In November 2025, Temple University and the Temple University Graduate Students’ Association (TUGSA) began contract negotiations. TUGSA is the labor union that represents some graduate student teaching assistants and research assistants at Temple. Their contract expired on Feb. 15, 2026.
January 2026 Update: TUGSA Negotiations Continue
Negotiations between Temple University and the Temple University Graduate Students’ Association (TUGSA) are fully underway. Since December, the parties have met four times.
From the beginning of the negotiations, the University has made it clear that the primary focus is achieving fair compensation for student employees.
Temple has consistently expressed its willingness to discuss any proposals brought forward by the union without seeking concessions from TUGSA.
To date, the University and TUGSA have discussed and reached agreement on a number of items proposed by the union. To make further progress, the university has requested that TUGSA present a more comprehensive proposal, including a wage proposal.
The next scheduled session will be February 17. The University remains committed to a constructive and efficient bargaining process and looks forward to meaningful progress when discussions resume.
April 2026 Update: Continued Progress in TUGSA Negotiations
Temple University and the Temple University Graduate Students’ Association (TUGSA) have met six times since negotiations began in December 2025.
University officials and TUGSA have reached agreements on several non-economic proposals and language for what will be in the new contract, including:
- Bargaining unit members will be able to update their chosen or preferred name in TUportal;
- Appointment letters contain links to the collective bargaining agreement, and TAs/RAs will be notified of their union membership eligibility; and
- All gender-specific pronouns in the collective bargaining agreement will be replaced with gender-neutral language.
The collective bargaining agreement between the University and TUGSA expired on Feb. 17, 2026. The University is eager to discuss wages and benefits and remains committed to providing fair compensation for student employees.
The University and TUGSA are scheduled to continue negotiations on April 23. University officials continue to make themselves available to meet as often as possible.
August 2026 Updates: TUGSA Negotiations Continue
Aug. 28
University officials and TUGSA met most recently on Monday, Aug. 17, continuing the parties' work toward a new collective bargaining agreement.
During the session, TUGSA introduced additional non-economic proposals and counterproposals covering a myriad of issues including health and safety, grievance procedures and the use of artificial intelligence. University officials are now reviewing these proposals. TUGSA indicated this round marks the close of their non-economic proposals and that they plan to turn next to economic issues.
University officials welcome that shift and remain focused on reaching an agreement that delivers fair compensation and strong, continued benefits for student employees.
University officials have asked TUGSA to share dates for the next session and continue to make themselves available to meet. Bargaining between the two parties has been ongoing since December 2025.
Aug. 5
As the university community prepares to return to campus for the 2026–27 academic year, university officials and TUGSA resumed negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement on July 30, 2026.
To date, university officials and TUGSA have reached agreement on several non-economic proposals. At the July meeting, TUGSA presented counterproposals on non-economic issues and introduced new proposals. Topics of academic freedom and continued support and protections for international students were covered, with the university committed to continuing discussions on both issues.
The previous agreement expired on Feb. 17, 2025, and the university is eager to reach a new contract that provides student employees fair compensation and continued benefits.
University officials continue to make themselves available to meet as often as needed, and look forward to receiving proposed dates from TUGSA leadership for the next session.
November 2026 Update: TUGSA Negotiations Continue
Temple has been negotiating with TUGSA since November 2025 and has asked for an economic proposal from the start. After numerous noneconomic proposals—all of which the university has responded to—TUGSA presented its first economic proposal on Oct. 5, 2026, more than 10 months after bargaining began. On Oct. 21, the university responded with its own.
- The university proposed a four-year contract with stipend increases ranging from 2% to 2.25% per year, toward alignment with the annual raises Temple’s full-time employees receive.
- The minimum stipend would rise from $27,000 to approximately $29,297 by the final year of the contract.
- Individual, year-round health coverage would remain 100% paid by the university, with no increase in cost to graduate assistants.
These increases come on top of full tuition remission. TUGSA is the only Temple union that receives fully paid health coverage, a benefit even full-time employees, union or nonunion, do not have. Assistantships are part-time roles within a fully funded graduate education. They were never designed to be full-time jobs.
This year, Temple is investing a record $196.1 million in undergraduate financial aid. Graduate students, excluding professional students, also received more than $14 million in grants and scholarships as part of over $20 million in tuition remission this past fiscal year.
TUGSA’s contract expired in February 2026, and graduate assistants have not received a stipend increase since August 2025. The university has proposed meeting more often, and for longer sessions, to reach an agreement sooner, so these increases can take effect.
The next bargaining session is scheduled for Nov. 16.
Negotiation Principles
Temple will continue to negotiate in good faith with all bargaining units, with a focus on collaboration and attention to key deadlines and respective timelines. Temple is eager to do the same with TUGSA, and the university is committed to meeting as frequently as needed to achieve a contract that provides these part-time student employees with a fair, supplemental income while also providing them with access to resources that support their continuing education and pursuit of future careers. Moving forward, it is our promise that we will:
Work to reach a contract with union leadership that is fair and equitable to both parties, recognizing that the impactful and invaluable work of our student teaching assistants and research assistants supports the university’s overall mission.
Work to find common ground, recognizing and rewarding the important contributions of these part-time employees while also being responsible stewards of the university’s limited resources.
Remain in touch with our community throughout the negotiation process.
Budget Implications for Negotiations
Temple is beginning its negotiations at a time when the university has spent several years operating with a structural budget deficit. Specifically, over the past three fiscal years, the university has used approximately $100 million of reserves to cover budgeted operating deficits. In addition, Temple's Commonwealth appropriation has been held flat for seven straight years.
Moving forward, the university will need to continue to reduce expenses and exercise financial discipline, while identifying opportunities for strategic investments that will increase revenue.
Understanding Temple’s Budget
We believe that having a shared, meaningful understanding of Temple’s operating budget is imperative to understanding the challenges we face as a university and why we must negotiate responsibly as the stewards of the university’s limited resources. The Budget Information Center on Temple’s Gateway to Finance website provides a clear, accessible review of our operating budget, what drives it and what it finances. Additionally, it shares information about how enrollment impacts the university’s budget as well as Temple’s plan for balancing the budget.
Frequently Asked Questions
About the Negotiations
What is TUGSA?
The Temple University Graduate Students’ Association (TUGSA) is one of the 12 labor unions that represent employees at Temple University. TUGSA is currently comprised of 565 Teaching Assistants and Research Assistants in Temple University’s non-professional colleges/schools who are also full-time graduate students.
What is being negotiated?
Temple and TUGSA are negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement: the contract that sets pay, benefits and working conditions for graduate assistants in the bargaining unit. The previous contract expired on Feb. 15, 2026.
What happens now that the contract has expired?
The terms of the expired contract, including pay and benefits, remain in place while the parties continue to bargain. Graduate assistants continue to receive their stipends, tuition coverage and health benefits subsidies.
Where do negotiations stand?
Temple and TUGSA have been meeting since November 2025. TUGSA brought numerous non-economic proposals to the table, all of which the university has responded to, before TUGSA presented its first economic proposal on Oct. 5, 2026, more than 10 months after bargaining began. The university responded at the next scheduled session, on Oct. 21, with its own economic proposal. The next bargaining session is scheduled for Nov. 16.
What has the university proposed, to date?
The university’s first economic counterproposal, presented on Oct. 21, includes:
- A four-year contract with 2% to 2.25% increases to the minimum stipend each year;
- The minimum stipend rising from $27,000 to approximately $29,297 by the final year of the contract; and
- Year-round individual health coverage that would remain 100% paid by the university under the current proposal.
What is Temple's goal for these negotiations?
As responsible stewards of university resources, our goal is to confirm a fair contract that recognizes the important work of our graduate students, protects the university’s ability to admit, fully fund, and train the next generation of graduate students who help drive our research, and keeps a Temple education within reach for the students and families we serve. From the first session, the university has made clear that it wants to increase graduate assistants’ stipends, and that remains its focus.
How does this process compare with Temple's other unions?
Temple works with 12 unions and has a long record of reaching fair agreements through collective bargaining. We are confident we will reach one with TUGSA as well.
Compensation and Benefits
Do TUGSA members work a standard 40-hour work week?
No. As full-time students and part-time employees, graduate assistants work an average of 20 hours a week during the 9-month academic year, allowing them to devote the rest of their time to their own coursework and research. Assistantships are not designed to be full-time jobs. Instead, the university invests in each graduate assistant through a package built around their education: a stipend, full tuition and fully paid health coverage. Some graduate assistants hold 75%, 50% or 25% fractional appointments, working fewer hours and receiving pro-rated stipends and benefits.
What do TUGSA members receive today?
Graduate assistants receive a fully funded graduate education plus a stipend for their teaching or research work. Under the current terms:
- Stipend: a minimum of $27,000, or $34.62 per hour, for the 9-month academic year.
- Tuition: full tuition remission, worth approximately $21,000 a year.
- Health coverage: 100% of individual health insurance premiums, paid year-round. No other Temple employee, union or non-union, receives this benefit.
- Dependent coverage: Temple pays 25% of premiums for spouses and children.
- Leave: paid parental leave and bereavement leave.
Together, the minimum package for a TUGSA member is worth approximately $55,844 a year for part-time work nine months of the year.
Do benefits stop when the academic year ends?
No. Most appointments run for the academic year, but Temple's support continues all year. Health coverage is fully paid for 12 months.
Can Temple pay TUGSA members more than the minimum?
Yes. Some TUGSA members have been paid up to $31,500 annually for nine months of part-time work. The average stipend is $28,275, or $1,275 above the negotiated minimum.
How much were the pay increases in the last collective bargaining agreement?
The immediate pay increases in the last collective bargaining agreement ranged from 20%-30%. Over the three-year term of the contract, wages increased 30%-40%.
How do TUGSA members’ pay increases compare to increases for other unionized employee groups?
Negotiated pay increases with other bargaining groups over the past decade have typically ranged from 2%-4% annually.
Did the stipend increase impact the bargaining unit?
Yes. Ultimately, the size of the stipend increases resulted in fewer graduate students being hired into assistantships. The university hired approximately 200 fewer graduate students this academic year compared to the final academic year of the previous contract (2022-2023). This is a 26.53% decrease in graduate students hired into assistant roles.
Does Temple provide healthcare benefits to TUGSA members?
Yes. Although only required to work part-time during the academic year, Temple subsidizes 100% of healthcare premiums (currently $7,844 per year) for each single TUGSA member. TUGSA members are the only Temple University employees or students who do not have to contribute to their healthcare premium. Temple University also subsidizes an additional 25% of premium costs for dependent/family coverage of these part-time employees.
Does Temple provide TUGSA members with any tuition benefits?
Yes, Temple provides 100% tuition remission for TUGSA members, which is approximately $21,000 per academic year.
What is the dollar amount of wages and benefits Temple is providing to TUGSA members?
For working 20 hours a week for nine months, Temple provides TUGSA members with a stipend and benefits worth approximately $55,844 per year, or $71.60 per hour worked.
TUGSA would like to end Direct Academic Benefit. What is a Direct Academic Benefit?
An agreement reached more than twenty years ago between Temple University and TUGSA excludes graduate assistants from the bargaining unit if they use assistantship research for academic credit (Direct Academic Benefit). TUGSA now proposes to reverse this agreement and redefine the bargaining unit to increase its membership.
TUGSA proposes that Temple University pay TUGSA member’s student fees. Why won’t the university negotiate this?
Because student fees are a student issue, not an employee issue. Over twenty years ago, TUGSA agreed that anything related to the student/academic life of its members would fall outside the scope of collective bargaining and would not be negotiated. This agreement explicitly excludes all matters regarding the amount of any tuition, fees, awards, or student benefits from collective bargaining.
The Bargaining Process
How does collective bargaining work?
Representatives of the university and the union meet at the bargaining table to exchange proposals and work toward an agreement. Once the two bargaining teams reach a tentative agreement, TUGSA members vote on whether to ratify it, and Temple's Board of Trustees must approve it.
When did the Temple-TUGSA contract expire?
It expired on February 15, 2026. Negotiations for a new agreement began on November 6, 2025.
Is it common for negotiations to go beyond the expiration date of the contract?
It is not uncommon for negotiations to continue beyond the expiration date of the contract. At Temple, we have generally been able to work with our unions in good faith to agree to an ongoing contract extension while discussions continue. This allows both parties to engage in productive negotiations with the shared assurance that the No-Strike/No-Lockout provision remains firmly in place.
Do TUGSA and the University have an extension agreement in place?
No. The university asked TUGSA more than once that the parties agree to a formal extension, but TUGSA rejected this proposal.
Why has the university proposed meeting more often?
TUGSA’s contract expired in February 2026, and graduate assistants have not received a stipend increase since August 2025. The university has proposed meeting more often and for longer sessions to reach an agreement. The sooner the university and TUGSA agree on a new contract, the sooner graduate assistants will receive increases to their annual stipends.
Does this mean that there will be another strike?
Not necessarily. It has been the university’s articulated goal since day 1 to focus on coming to a swift settlement that provides a fair wage increase while also being good stewards of the university’s budget and our students’ tuition dollars. We are still committed to that goal.
What have been the barriers to that goal?
Temple University has openly considered TUGSA’s proposals and put forth many counterproposals. We have suggested to TUGSA early in negotiations that we focus on wages since budget decisions were being made. Temple University did not receive a wage proposal from TUGSA until October 5, 2026, 7 months after the expiration of the agreement and 11 months after the start of negotiations. We are obligated to consider all mandatory subjects of bargaining proposed by the union. To date, the union has continued to introduce new topics.
How has Temple fared in past negotiations with unions?
Temple University has 12 unions, representing 4,900 employees. Since TUGSA negotiations began, we successfully settled four separate contracts representing thousands of workers. Since 1990, the university and its unions have successfully settled approximately 89 agreements without experiencing work stoppages or strikes. We have achieved this by establishing partnerships with our union leadership based on a mutual goal of reaching a contract that is fair to both parties. The only exception occurred in 2023 when TUGSA chose to strike before reaching a negotiated settlement.
Affordability and Temple’s finances
How is a new contract paid for?
Mostly through tuition. Temple's state funding has stayed at $158.2 million a year since 2020, while costs have risen with inflation. This year's state budget added about $2 million in new performance-based funding. As responsible stewards of university resources, Temple must reach an agreement it can sustain.
What is Temple doing to keep a Temple education affordable?
- Financial aid: a record $196.1 million in undergraduate aid this year, up nearly 7%.
- Temple Promise: covers tuition and fees in full for Philadelphia students from families earning $65,000 or less.
- Cost reductions: more than $320 million in operating costs cut since 2021, including $60 million this year, to limit tuition increases.
- In-state savings: Pennsylvania undergraduates pay at least $16,000 less in tuition than out-of-state students.
Doesn't Temple have money from its record fundraising year?
Temple raised a record $159 million in gifts in fiscal year 2026. Most gifts are restricted by donors to specific purposes, such as scholarships, research or buildings, and cannot be used for operating costs such as salaries.