While some UF students bought last minute costumes or prepared for parties on Wednesday, about 50 protesters decided to "spook Tigert Hall" for Halloween.
Graduate Assistants United, a graduate-student labor union that represents about 4,200 paid teaching and research assistants at UF, held the protest at Tigert Hall.
About 50 GAU and Students for a Democratic Society members protested student fees levied against teaching assistants.
Bret Seferian said they spend about ,400 to ,500 each semester in fees, including lab fees, a fee to use the Student Health Care Center, the Activity & Service Fee and Transportation Access Fee.
"We help teach 50 percent of the course load, but we end up having to pay money to teach," said Sam Snyder, organizing chair of GAU.
Seferian said graduate students must pay before receiving their first paycheck.
GAU wants UF's administration to make the fees payroll-deductible, or slowly taken from their paychecks over the course of a semester, by next fall. The group eventually hopes to have the fees waived for graduate students, which already happens at institutions such as the University of Michigan, he added.
He said UF President Bernie Machen, UF Provost Janie Fouke and the Gator Party, which controls the Student Senate, have expressed interest in the past about making changes.
But no progress has been made, he said.
Cecilia Amador, vice president of the Graduate Student Council, said the group requested a special meeting with the UF administration about two weeks ago and has not heard a reply.
"This is something we've been pushing for a while now," she said.
Kyle Cavanaugh, UF's vice president of human resources, said there is a consultation process for GAU to bring concerns to the administration.
He said as far as he knows, there hasn't been a request.
If the group does request a meeting, the administration would certainly be willing to listen to any issues, he added.
As the protest wore down and the group headed to a social at Tim & Terry's, Deeb Kitchen, GAU's other co-president, said he was pleased with the results of the protest.
"It's the first time we've taken action outside of collective bargaining," Kitchen said.
Christine Amaro contributed to this report.
