

As part of a strategy to overcome email fatigue while keeping our membership updated about the constant activities of the union, we created the monthly newsletter The Stew. In this newsletter we have shared important developments of current fights, upcoming events, news, readings of interest, as well as opportunities of engagement and solidarity with the Ithaca community at large—this with the purpose of connecting our community with the town where we live because our fights are connected. The Stew has proven to have great engagement and reception from our membership, and I am excited to continue with this project in the upcoming months. 

Along with the Communications Committee, which I chair, we have created a new zine for incoming students (a continuation of the success of our contract zine), multiple social media and flyer campaigns with the purpose of sharing current fights as well as celebrating our wins. We have revitalized the content and appearance of our website, and we keep it up to date with important information such as our events calendar, contact forms, and important links and documents. We have also created new stickers and buttons that highlight the essential presence of queer and international workers in our union. My goal as Communications Secretary has been to create clear forms of communication that reach every single graduate worker, wherever they are located. From experience, I know this is not an easy task, but with creativity, and alongside incredible organizers, we will keep working towards this goal. 

Aside from my responsibilities as Communications Secretary, I am a member of the Political Action Committee. I am also a steward for Region 3 and I have been working on grievances that affect workers in multiple departments across the arts and humanities. I am an international worker, and as such, I want to keep working towards the growth of our strong and militant union. There are no fights we can’t take when we act as a united front.

Our first Local Executive Board faced unprecedented challenges, but we were able to work through them by staying together as a team, with the guidance of our leading officers and the support of UE National staff. In the past few months I have witnessed the incredible work all of our candidates have done in this new stage of our union, and I am excited to continue this work with them. I am running with the Build / Activate / Mobilize (BAM) slate, to continue with my work as Communications Secretary of our union. For more information, visit http://build-activate-mobilize.org.

My name is Calla Bush St George and I am a sixth-year PhD in Microbiology. I am an Area Lead Steward for Region 1 (CALS Life Sciences departments) and an engaged organizer in our fights across campus. I am proud to be a member of CGSU-UE and I am running for Region 1 Lead Steward on the Build / Activate / Mobilize slate. 

As a steward and rank-and-file union member, I have been committed to making union culture the norm, not the exception. I have done this by leading stewarding and departmental trainings to ensure that the union is foundational to being a graduate worker. I’m a leader of CGSU Action Team (CAT), and help run the weekly meeting where we help identify workplace issues, mobilize colleagues, and enforce our contract. During contract bargaining, I attended open-bargaining sessions to defend the rights of my fellow workers when their positions were at risk. I have attended and organized countless phone-banks to help organize workers around every cause and keep members up to date on current issues the union is focusing on. On the social committee, I help to enrich union culture by planning events that strengthen our community. As a current Area Lead Steward, I fight for worker’s rights and ensure Just Cause. Since I have been elected, I have educated members on the rights enshrined in our contract that we are fighting to maintain. This education happens every day, when I represent the union at department coffee hours, while I TA, and when I visit departments to check in on fellow workers. I am passionate about informing workers of their rights, especially when it comes to fighting the boss and standing up for themselves. 

As Region 1 Lead Steward, I will be committed to fighting for graduate worker’s rights whether they are here at our university or abroad. I will work with the Local Executive Board and uphold the standards of UE. I will collaborate with all workers and help them speak when they can not.

My name is Julio RuizDiaz, a second-year PhD student in archaeological anthropology. I am running for Region 3 Lead Steward. Since arriving at Cornell in Fall 2024, I have been an active organizer with CGSU-UE and currently serve as a Steward in Region 3. In this role, I have worked to build solidarity among graduate workers, welcome new members into our union, and support campaigns that defend our rights. As Region 3 Lead Steward, I am committed to strengthening our region by building community, improving communication, and ensuring that our union is responsive and accountable to its members. I will work with stewards and members across Region 3 to take the fight to the administration, standing up for our protections, addressing grievances, and ensuring our union remains strong and effective. Our power comes from the trust and solidarity we build together. I am committed to showing up, organizing with purpose, and helping Region 3 remain united in the struggles ahead.

My name is Stephan Wagner (he/him) and I'm a second-year PhD in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. I am the current Area Lead Steward for the MAE, ECE, and SE departments, a Trustee, and a proud rank-and-file member of CGSU-UE. I have been an active organizer in our region and across campus since before the strike escalation that secured our industry-leading contract earlier this year. I am running for Region 4 Lead Steward on the Build / Activate / Mobilize (BAM) slate.

As a steward, I have been representing and supporting graduate workers across our region since we ratified our contract in April. Every day, I fight on behalf of grads to enforce that contract against immense resistance from Cornell. I was elected Area Lead Steward by the graduate workers in Region 4 this summer, and I have since led grievance procedures in departmental and campus-wide fights. In one case, I represented an MAE worker who was denied employment accommodations by SDS. With the help of other Region 4 stewards, including Katrina Davis who is running alongside me on the BAM slate, we were able to secure a remedy for our MAE colleague. That remedy includes consideration of employment accommodations under Title I of the ADA, superseding SDS’s previous policy of granting only student accommodations. This victory sets precedent for all graduate workers at Cornell seeking workplace accommodations they rightfully deserve. In another case, I am standing up for every grad on the Ithaca campus to secure the free TCAT services we are guaranteed in our contract. Despite Cornell’s promises, hundreds of workers have had their cards denied on TCAT buses. Together with BAM slate candidates Jenna Marvin and Andrea Cicirello, I am bringing the fight to Cornell so that every grad can ride the bus for free!

As a current Trustee, I am responsible for safeguarding the property of our Local, which includes our membership dues. Through grievance procedures and the creation of effective data infrastructure, I am working with my BAM slate colleagues Gabe Sekeres, Max Fan, Andrea Cicirello, and Rebecca Margolit-Chan to hold Cornell to its contractual obligation to collect those dues so that we can build a robust strike and defense fund and secure our Local’s future.

As your Region 4 Lead Steward, I will continue to work tirelessly and fight relentlessly to protect and defend graduate workers throughout the College of Engineering, and I will do everything in my power to represent the interests of all grads on campus and abroad. As a Regional Lead Steward and a member of our Local Executive Board, I will uphold the values of CGSU and embody UE’s principles of strong democratic rank-and-file control of our Local. I will work closely with our region’s passionate stewards and organizers to continue to strengthen our incredible worker support network. And I will collaborate and stand with the members of the Local Executive Board to preserve our union in the face of national political pressures seeking to dismantle human and labor rights across the nation.

To learn more about our slate and our platform, visit https://build-activate-mobilize.org.

I am the current Region 5 Regional Lead Steward and a third-year Ph.D. Student in Computer Science with a history of labor organizing at local and national levels. Before coming to Cornell, I was part of AFL-CIO staff and a member of Newsguild Local 32035. Since starting at Cornell in the Fall of 2023, I worked with CGSU during our first card drop and union election, with regular office visits and individual conversations to hear feedback throughout Cornell Bowers. After moving to Cornell Tech, I have continued to collaborate with other organizers across departments, putting on Tech-specific info sessions on strike mobilization and bargaining updates. In the coming year, I hope to build up a more sustainable and close-knit stewardship structure that allows us to fight for all students at Tech by taking on and winning grievances. I am running for Region 5 Lead Steward with the Build, Activate, Mobilize slate to build up strong, cross-campus leadership that will give our union the strength to act independently and make material gains at Cornell Tech.

I’m Max Fan (he/him), a second-year PhD in Computer Science. I am an Area Lead Steward in Region 6 (Bowers CIS), Trustee, and a proud rank-and-file member of CGSU-UE. 

Over the past year, I have been organizing heavily in my region and across campus in order to build a strong, independent, rank-and-file union that can represent the interests of all rank-and-file workers, particularly those who are in my region. 

Leading up to the contract ratification, I helped build strike power in my department so that we could secure our industry-leading contract provisions to protect non-citizen workers. After contract ratification, I served as our region’s representative to the Constitution Committee, where I played a key role in enshrining our Local’s member-led democracy to protect rank-and-file control of the direction of our union.

Now, as an Area Lead Steward, I am advocating for my fellow workers through contract enforcement and various mobilizing campaigns. For example, along with Jenna Marvin, Ewa Nizalowska and many other rank-and-file members we restored full funding for the second-year MS in ILR grad workers who, in a break with past practice, were denied full funding. The second-year MS in ILR cohort, many of whom formed special committees and signed leases under the expectation of full funding, were told weeks before the start of the semester to take out student loans to cover the cost of surprise tuition bills and healthcare coverage or withdraw from their degree program. Organizing and successfully protecting vulnerable grads showed me how union power can change lives and is why I have dedicated so much of my energy to this union.

As a Trustee along with Stephan Wagner and Andrea Cicirello, I am responsible for safeguarding the property of the Local, ensuring that the constitutional norms are being followed, and ensuring the maintenance of proper records and good fiscal discipline. Together with my involvement with the Data Committee, alongside Gabe Sekeres, Stephan Wagner, Andrea Cicirello, and Becca Margolit-Chan, my behind-the-scenes work ensures that the gears of this Local keep turning and that we have a robust strike and defense fund.

As your Region 6 Lead Steward, I would represent our region on the Local Executive Board and be able to vote and effectively advocate for the key decisions that our local will take. This is not a responsibility I take lightly; building consensus among the rank and file takes significant understanding of the workers and organizers in our region and across the university. The upcoming year will be a pivotal year for the future of our local and higher-ed labor unions across the country with attacks on our most vulnerable members, specifically international grads and queer workers. It will be my honor to represent the rank-and-file workers in my region through this critical period. At a time where our institutions choose to abandon the most vulnerable of us, I hope to live up to the monumental responsibility that my fellow workers have entrusted in me.

To learn more about my plans as Region 6 Lead Steward and the slate which I am running on, visit https://build-activate-mobilize.org.

I’m Becca Margolit-Chan, a second-year Economics PhD student with research interests in health, labor, and climate change policy. I currently serve as one of the elected Region 7 stewards.

I became more involved with our union after seeing that not all department leaders were acting in our best interests. Earlier this summer, one-third of our cohort failed the qualifying exams - an unprecedented outcome, with more failures this year than in the past eight years combined. Those students were forced to accept a conciliatory master’s degree and the loss of their appointments. I could not accept the department’s decision without standing up for them and for what is right. That experience reminded me how vulnerable all of us are, and why it is essential to fight for every member of CSGU-UE. I am now in the process of advocating for Qualifying Exam reform to benefit both those in my cohort and future generations of graduate workers.

I’m running for Region 7 Lead Steward on the Build / Activate / Mobilize slate because I want to work alongside a strong team of experienced organizers - people who have my back, and will have yours - especially in politically turbulent times like these.

My commitment to service began during my undergraduate years at UC Davis, where I served as Director of Service on the Rotaract executive board. I coordinated more than 100 active members through fundraisers and outreach, and shifted our focus from passive donations to more impactful work: serving meals for unhoused neighbors, supporting local food pantries, and hand-sewing over 100 baby items for new mothers in Brazil. Our guiding motto was “Service Above Self” - a principle that continues to shape how I approach leadership. To me, service is never meant to be easy. Its challenges are what make it meaningful. 

After college, I spent three years as a claims adjuster for a large disability insurance organization. I worked extensively with complex contract language - not to serve the company’s bottom line, but to ensure real people received the paychecks and accommodations they depended on. I consistently received the highest levels of positive customer feedback on my team because I fought to secure both income and workplace protections for clients. This experience gave me practical expertise in contract interpretation and the persistence to navigate complex systems on behalf of others. I believe these skills will make me a strong advocate for all members of Region 7, particularly those with additional or complex needs related to disability.

I also worked as a predoctoral research associate at the University of Notre Dame, managing 8–12 projects at once. While faculty oversaw methodology, I had full responsibility for project management: supervising interns, coordinating with staff, and leading team meetings to keep projects moving forward. These experiences strengthened my organizational skills and prepared me to manage both a large caseload of grievances and the coordination of a growing steward network.

This past semester, as a Region 7 steward, I defended members’ contract rights in cases of academic discharge and dismissal, began organizing the Economics Department around Q-Exam reform, and contributed to the Data Committee to streamline dues collection and improve our database. I also collaborated with fellow stewards to design an international graduate worker survey, ensuring that the needs of international members are centered in our union’s work at this critical moment.

My leadership experience, project management skills, and contract expertise make me a strong candidate for Region 7 Lead Steward. As Region 7 Lead, I will work to ensure grievances are met with unified, collaborative responses and that administrators are held accountable to both the contract and to good faith. I am not afraid to challenge Cornell’s administration on contract violations or abuses of power - and I will stand up for you as well.

To learn more about my plans and the slate I’m proud to be running with, please visit https://build-activate-mobilize.org.

Hi everyone!

My name is Simon Chanezon, I’m a 2nd year PhD student in the Sociology department, where I study collective action from a social network perspective. I’m also a lead steward in Region 7, where, along with a strong team of committed grad workers – stewards or not – we have done incredible work mobilizing people with broad ranges of involvement in the union to collectively hold Cornell and Region 7 Departments accountable to our hard-earned contract. I deeply believe unions are living things, not bureaucratic entities. Just like contract enforcement – as we are reminded with every one of Cornell’s austerity measures – is a problem of collective power more than legal interpretation, leadership is a collective process, and not individual one. The literature on networked collective action, to which I have dedicated my life – or however long academia lets me stay – tells us that the exercise of collective power in social movements requires dense connections between often-isolated groups. CGSU may be an organization, but it is more importantly a dynamic movement for our protection: from a fascist presidency, and from a school administration that wishes to bend the knee. 

The literature also tells us of the free-rider problem in movements like ours, and our fought-for union security clause will be crucial in addressing this at an organizational level. But on a human level, during my experience agitating in Sociology throughout contract negotiations, I did not see free-riders: Cornell grad workers are kind, altruistic but incredibly busy people. Many of us, particularly international students, and especially BIPOC international students – as the persecution of Momodou Taal and many more has shown – have credible fears that they will be punished by the administration for their solidarity and involvement. CGSU cannot just state, in eloquent terms, its deep and heartfelt commitment to protect its international workers, and expect them to take them at their word. We must demonstrate through concrete action our capacity to protect each other. As lead steward, I would focus on four major objectives:

• Concrete actions by and for international workers, to show Cornell we have the mobilization power to back up our members and our rhetoric. 

• Solidarity with Palestine is fundamentally a labor issue: Cornell has consistently weaponized false accusations of anti-semitism to punish and further exploit international workers and more generally any graduate worker who speaks out, seeking to set a precedent of unjust cause. It is also deeply complicit in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Palestine through investments which run contrary to its 2016 Divestment Guidelines. Passing a referendum as a union local calling on Cornell to divest from complicit companies will be of the utmost importance in the coming months.

• International workers and solidarity with Palestine are deeply linked, and I understand many are scared of potential repercussions for organizing. I will not lie and say there will be no consequences, that Cornell will not try to punish us. But thinking silence will save us is a colossal mistake: Cornell is currently negotiating a settlement with the Trump administration regardless of our displays of solidarity, and we have to show them there is a price to bending the knee to authoritarians. If we do not speak up now, make our collective voice heard, and visibly change the balance of power on campus, Cornell will do nothing as the federal government strips us of our civil rights, threatens our members’ ability to stay in the country, and questions our very status as workers. Speaking up for international workers at Cornell and in the US as well as for Palestinians is not a luxury, it’s a necessary part of any resistance strategy that will effectively prevent what happened at Columbia from happening here. 

• Finally, a union without an active, connected membership is an empty bureaucracy. Our members need opportunities to meet outside of an explicitly union context, and I want to collaborate with the Social Committee to organize cross-department, and cross-region social events of all sizes. Friendship is the first step of solidarity, and we cannot credibly commit to protecting each other if we do not know each other. We need meeting places in Region 7-heavy buildings, where members can go to find support and connection, especially as the weather gets worse and academia pushes us further into burnout. Region 7 is an immense pool of talent and kindness, with a strong history of independence, which I would be proud to represent if you so choose.

I'm a fourth year PhD candidate in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department, and I've been building CGSU since my first year in 2022. I was an active organizer and voice in my department during our election to unionize, and I am extremely proud to have been part of the team that won us a union with 96% of grads voting yes. I was a member of our first bargaining committee, where I bottom lined the fight for the protections in our Workload article. I also educated the cis members of our bargaining committee on the standards of healthcare transgender graduate workers deserve so we could fight as a unified front to win them in our Medical Benefits article. I continue this fight today alongside other members of the Build / Activate / Mobilize slate  - Andrea Cicirello, Max Fan, Ewa Nizalowska and I are all founding members of CGSU's Trans Rights Action Committee. Since leaving the bargaining committee, I've taken a more on-the-ground role as a steward in engineering. As a steward, I've helped grads access transition funding to find a new lab, fought against unjust terminations after some advisors weaponized ""poor academic progress,"" and was a part of the team (along with Jenna Marvin and Stephan Wagner) that disciplined Cornell's Student Disability Services office into allowing disability accommodations for our jobs. I've acted as the lead steward on several step 1 grievance meetings, so I've had up-close-and-personal experiences with the strategies Cornell is using to divide graduate workers and undermine our union.

Armed with these experiences, I am re-running for the position of delegate at large as a part of the Build / Activate / Mobilize slate. If re-elected, I will continue to speak up for the needs of our union and our industry at any national or regional UE meetings. This is precisely what I did during the 2025 UE national convention. I spoke extensively on the ways Cornell was violating our contract and testing our union power, and warned other grad locals to be prepared for their bosses to use a similar playbook. I spoke on the need to end the crisis in higher education and push back against the US government's attacks on our community and academic freedoms. In the UE's organizing committee, I modified language in the UE's two-year organizing plan on the need to keep our seasoned organizers in the labor movement after we graduate. Also at convention, I helped build up the UE - I gave advice to newly affiliated unions on bargaining and reconnected with Mexican labor leaders who I met on a UE worker exchange in 2024.

The role of the delegate at large is a serious one that is tied deeply to our union democracy. The meetings that delegates attend and vote at concern the administration of our national affiliate and the labor movement at large. If re-elected, I would be honored to accept the responsibility of not only representing any democratically decided position of our local, but also for bringing the magic and the energy that makes CGSU special to the labor movement at large. To learn more about Build / Activate / Mobilize, visit build-activate-mobilize.org!

I am a fifth-year Ph.D. Candidate in Mechanical Engineering, researching climate change and climate intervention. I have been organizing across campus since we elected to form CGSU-UE, and I am the current Vice President for Membership. During our contract negotiation, I led our Contract Action Team and co-facilitated our weekly meetings. Last semester, I helped establish a unified, credible strike threat, with over 1000 graduate workers pledging to strike within the first days of the pledge launch. Additionally, I worked to foster a more communicative and bottom-up organizer structure that brought new, excited, and capable people into our contract fight. In July, I was elected to lead our membership drive as VP for Membership. In just 2.5 months, our membership drive has resulted in over 600 new membership dues or agency fee payers. 

In August, I attended and spoke at the UE National Convention. There, I connected with other UE locals and UE national leadership, and I attended workshops to learn techniques centered on protecting international workers. Additionally, in talking with delegates from sibling graduate worker unions and in reading the “A Green New Deal for People and the Planet” resolution, I realized that there were likely hundreds of UE climate scientists across all of the UE locals. If we as members of UE can forge the connection that climate science is union labor, it would be genuinely massive for climate efforts at large. Despite every person being intimately tied up in the outcomes of climate change, climate science has a reputation of being handed down from an ivory tower, and efforts to stem emissions suffer for it. We are currently on the track of warming that is 2.5°C or more above pre-industrial levels, even if we pursue aggressive mitigation, unless something unaccounted for happens. The recentering of climate science as made by workers, for workers, is unaccounted for. The fellow delegates and I formed a plan - they would initiate this process at the UE Western Regional Council, and I would do the same at the UE Eastern Regional Council this Spring. Additionally, we are currently working together on forming a meeting of graduate workers at the American Geophysical Union conference in December to talk about the role unions have to play in this federal attack on the sciences, following the UE principle of organizing the unorganized.

I am running for Delegate at Large on the Build / Activate / Mobilize slate because I know all fights are connected. The federal government has set itself on attacking climate mitigation efforts, climate justice efforts, higher education in general, international workers, trans people, Palestine and those who work to stop the genocide, our union, and more. To learn more about our slate and our fight, visit https://www.build-activate-mobilize.org/.