URBANA — The Graduate Employees' Organization won its case against the University of Illinois in arbitration, but the Urbana campus is contesting that decision.

The GEO released the Sept. 20 arbitration decision Monday.

In it, arbitrator Jay Fogelberg ruled that the union correctly viewed as a contractual obligation that graduate students in the College of Fine and Applied Sciences should receive tuition waivers as part of the compensation for their work.

"I conclude the union's grievance has merit and that the Employer's actions violated the plain terms and conditions of the 2009-12 Letter of Agreement executed by the parties," Fogelberg wrote.

He directed the UI to remedy the waiver situation, "restoring them to the levels that were in place prior to the summer of 2010 when they were amended."

GEO communications officer Rodrigo Pacheco-McEvoy said Monday he doesn't know when the UI will compensate the affected students. He said that somewhere between 100 and 200 graduate students were affected.

"We're wondering how to proceed from here," he said.

Pacheco-McEvoy said the restoration of the waivers was essential to the education process.

"Not only does the ruling secure tuition waivers as a benefit of employment for graduate employees, which is absolutely necessary to maintain accessibility to public higher education at UIUC, it also helps protect the arts from budgetary cutbacks," he said.

The Urbana campus' chief spokeswoman, Robin Kaler, said the number of affected students was smaller.

"The number of students varies by semester," she said. "The number of GEO represented assistants at issue in the fall of 2010 is 46. In the fall of 2011, the number is 111, but most of the 2010 students are still here, so 111 is closer to a current total."

She questioned the arbitrator's verdict.

"We strongly disagree with the decision and logic of the arbitrator and are committed to working with the Graduate Employees Organization to identify ways to move forward," she said. "We firmly believe that our contract with the Graduate Employees Organization was not violated when some programs within the College of Fine and Applied Arts made the decision to change the level of waivers offered to incoming students in fall 2010, while maintaining the levels of tuition waivers held by graduate and teaching assistants already enrolled in those programs."

She said it was the campus' long-standing practice to honor the tuition waivers.

The GEO argued that tuition waivers are a benefit of employment. Preventing reduction of tuition waivers will preserve quality of education at Illinois, the GEO argued, while protecting labor standards.

In the summer of 2010, the GEO learned of the policy change affecting tuition waivers for incoming graduate employees in several departments in the College of Fine and Applied Arts.