Patrick Kocovsky's letter of Sept. 9 contains some serious inaccuracies regarding the Graduate and Fixed-Term Employee Organization (GFTEO) and other graduate employee unions. Mr. Kocovsky misstates the situation at the Graduate Employees' Union (GEU) at Michigan State. Graduate employees there received a 2 percent raise and a "backdated" 3.5 percent raise, so a Michigan State teaching assistant is paid 5.5 percent more than last year.

Most importantly, their contract was approved only after a democratic vote. The Penn State administration can make whatever decisions it likes regarding graduate employees; only with a union will the administration have to meet with democratically elected reps of graduate employees.

It is surprising that Mr. Kocovsky chose to bring up Michigan State as an example, because its situation illustrates another reason why we need a union here at Penn State. The GEU was formed because health benefits, increased in 1994 to forestall a union movement, were systematically cut by the Michigan State administration. Now, with a binding union contract, Michigan State grads need not worry about cuts. At Penn State, the administration can cut our health benefits at any time. Given that Mr. Kocovsky's own college (Agricultural Sciences) just announced a 20 percent cut in graduate assistantship funding, it is surprising he believes our new health plan is immune.

Finally, Mr. Kocovsky is wrong to argue that GFTEO is working against the university. Like the Graduate Student Association, we at GFTEO are dedicated to making Penn State better, and it is the Penn State administration that has chosen to make our effort adversarial, by hiring union-busting lawyers and deliberately spreading misinformation about graduate unionization, placing their desire for power above the well-being of undergraduates and the graduate employees who teach them.