During Machen's term, in 2006, the University of Florida came to agreement with Graduate Assistants United (GAU) to begin providing fully subsidized health care to graduate assistants. GAU is a labor union that represents graduate workers, teaching or research assistants, at UF. GAU negotiated with the administration to include the new program, in their collective bargaining agreement - the culmination of a long GAU campaign. The University of Florida's Graduate Student Council (GSC), an advocacy/student government group, had also worked to bring the issue to the administration's attention and with GAU had representatives on an advisory committee that reviewed bids from insurance companies.