Graduate Student Employees United and its supporters came out in droves at noon to lead a spirited rally to "free the ballot box." The action was part of GSEU's ongoing campaign against the University's appeal of a February 2002 ruling by the National Labor Relations Board saying that teaching and research assistants are University employees entitled to unionize. The Columbia community is still waiting on a ruling on the appeal from the NLRB, and the ballot boxes from last March's union representation election will remain sealed until the board makes its decision.

In addition to a large GSEU presence, the event included workers from other unions, undergraduate students, and city political figures, as well as representatives from both Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania's graduate student unionization campaigns.

The rally drew over 500 people at its peak, according to organizers, who said they were pleased with the turnout at the event.

"This rally was really powerful because of the diversity," said GSEU spokesperson Maurice Leutenegger, a graduate student in the physics department. The speakers' list ranged from the president of the Transport Workers' Union Local 241 to a professor emeritus of industrial engineering to several state assemblymen.

Many of the rally's speakers applauded the teaching and research assistant unionization campaign and denounced the administration for hindering what they say is a democratic process.

"We're not going to let Columbia do to us what Florida did to Al Gore!" one speaker shouted. "Columbia should be part of the solution, not the problem."

Speakers from other unions expressed solidarity with GSEU, which is affiliated with UAW Local 2110.

"Why should this one group of people be treated as second class employees here?" said Victor Rivera, a member of the Support Staff Association at the Health Sciences campus. "We have far more in common with the teaching and research assistants than Columbia would have you believe."

"We call on Lee Bollinger to set new agendas for labor relations on this campus ... in solidarity, in strength, the union united," Rivera continued. "We will never be defeated."

Booker Washington, the vice president of Local 2110, spoke on behalf of Columbia's clerical workers. "We will be with you until you cross the last 't' and dot the last 'i' on your contract," he said of GSEU.

Washington also noted in his speech that today is the 35th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., who was shot when he was in Memphis, Tennessee to support sanitation workers.

Phil Wheeler, director of UAW Region 9A, called on Bollinger to withdraw the appeal and bemoaned that "this has gone on too long." He added that GSEU would continue to fight for a recognized union if it was defeated at the national level.

"Even if [the University wins] in Washington with the Bush board, you're going to deal with us back here in the streets," Wheeler said.

In one of the afternoon's more memorable moments, GSEU members play-acted a scenario featuring a student in a cardboard ballot box painted yellow, which has been a presence on campus for the past two weeks. Students wearing white masks with green dollar signs and sashes emblazoned with the word "trustee" stood guarding the ballot box, which was draped with chains and a lock.

GSEU member Erik Goldner, a graduate student in the history department, acted as narrator of the scene and called to the enthusiastic crowd, "Are we going to let them hijack this election?"

While demonstrators chanted "Free the box! Free the box," students beat the "trustees" with their "Union Now" signs until the box was freed of its chains. The box then danced around Low steps to the tune of Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger."

Although organizers set out on Thursday to rally support for the University administration to "free the ballot box" by dropping its appeal, such a course of action is unlikely. The administration has steadfastly defended its decision to appeal and has made no action on the unionization issue in the past few months. Members on both sides of the issue, however, anticipate a ruling from Washington before the start of next semester. If the NLRB upholds the appeal, the ballots will be discarded. If the appeal is overturned, the ballots will be counted.

Nonetheless, attendance at the rally was indicative of diverse campus support for GSEU. A member of the small contingent of undergraduate students, Leah Rorvig, CC '03, said she agrees with the teaching and research assistants' right to unionize. "Our TAs are our teachers at this school. We recognize their need to have a living wage," she said.

Wheeler noted the widespread support for the campaign. "Everyone in this community supports these workers' right to have a union," he said.

For now, though, GSEU's most feasible goal is maintaining a presence on campus.

As the crowd dispersed yesterday afternoon, Local 2110 President Maida Rosenstein reported to those lingering to clean up that friends who work in Butler Library had told her that University President Bollinger had been eating lunch on the fifth floor of the library during the rally.

"That means he heard us," Rosenstein said excitedly.

Amba Datta contributed to this article.