"One, two, three, four, better health care, por favor!"

Those were the chants echoing in front of Old Main last week.

"One, two, three, four, Spanier open up your door!"

Those were the chants echoing in front of Old Main in September 2002.

Ever since the Graduate and Fixed Term Employee Organization (GFTEO) formed in 1999, its message has remained the same: Give graduate students a union.

But during those five years, the Penn State administration -- staunchly opposed to a union -- and GFTEO have never sat down to discuss their issues.

Instead, it's been a series of rallies, with graduate assistants literally yelling at a stone wall: Old Main. And the administration responds by issuing statements or other memos reiterating its reasons for being against unionization. Both sides seem to agree on one thing: Meeting together is unlikely to change each other's views on unionizing. But administrators also say that GFTEO is not recognized as an official student organization that represents graduate assistants; that is what the Graduate Student Association is for. This is true, but GFTEO's desires pertaining to health care and other issues at least deserve to be heard. More than 200 supporters attended the rally last week.

But, this is not to say that Penn State should accept a union. Administrators are correct in saying that GFTEO does not represent all graduate assistants. In fact, a GFTEO attempt to unionize graduate assistants last academic year failed. Thirty percent of eligible graduate assistants must sign authorization cards before GFTEO can file for an election on unionizing. GFTEO's authorization card kickoff drive began at a rally on Sept. 30, 2002, and the signatures expire after one year. That one-year expiration passed without GFTEO filing for an election.

This means that the majority of graduate assistants do not actually support a union. Why should the Penn State administration accept GFTEO's demands when not even a sizable number of graduate students would sign authorization cards within an entire year?

However, it may be of benefit for both sides to discuss issues, such as improved benefits, that more graduate assistants support. Otherwise, we may see another five years of chanting and yelling in front of Old Main, with nothing accomplished.