A proposed offer from the University of Michigan to the Graduate Employees’ Organization expired Aug. 4 after union members said the 48-hour deadline on the deal “did not allow for the time needed to have rigorous, collective discussions about the offer.”

The latest proposal from U-M would have provided graduate student instructors and graduate student staff assistants on the Ann Arbor campus with 20% in total raises over the next three years — 8%, 6% and 6% — along with a $1,000 bonus in the first year.

The offer was predicated on the union acting swiftly, a move that university officials said was necessary considering fall-term classes begin in about three weeks and schools and colleges need to move forward with decisions on instructional staffing.

Under the now-expired offer, GEO members on the Dearborn campus would have received annual raises of 3.5% — for a total 10.5% pay increase over the three-year contract — and a $500 bonus. The agreement also provided annual pay increases of about 9% to GSIs and GSSAs at UM-Flint to align their pay with UM-Dearborn by the end of the contract term.

A separate letter to GEO President Jared Eno from Laurie McCauley, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, and UM-Dearborn Provost Gabriella Scarlatta stated the university had no intent to discontinue its new funding model, implemented May 1, that provides 12 months of stipend support for Rackham Graduate School Ph.D. students on the Ann Arbor campus.

The letter also stated that the Ann Arbor campus will keep the funding model in place, at a minimum, through August 2026, and that the funding model will expand to UM-Dearborn for doctoral students with funding commitments by summer 2025.

During the 2022-23 academic year, which includes the current spring and summer terms, the 12-month rate of $36,083 was the highest among public-institution peers in the Big Ten and American Association of Universities.

Because of the new funding model, the vast majority of doctoral students, including those who are GEO members, now receive the increased stipend support — an amount similar to the $38,542 salary the union demanded in its latest compensation proposal — as part of their Ph.D. program.

In a statement released late in the afternoon of Aug. 4, GEO officials said the university’s comprehensive offer shows “serious movement in key areas of GEO’s campaign platform,” including compensation and sexual harassment prevention, while “falling short” on issues such as a living wage for many workers, pay parity across the university’s three campuses and provisions for transgender health care.

“This offer — the first real offer we have received from U-M in the course of these negotiations — represents a positive step forward and solid foundation for a settlement, but it is not perfect, and it is up to members to decide how to proceed,” said Evelyn Smith, the union’s lead negotiator.

Soon after the release was issued, Sascha Matish, associate vice provost and senior director of academic human resources, sent an email to Eno informing him the university’s proposal had expired.

“A key component of our proposal was that it was contingent upon a definitive response from the union by 4:59 p.m. today,” Matish wrote. “Given that it is now past 4:59 p.m. and you have informed us you are not going to provide us a response to our proposal, this email is to inform you that the university’s proposal provided to you earlier this week has now expired. We will resume our traditional negotiations at the bargaining table with GEO, as you have been previously advised.”