Approximately 200 people, led by the Graduate Students United–United Electrical (GSU-UE) union, gathered on the main quad Thursday morning to protest in support of greater protections for international students and deliver a petition to University administrators outlining their demands.
The petition, circulated by GSU-UE, calls on the University to adopt several measures to protect international graduate workers amid what organizers described as “part of an escalating assault on international and immigrant workers to create fear.”
These measures include a guarantee that international students can complete their graduate degree regardless of visa status and greater protections from Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on campus. According to Joseph Rathke, the GSU-UE campus chief steward, the petition has gathered more than 1,500 signatures.
The DHS recently proposed a $70,000 fee for international students seeking a work authorization through the Optional Practice Training program, a federal program that allows international students to work in the United States in their field after graduation. The public can submit comments to the DHS until November 9, after which the DHS will issue a final decision on the proposal.
Chicago-area union leaders from GSU-UE, Faculty Forward—the union representing UChicago’s instructional professors—National Nurses United, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), and the Northwestern Graduate Workers Union spoke against the University’s perceived lack of protections for international graduate students.
“It’s in each and every one of our self-interests to make sure that UChicago guarantees these very basic protections, and we need to build enough power to move UChicago at the bargaining table,” said Serena, a representative from GSU-UE. “We need every graduate student ready to go on strike when UChicago refuses to capitulate to our demands.”
GSU-UE’s first contract with the University was signed in 2023, and it will be negotiating its second contract at the start of 2027.
“Higher education loves to brag about being global. We have all seen those brochures. They put our international faces on their glossy little brochures, and they happily take our world-class research,” Biological Sciences Division Chief Steward of GSU-UE Parisa Tajalli said, “[but] they refuse to defend international and non-citizen workers.”
In a November 2025 frequently asked questions document, UChicago’s Department of Safety & Security (DSS) wrote that federal law enforcement is required to present identification. DSS also said that the University “cooperates with outside agencies as required by law, while protecting the rights and privacy of students, faculty, and staff.”
Speakers also criticized UChicago’s Board of Trustees and its members’ associations with the Trump administration.
“When [Trustee Antonio] Gracias teams up with… Elon Musk and the other MAGA mega donors on your trustee boards to destroy federal oversight, we all lose quality of life,” CTU Vice President Jackson Potter said. “We gotta combine our forces. We gotta create that new Justice League because what we believe is our school board, our city, our country, your campus, has got to be run by the people and the workers, not the billionaires.”
Gracias (J.D. ’98), the chief executive of Valor Equity Partners and a board member at SpaceX, was a member of the Department of Government Efficiency working at the Social Security Administration in 2025. He also donated $1 million to the pro-Trump America PAC during the 2024 election cycle.
Demonstrators then marched to the UChicagoGRAD offices, located above the University Bookstore on Ellis Avenue, to deliver the petition to administrators.
University of Chicago Police Department officers initially did not allow the demonstrators to enter the building, but ultimately allowed four union representatives to deliver the petition while accompanied by a Dean-on-Call.
“If there’s 10 people presenting [the petition], nobody gives a shit. But when there’s hundreds of people here, ready to throw down, that’s when we get answers from admin,” Rathke said after delivering the petition.
Timmy T / Oct 16, 2026 at 1:32 pm
The University’s ability to override federal law is nonexistent. Demanding guarantees the administration has no legal power to provide makes for an impressive petition. Unfortunately, it accomplishes little. There is a difference between meaningful institutional advocacy and political theater. GSU and its accomplices at SJP still haven’t grasped that.
Luke C. / Oct 18, 2026 at 9:19 am
I’d encourage you to read the petition! The site doesn’t allow links, but it’s front-and-center on the union website.
Which demands in particular are beyond the University’s remit? They all seem well within bounds to me.
Dr. Puff / Oct 18, 2026 at 1:32 pm
Socialism always leads to totalitarianism.. every circumstance. just look at France, China, Russia, Cambodia. kids need to read some history.