Most of these grad students are already receiving free tuition and access to huge universities' resources. What is next, undergrad students complaining they work too hard and have too many hours of homework?
1
having gone to Columbia for graduate school many years ago I'm sure that the attitude of the administration has not changed over the years. I do not know about other schools on personal experience, however Columbia's attitude was always that the student or the students needs did not matter at all. this was endemic to all interactions with the administration that I had over 7 years. it left me with such a negative feeling that I have never contributed to Columbia for any purpose. the administration's attitude was in sharp contrast to the Department that I was in. it is too bad that over the years the administration could not emulate the departmental attitude and professionalism.
it is unfortunate that it takes organization on the part of the students to force changes in the administration and it's operations
it is unfortunate that it takes organization on the part of the students to force changes in the administration and it's operations
3
Graduate students are not primarily interested in monetary compensation; they are interested in finishing their dissertations in a timely manner. The increasingly corporate structure of university departments saddles graduate students with too many unpaid and/or overtime tasks that are unrelated to their dissertations. At UC Berkeley, "teaching assistant" and "research assistant" positions are clocked at 50% time (20 hours/week). The remaining time is nominally reserved for researching and writing a dissertation. However, problems arise when the non-disseration workload climbs to a full-time job. This often happens in teaching positions because the time required to create learning material for students and evaluate their performance is enormous, typically amounting to 30 hours/week minimum for 60 students. In addition, a graduate student who is teaching for a semester might still be asked to perform vital non-dissertation related duties for her lab or department. A teaching assistant can easily spend 60 hours/week doing non-dissertation related work. This might be sustainable for 1-2 semesters, but a graduate student who has to do all these things every semester will take over a decade to get a PhD! Grad students need a way to responsibly offload the extra tasks they are currently expected to perform so that they can finish in a timely manner without disrupting undergraduate instruction, research programs, or other departmental programs.
8
Graduate students are just that - graduate STUDENTS. Students are at school to learn. Graduate students are given the ability to work in a lab or teach a course to help defray the cost of the higher education they have chosen to pursue.
What in the world are readers thinking and what is going on the the NYTimes? Perhaps graduate students should be told they can't teach or work at the university while working on their degrees. Not what most of my friends would have liked, but seems the new flock are too entitled to be given work.
Doesn't anyone realize that one pays dues as they move through life? Where does this entitled thinking come from?!!
What in the world are readers thinking and what is going on the the NYTimes? Perhaps graduate students should be told they can't teach or work at the university while working on their degrees. Not what most of my friends would have liked, but seems the new flock are too entitled to be given work.
Doesn't anyone realize that one pays dues as they move through life? Where does this entitled thinking come from?!!
I'm sorry to say, but it sounds like you just don't get it. Just because something is called a duck doesn't make a duck. Industries have long been known to call people managers when they were really just hourly employees in order to skirt overtime rules. Effectively, universities have been doing the same with graduate students with respect to whether they are employees or students (and in this case, they are both; it isn't binary).
PhD students in sciences generally work as a research assistant in the lab they are doing their dissertation work in. That work furthers both the goals of grants funding the work (eg: for the benefit of the professor and university) and the student's (getting a degree, publications...). However, students are often exploited by the extreme power imbalance that exists - working 6-7 days a week for over 60 hours. On top of it all, because graduate students are not classified as employees (despite being so in a de facto sense), things like workers compensation and employee safety regulations don't always apply.
Just because we liked doing the work doesn't mean we were okay being exploited.
As for "paying your dues", you should check out the opportunity cost of getting a PhD in the sciences - it's humongous. Plus, you're often screwed off the bat thanks to PhD programs that only train for academic careers, neglecting to foster skills necessary for the many non-academic careers available for these highly educated people.
PhD students in sciences generally work as a research assistant in the lab they are doing their dissertation work in. That work furthers both the goals of grants funding the work (eg: for the benefit of the professor and university) and the student's (getting a degree, publications...). However, students are often exploited by the extreme power imbalance that exists - working 6-7 days a week for over 60 hours. On top of it all, because graduate students are not classified as employees (despite being so in a de facto sense), things like workers compensation and employee safety regulations don't always apply.
Just because we liked doing the work doesn't mean we were okay being exploited.
As for "paying your dues", you should check out the opportunity cost of getting a PhD in the sciences - it's humongous. Plus, you're often screwed off the bat thanks to PhD programs that only train for academic careers, neglecting to foster skills necessary for the many non-academic careers available for these highly educated people.
7
This entitled thinking comes from the people who teach 40% of the classes that your college student or you, paid tuition for. People need to think about the fact the Grad students living environment is an undergraduate learning environment! Last semester I took home 498 a paycheck. My rent at the school's cheap student housing is almost 600.00. AND to get a TAship or a RAship I have to pay 9 credits of fees...last semester around 700 dollars. Have you ever heard of a job that you have to pay to get?? Grad Student Unions are very necessary.
4
no. a requirement for most degrees is to teach. it is not an option. the wages are substandard. at least the stipend (wages) should be paid on time and not at the whim of the administration as it was when I was a graduate student.
remember also that graduate students perform the research that the professor gets the credit, recognition, and even the Nobel prize for and often does not acknowledge the students who do the work.
entitlement? the entitlement that should be questioned is the professor who often feels entitled to take credit, travel the world and sometimes give minimal guidance to the students who learn more from the fellow students.
remember also that graduate students perform the research that the professor gets the credit, recognition, and even the Nobel prize for and often does not acknowledge the students who do the work.
entitlement? the entitlement that should be questioned is the professor who often feels entitled to take credit, travel the world and sometimes give minimal guidance to the students who learn more from the fellow students.
5
I am a Ph.D. Scientist who worked at a private university as a grad student. There were no committees for the grad students in my department and I was used by my full-time tenured professor to make published patented compounds to billion dollar pharmaceutical companies. I made $12,000 a year working 70 hours a week for the "privilege" of going to such an "elite institution" while the non-profite university made hundreds of millions of dollars off the research. My degree was threatened by the head of the department for fear of damaging the deal. The professor got over fifty million, the university got over $500 million, and I got tossed out with my degree without even a recommendation. My life was destroyed and I've never recovered and never will. The naivete of people's view of the corruption of these so-called "academic professors" is appalling. The corruption of academics makes politicians look pure and good. Politicians are answerable to the public at least every few years. Tenured professors are not. They are egoistic "kings" of their own desmesnes who exploit college-educated students. And becoming one of them has little to do with their research. The real question asked behind back doors is "can I get along with this person and will he back me up no matter what I want to do". It's not a "good ole boys' club". It's far far worse. There is no accountability and they abuse anyone under them. It's medieval. I'm sick even thinking about it.
13
Serious question for the adjuncts posting here: If it's so awful - "food stamps" "earn less than domestic workers" etc. - why do you do it? Why not get a different sort of job?
3
For many people, teaching is a lot more than a job - it is a calling. I worked as an adjunct writing instructor for many years before I landed a full time job directing a writing center. I loved teaching and although I could have done something else, the joy of doing work I loved meant a great deal to me. Adjunct instructors do very hard work, and as the years have gone by, universities use more and more of them - at last count, over 50% of university instructors are adjuncts. Adjuncts receive a contract for each section that can be cancelled at any time, and the pay is quite low, leading to adjuncts working more than one school. (I usually worked at two and sometimes three schools simultaneously). Usually, there are no benefits, or benefits at a very high cost (health insurance, etc.) Many adjuncts don't get office space or computers. Teaching takes enormous skill and hard work; people should be paid decently and given job security and benefits. Furthermore, much of the tuition raises have gone to higher admin salaries and concierge services, not adjunct faculty. Full time jobs became a game of musical chairs with fewer and fewer jobs available each year.
I am glad I chose the profession and stuck with it as long as I did.
I am glad I chose the profession and stuck with it as long as I did.
4
Amazing how many readers profess immense knowledge of the inner workings of academia and the deceitful plans of academicians. I've been working in academia for nearly 30 years. Suffice it to say the majority of those reader comments (e.g. @Usha Srinivasan, @Thomas Paine) are steeped in ignorance. More amazing is the inability of people to appreciate the distinction between adjunct faculty -- who are employees -- and graduate students -- who are (duh) STUDENTS, working towards a degree. No graduate student is forced to accept a TA or RA award (which includes, at my university, a tuition waiver (worth over $40K), free health insurance, and $2400/month stipend): students are free to decline these awards and pay their own way, rather than being PAID TO GO TO SCHOOL.
3
I agree the grad students are in less trouble than the contractors. However, most grad students face lives as contractors in the future if nothing is changed. That is their skin in this game.
2
Better compensation for grad students means that universities will be inclined to admit fewer of them. That, in turn, means fewer PhDs, and as we have a gross surplus of PhDs anyway, this would not be a bad development.
The overall quality of PhDs would increase as well, as universities would be disinclined to admit marginal students; as anyone in academia can tell you, some of the individuals parading around in this country today as PhDs are profoundly lackluster.
The overall quality of PhDs would increase as well, as universities would be disinclined to admit marginal students; as anyone in academia can tell you, some of the individuals parading around in this country today as PhDs are profoundly lackluster.
7
Same old argument that business use to keep wages low for the people who do the real work so they can pay exorbitant amounts to the executives. No business can run with just executives who don't make the "widgets." the sales calls, maintain the equipment, or package and ship the product.
1
The comments here are indicative of the fact that many NYT readers have never worked a day in their life.
Grad students don't work. They teach and research in climate controlled environments. Coal miners work. Roofers work. Soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen work. Housekeepers work.
You people can whine all you want but at the end of the day, the vast majority of the country (unionized or otherwise) is laughing at you. I was once a grad student too. To be honest, i was surprised to be paid at all. After all, I was a student and was there to work towards my degree. Had I wanted to go out and get a job, I would have done that.
This so much of a farce that I thought some of you might be joking. Working conditions...are you high? In order to see what difficult working conditions are you need to leave your university campus. You're forced to teach too many classes? Really? Is it too much of an imposition on you who are not paying tuition to do something in return?
So go on strike. Go ahead. I hope that in return the university will force you to cough up tuition and delay your academic progress you sniveling little entitled bed wetters. Get over yourselves. You are not that important.
Grad students don't work. They teach and research in climate controlled environments. Coal miners work. Roofers work. Soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen work. Housekeepers work.
You people can whine all you want but at the end of the day, the vast majority of the country (unionized or otherwise) is laughing at you. I was once a grad student too. To be honest, i was surprised to be paid at all. After all, I was a student and was there to work towards my degree. Had I wanted to go out and get a job, I would have done that.
This so much of a farce that I thought some of you might be joking. Working conditions...are you high? In order to see what difficult working conditions are you need to leave your university campus. You're forced to teach too many classes? Really? Is it too much of an imposition on you who are not paying tuition to do something in return?
So go on strike. Go ahead. I hope that in return the university will force you to cough up tuition and delay your academic progress you sniveling little entitled bed wetters. Get over yourselves. You are not that important.
5
Are you one of those people who think school teachers don't actually work because it doesn't involve sweating over a shoveL? Teaching and doing research is work unless the research is for the student's own thesis. If they are assisting a professor's research for which the professor is going to be paid, then it is work. And I don't know why you think graduate students don't pay tuition. I certainly did for my Master of Science degree although I did get a small reduction for being a Teaching Assistant. Sitting in on a class you are otherwise not taking, being available to tutor students and grading exams is work that the Professor doesn't have to do and therefore deserves some sort of compensation.
11
Like for profit businesses, colleges and university richly reward the very few at the top including presidents and star academics. It seems rather obscene that universities pays the president a seven figure sum along with other benefits. Giving the many overworked, underpaid academics greater leverage hopefully results in a more equitable distribution of income.
6
It has been too easy for university administrations to increase their own incomes at the expense of all other people involved in university life. No one but faculty can stop them. Faculty did not need to stop the administrators as long as the adminsitrators took care of faculty, but now faculty is forced to shoulder administrative responsibilities such as level of pay and working conditions to protect themselves. If stronger faculty control of the learning experience accompanies faculty power to distribute income and determine working conditions, everyone will benefit, including students.
5
“It’s a question of power and democracy in a space in the academy that’s increasingly corporatized, hierarchical."
By what rationale is a university (or corporation) a democracy? The clear answer is that there is no rationale for that view. Ergo, there is no rationale for unionization of graduate assistants.
By what rationale is a university (or corporation) a democracy? The clear answer is that there is no rationale for that view. Ergo, there is no rationale for unionization of graduate assistants.
1
Our entire education system prioritizes the bottom line and trophy buildings and "the latest" technology bling.
Yes, they need to raise enough to cover costs, but whatever happened to intellectual exploration and discovery and research for things that won't necessarily be able to be monetized?
Whatever happened to respecting researchers and educator's work in the liberal arts enough to at least pay them a living wage?
Like a cheap piece of jewelry--nice and shiny on the outside, but unless it's a profit-making field, there is no depth.
Yes, they need to raise enough to cover costs, but whatever happened to intellectual exploration and discovery and research for things that won't necessarily be able to be monetized?
Whatever happened to respecting researchers and educator's work in the liberal arts enough to at least pay them a living wage?
Like a cheap piece of jewelry--nice and shiny on the outside, but unless it's a profit-making field, there is no depth.
3
It's about time. Many universities, especially in the sciences, run a kind of sharecropper plantation system, with graduate students accepted for their teaching, programming and lab work skills and grotesquely underpaid, in significant part in the funny money scrip of "scholarships," thereby allowing universities to appropriate their labor without parting with hard cash. Graduate students are in no position to bargain individually once they have accepted admission, as their immediate and future career prospects directly depend upon the good will those exploiting them. The dramatic decline in the proportion of tenured and tenure-track faculty says it all.
8
The great strength, as well as the great weakness, of the American University system is that students are able to vote with their feet which of many competing institutions to attend.
As a higher and higher percentage of Americans attend college and college degrees are increasingly required for ones career, their preferences has shifted towards institutions that offer high graduation rates, low(er) work, and plusher accommodations than bare bones of the Universities of old.
The Universities, increasingly abandoned by the State Legislature were forced to follow to survive, reducing teaching expenses via adjuncts and graduate students, and shifting the money versus putting up nicer accommodation. Unionization of their increasingly underpaid academic work force followed.
If you don't support education out of taxes, you get consumer driven education.
However :
I often tell my colleagues arguing for free college education, as in many countries in Europe, that the flip side is that the Universities, drawing no income only burden from the mass of enrolled students, flunk out a high percentage, a practice unacceptable to American parents.
As a higher and higher percentage of Americans attend college and college degrees are increasingly required for ones career, their preferences has shifted towards institutions that offer high graduation rates, low(er) work, and plusher accommodations than bare bones of the Universities of old.
The Universities, increasingly abandoned by the State Legislature were forced to follow to survive, reducing teaching expenses via adjuncts and graduate students, and shifting the money versus putting up nicer accommodation. Unionization of their increasingly underpaid academic work force followed.
If you don't support education out of taxes, you get consumer driven education.
However :
I often tell my colleagues arguing for free college education, as in many countries in Europe, that the flip side is that the Universities, drawing no income only burden from the mass of enrolled students, flunk out a high percentage, a practice unacceptable to American parents.
That sounds like a bonus of free education. Freedom from the parents who shadow over their adult children and keep them from growing. Parents will have no say if they do not have to pay, thus letting professors teach.
2
OMG . what are we going to do without more lawyers? More philosophers? More historians? How will our society survive without these pampered puppies?
I'll be happy to accept one of the lowly stipends these students are 'forced' to take, rather than real work in the real economy.
I'll be happy to accept one of the lowly stipends these students are 'forced' to take, rather than real work in the real economy.
2
Working 60-70 hours a week, 6-7 days a week on research projects funded by grants isn't real work? Do tell...
7
As a Columbia alum, I suspect that these developments might end up being positive, but not for the reasons the organizers think. Unionized grad students mean more expensive grad students, which will ultimately translate into fewer grad students. That'll probably be worse for future generations of aspiring academics, but the truth is, our top universities produce many more PhDs than today's academic job market can absorb. When admitting a grad student means hiring a union worker, admissions standards will have to rise, gross number of admits will have to fall drastically, and the underworked, over-sabbaticled tenured faculty at top schools might even be forced to pick up some of the teaching slack. The horror!
Ironically, that's not the world grad student organizers envision when you talk to them about the need for unionization. But at heart, they are trying to commoditize a profession the market doesn't value all that highly. They are doing so at their own risk.
Ironically, that's not the world grad student organizers envision when you talk to them about the need for unionization. But at heart, they are trying to commoditize a profession the market doesn't value all that highly. They are doing so at their own risk.
10
The University of Oregon graduate students have been unionized for 50 years. The greatest benefit is probably employer sponsored health care, which allows for health care options that are far superior to individual plans, school sponsored plans, and Obamacare. And this is no pansy union. When they were dissatisfied with their benefit package, in 2014, they went out on strike. Go Ducks!
6
My school tried to unionize when I was grad school, at first it was exciting, but in the end it was not the experience we thought it'd be. The students running the unionization effort had all done (or were still doing) internships with the union (UAW). They would harass and bully students to sign the forms asking for a vote on unionization (literally... showing up at your desk every day until you signed). They promised different and conflicting things to each department (I guess assuming English PhD's don't talk with Science PhD's). When asked about what issues they were going to address, they would say something along the lines of "we'll figure it out when we have the union". At some point it just started to feel like it was less about helping us and more about making sure the UAW got another funding source. In the end, the union was voted down. I hope these students have organizers with a better vision and motivation.
7
Grad students are used and abused in many universities. Their mentoring is often poor, their teaching load high and their pay too dismal to pass as a living wage. My son was a graduate student in California and he couldn't afford a hovel in San Francisco on his salary. He had little guidance from his boss, he worked endless hours and he couldn't take up the abuse he suffered as an issue for fear of retaliation. Even with unions it can be treacherous to negotiate better working conditions or pay, or in the event of being unfairly dismissed, stop proceedings or work out tenable compromises. Without unions there is not a prayer of a chance that the graduate student will get a fair shake in disputes. The students are dependent on their mentors to achieve their degrees and eventually on recommendations to find jobs. Call a spade a spade. These graduate students prepare for classes, teach, guide undergrads, write grant applications, do research and are expected publish or else perish. They are employees. It is the universities and the tenured professors, who spend most of their time on travels and sabbaticals, that make them employees and then to deny them the right to unionize and negotiate better working conditions is unjust. The Ivies always have thought themselves a cut above the rest of humanity. There is nothing to show this is true. I am glad the Labor Board cut through Columbia's speciousness to decide for the grad students.
9
Very good! Congratulations to them for preserving.
3
My observation is that employers who are forced to deal with unions generally deserve them.
Universities, public and private, have turned a blind eye to every constituency other than themselves for a long time. They have slashed tenured faculty spots and manipulated college admission data to score higher on media metrics. The building boom has been quite addictive on many campuses, raising costs sometimes more than student skills. Sooner or later that selfish behavior haunts you.
I am not sure whether students, both undergrads or grad students, will benefit from this decision, but colleges and universities richly deserve the headaches.
Universities, public and private, have turned a blind eye to every constituency other than themselves for a long time. They have slashed tenured faculty spots and manipulated college admission data to score higher on media metrics. The building boom has been quite addictive on many campuses, raising costs sometimes more than student skills. Sooner or later that selfish behavior haunts you.
I am not sure whether students, both undergrads or grad students, will benefit from this decision, but colleges and universities richly deserve the headaches.
49
Thomas, do you work for a private university or college? I do. we have not slashed tenured faculty or manipulated admissions data. We manage our budget tightly to keep tuition increases to a minimum. One third of our operating budget goes to our students as financial aid. Almost 50% of our undergraduates are first generation college students. 30% of our students come from families living at or below the federal poverty level. Our 4, 5 and 6 year graduation rates far surpass those of state schools. No, we don't, as you say, "richly deserve the headaches."
4
Glad to hear a university or college like yours still exists!
While Im glad adjuncts now have a chance of being paid a reasonable salary, I fear the universities will use this as an excuse to jack up tuition even higher.
13
...Or just hire fewer adjuncts
2
People I've known who were adjuncts are the lowest paid people I've ever known, including domestic workers. They need to be paid more, whatever the fallout.
6
SInce the 1800's, American law has allowed people to protect their personal economic security by forming a legal entity known as a corporation to try to make money. Protecting that personal security is in the national interest. America also determined almost one hundred years ago, in the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (Wagner Act), that the national interest required authorizing people working for corporations to join together in an entity known as a union, to protect THEIR economic security. Is there any reason aside from selfishness and greed on the part of people running these corporations that motivates them from opposing the efforts of people forming a union to maximize their earning power and thereby protect their own economic security ?
6
"Columbia and other universities that weighed in with the board before the ruling argued that collective bargaining would lead to a more adversarial relationship between students and the university that would undermine its educational purpose."
There are two different strands here: 1) universities don't want a more "adversarial" (i.e. "equal" in terms of negotiations) relationship; and 2) universities claim this would somehow their "undermine educational purpose." HOW does #2 flow inevitably from #1? This is illogic that should embarrass any Phil 101 undergrad!
I USED to agree with universities on this--unions DO change the dynamic between students and faculty. But the universities' OWN conduct in the last 30 years has changes my mind. They now act like the worst sorts of rapacious businesses, paying as little in salaries and benefits as they can get away with and grabbing real-estate--meanwhile "rewarding" the salary and benefits of CEOs (err, presidents and upper-tier administrators) big-time! THOSE always go UP (check out the Chronicle's latest listing of the top-salaries presidents and administrators--jaw-dropping, in some cases! The presidents of Columbia and NYU are near the top!)
How about a Times in-depth article charting the decline in benefits to most lower-level faculty and almost all staff? Worse, more costly health-care, less (no?) housing benefits for staff, generally bad high-handed treatment...
There are two different strands here: 1) universities don't want a more "adversarial" (i.e. "equal" in terms of negotiations) relationship; and 2) universities claim this would somehow their "undermine educational purpose." HOW does #2 flow inevitably from #1? This is illogic that should embarrass any Phil 101 undergrad!
I USED to agree with universities on this--unions DO change the dynamic between students and faculty. But the universities' OWN conduct in the last 30 years has changes my mind. They now act like the worst sorts of rapacious businesses, paying as little in salaries and benefits as they can get away with and grabbing real-estate--meanwhile "rewarding" the salary and benefits of CEOs (err, presidents and upper-tier administrators) big-time! THOSE always go UP (check out the Chronicle's latest listing of the top-salaries presidents and administrators--jaw-dropping, in some cases! The presidents of Columbia and NYU are near the top!)
How about a Times in-depth article charting the decline in benefits to most lower-level faculty and almost all staff? Worse, more costly health-care, less (no?) housing benefits for staff, generally bad high-handed treatment...
18
Many of the other comments here confuse two different groups of people. Adjuncts are often long-term employees and badly paid for a lot of work. PhD students at these private universities teach very little during their programs (at Yale, they do not teach at all in their first two years) and get a stipend and tuition waver. PhD students get a five-year financial package and only have to teach three out of the ten semesters.
At least at Yale, the big issue is whether the union will win a certification election, and if so, what it will try to accomplish. The group that has been pushing for a union has a long history of harassing graduate students, undemocratic internal governance, and acting as if they want to run the entire university.
The current organization is run by people who want careers as professional labor organizers, and seem much less worried about the well-being of grad students at Yale than about showing how radical and silly they can appear to others in the labor movement.
Most faculty do not oppose unionization of grad students. But there are strong reservations about the people who seem to run this particular union. We can only hope that if they win a certification election, the students vote them out and replace them with leaders who represent their interests.
At least at Yale, the big issue is whether the union will win a certification election, and if so, what it will try to accomplish. The group that has been pushing for a union has a long history of harassing graduate students, undemocratic internal governance, and acting as if they want to run the entire university.
The current organization is run by people who want careers as professional labor organizers, and seem much less worried about the well-being of grad students at Yale than about showing how radical and silly they can appear to others in the labor movement.
Most faculty do not oppose unionization of grad students. But there are strong reservations about the people who seem to run this particular union. We can only hope that if they win a certification election, the students vote them out and replace them with leaders who represent their interests.
12
Fat chance. The union leadership will not go anywhere without a huge fight. Those standing in the wings are no improvement. In fact, they are worse in most respects. It has always baffled me that so much carping has come from the grad student camp. A stipend, tuition waiver and minimal teaching has always seemed like a darn good deal. Perhaps it has everything to do with the union wanting to use the grad students as yet another weapon against Mother/Father Yale.
1
If you're a full time faculty member at a private university and not on a tenure track or tenured you have no protections as unions are illegal for full time faculty at these universities. Every other job category, part time faculty, now grad asistants, clerical, custodial can have union representation.
This situation has led to abuse of these faculty as full time academic jobs in NYC are so rare and competitive. Salaries are secret, faculty who disagree with the administration get difficult schedules, or their position is "no longer needed". The mantra "you can be replaced" is the operating slogan from the academic bosses.
Hooray for the graduate student unions.
This situation has led to abuse of these faculty as full time academic jobs in NYC are so rare and competitive. Salaries are secret, faculty who disagree with the administration get difficult schedules, or their position is "no longer needed". The mantra "you can be replaced" is the operating slogan from the academic bosses.
Hooray for the graduate student unions.
15
Yes, the plight of non-tenured academics is precarious. And, more and more, underpaid and less professional adjuncts are being used. They have no benefits and no job security, either. Academic life and commitment is not valued in the US culture, as several comments to this article attest. Sad.
2
My own experience was so different from the experiences of contemporary PhD students.
I had multiple fellowships plus the GI bill while I was a grad student at an expensive Ivy League University.
None involved teaching or research assistantships.
During my grad years I got federal funding for several three-to-four month research detours overseas which were well compensated over and above the fellowships. They added some time to the process, but were fun and rewarding.
I lived exceedingly comfortably as a grad student. Not lavishly, but I made no sacrifices.
I rented a nice small farmhouse 10 miles from the university. A place with a barn and a ten acre fenced paddock. I raised sheep in the paddock (from Easter to Thanksgiving) and chickens in the barn and enjoyed considerable agricultural abundance therefrom. I usually had 150 pounds of venison in the freezer along with several brace of pheasants and a solid selection of hares.. No ramen for this grad student.
There was no sense of indentured-servitude or feudal laboring.
While I feel sad for the modern "academic slaves", I can only relate to their plight intellectually, not experientially.
I had multiple fellowships plus the GI bill while I was a grad student at an expensive Ivy League University.
None involved teaching or research assistantships.
During my grad years I got federal funding for several three-to-four month research detours overseas which were well compensated over and above the fellowships. They added some time to the process, but were fun and rewarding.
I lived exceedingly comfortably as a grad student. Not lavishly, but I made no sacrifices.
I rented a nice small farmhouse 10 miles from the university. A place with a barn and a ten acre fenced paddock. I raised sheep in the paddock (from Easter to Thanksgiving) and chickens in the barn and enjoyed considerable agricultural abundance therefrom. I usually had 150 pounds of venison in the freezer along with several brace of pheasants and a solid selection of hares.. No ramen for this grad student.
There was no sense of indentured-servitude or feudal laboring.
While I feel sad for the modern "academic slaves", I can only relate to their plight intellectually, not experientially.
6
You sound like you had gumption, creativity and a strong work ethic rather than a victim mentality.
1
This world no longer exists
7
Perhaps your work ethic and sense of individual responsibility are much better than today's graduate students.
1
Bravo. This means fewer employed grad students. Professors are notorious about not wanting to bother with additional trivia, and unionization will add plenty. Most grad students are doing the work for the experience. Unionization will reduce the opportunities.
12
I'm pretty sure the University has plenty of administrators to handle the fine details.
Working for free isn't an opportunity.
Working for free isn't an opportunity.
4
Private universities are latecomers to this issue. Many public universities have already undergone the transition to unionized grad students, adjunct faculty, and tenured faculty. The consequences have been, in my opinion, mixed. On the one hand unions create a certain amount of clout in bargaining, albeit only by threatening to withhold labor and mainly in terms of wage and benefit negotiations. Academic freedom was not the ain concern of these organizing efforts, and unions are not particularly sensitized or adept at defending such concerns. The downside has been a much more litigious relationship between faculty and administrations and between faculty and students. Moreover, the TA unions at three schools I've been affiliated with are in my opinion among the least competent unions I've ever witnessed, often picking losing battles over non-negotiable issues. Moreover, at public universities, the central problem has been declining budgets that neither unions nor administrations can control because the primary problem has been the parsimony of state legislators. Thus unionization has been a mixed blessing at public universities, and the most vexing problems facing can't be fixed by unions.
14
I am aghast! I have been personally funding Scholarships for Teaching and Research assistants, the primary qualification having been to achieve and maintain academic excellence during the four undergraduate academic years prior to applying for my scholarship support. It requires those who earn my support must maintain that scholarship level in order to continue to receive my financial support. If I understand correctly, once unionized, the student receivers of support provided by Universities, business and individuals, will have gained the right under law, to demand minimum levels of financial support as well as to have requirements for qualification
restricted to levels acceptable to the Union contract.
If this is true, the balance of my personal funds set aside to provide scholarship rewards to deserving Graduate Students will no longer be made available.
restricted to levels acceptable to the Union contract.
If this is true, the balance of my personal funds set aside to provide scholarship rewards to deserving Graduate Students will no longer be made available.
9
Universities are increasingly becoming large factories of bureaucrats.
Your scholarships will be more meaningful re-training workers displaced by machines or globalization.
Your scholarships will be more meaningful re-training workers displaced by machines or globalization.
4
When I was a grad student at Columbia in the 1970s, it seemed reasonable to regard the teaching fellowship experience as a (meagerly) paid internship because it provided a basic experience in what ultimately became my first career, college teaching, and because I felt valued as an individual with skills beyond laboratory research. But in today's corporate university --- and after a second career in corporate environments --- I'd have to be on the side of unionization. It's simply too easy for lives and careers to fall victim to the machinations of aspiring middle managers and to the depersonalizing aspects of corporate structures.
30
Unions protect people that work for a living. These Grad students obviously need protection.
21
My kid went to a small private school where occasionally there were as few a six students in a class to one professor. That was professor, not grad student teaching assistant.
The real problem is that too many professors no longer actually teach class, they are too busy trying to find the next Facebook.
The real problem is that too many professors no longer actually teach class, they are too busy trying to find the next Facebook.
8
All professionals need to get the message. There is strength in numbers. The corporations are eating your lunch. But do it carefully because they will fire you if they find out before you get organized.
8
I have worked at a college for a long time, and let me tell you, now that we are run by the Bean Counters all employees need to get organized. Administrations care more and more about doing the important stuff like, um, teaching!, as cheaply as possible. They want to free up money for their own pockets, and for fancy facilities that are monuments to themselves.
24
Unions take their money out of workers' wages. I worked more than 46 years, most of it in a unionized industry. The union tended to support the least productive workers and discourage any sort of productivity improvement.
Not smart.
Not smart.
8
While I support this unionization, I might add that the grad students be highly involved once they get in a union, particularly if they are in the same union as teaching faculty.
I am professional staff at a college and I'm in the union with faculty, however we are literally the cash cow for that union. Its dues are high (higher than my typical annual raise) and our representation is lousy.
I am professional staff at a college and I'm in the union with faculty, however we are literally the cash cow for that union. Its dues are high (higher than my typical annual raise) and our representation is lousy.
4
I was in heavy industry for 30+ years in both unionized and nonunion environments. A union organizer I knew told me a story about an owner who complained about an organizing drive at his company. The organizer said: "You have only yourself to blame. I can never organize a well run company, I won't even get in the gate. However, in an organization that mistreats their people, that takes advantage of them and shows them no respect, I am welcomed with open arms. The fact that you are about to unionized is your fault, all I'm really doing here is filling out the paperwork."
22
While I have no comment on the result, I think this sadly reflects the state of the United States today - if you don't get your way, whine. If whining is not successful, sue.
7
It appears they are "whining" in the same spirit in which workers of the early 20th century whined. And then they were whining about a 6 to 7 day work week (which led to the 5 day work week) , no basic worker safety (workplaces become reasonably safe) , no more laborers under age 16 (child labor mostly ended). And to win these victories, many of those original "whiners" unionized, so as to combine their strength. And thus the graduates students have sued for the right to also unionize and get their demands listened to. So such whining, as you call it, is a long-standing tradition, not a new thing. And if it requires a lawsuit to win that right, that's fighting power with power, also hardly a new thing.
14
So you think the exploited should just roll over and take it?
2
Next step, unpaid internships. Free labor under the guise of valuable learning experiences is just exploitative and discriminates against the class of people who can't afford to work for free. If you do work for an organization that isn't a non-profit, you should be considered an employee or independent contractor.
10
What if your tuition is waived and you receive a stipend, albeit a small one? That is remuneration.
2
And that would be acceptable to most, or should be.
1
This is an interesting case. Nobody talks more about the incredible amount of damage that unions have done to industry and education over the past 75 years than do I. But at the same time it has to be recognized that there is no more abusive system to students than the higher education system and its use of students to garner more money for the coffers of the institution. It was a tragedy that the Northwestern football players lost their appeal to unionize. It is definitely a plus to have the grad students win the right. I guess the continued lesson here is that football generates more money for schools than do grad students so give the grad students a win, in all fairness. What has the money to do with it? EVERYTHING! But let's talk about the real issue in colleges and universities today. Student loans should be subject to bankruptcy rules and the institutions that encourage students to take out loans should be 50% responsible. Imagine telling any 18 year old he can go to any car dealer in the country and get any car he wants with no down payment, and not make any payments for 5 years. How much thought would go into the purchase? So we give hundreds of thousands of dollars to the same kid to go party for 5 years and wonder why the student aid system is OK?
4
If they cannot figure out the process, they should not be allowed to get the degree.
18 is plenty old enough to do math.
18 is plenty old enough to do math.
As a Ph.D., parenthood is the most open for abuse. Graduate students cannot use the FMLA, and many schools will not stop the 5-year funding clock for maternity/ paternity leave. That means that students are actually financially penalized for taking time off to care for their infants. Some schools provide as little as six weeks maternity leave--and paying for childcare with a stipend is incredibly difficult. Nearly all the full-time professors, men and women, in my department did not have children of their own. Nearly all of the adjunct professors DID have children. Some of the full-time professors chastised me for staying home with my infant when it was feverish and vomiting. Others told me my infant would be fine if I went to another country for 3 months to do research. Academia is very family-unfriendly and makes it nearly impossible for graduate students or Ph.D.s with a normal family life to achieve tenure.
15
Starting in '74 spent five years as a TA in the Department of English in a major research university. At the time we received tuition remission, healthcare through the campus infirmary and a monthly stipend. The latter remained unchanged through a period of (for the US) hyper inflation. Our workload involved carrying the entire Freshman English offering with each of the TAs responsible for roughly 25 students a semester, grading weekly compositions and conducting 3 hours of classroom prep for each of two sections. When most of us could no longer pay rent and eat on $400/month a group of us established a quorum of TAs, agreeing on a to a plan to strike; we then went to the department chair and asked for a raise, with the understanding that lacking that we'd stand down from classroom work and grading and let the regular faculty teach Freshman English. 2 weeks before classes began our request was received with some anger but the numbers were too clear; given double digit inflation, it had become impossible to live on the stipend. Thankfully the dean of faculty was able to find the funds and we received long overdue raises of roughly 20 percent. Our collective action was conducted politely but resolutely. Since that time the share of academic work conducted by grad students and adjunct faculty has grown substantially. It's amazing to me that 40 years later we're only just seeing a union movement finally surfacing in both public and private universities.
31
What I find disturbing about this is that when undergrads go to certain colleges they are going because of the professors, some of whom are stars in their fields. If those professors are not teaching but the grad students and TAs are teaching, why are those professors listed in the catalogues or in the pitches for applying to or enrolling in the college? Isn't doing that more of a bait and switch than anything else? Furthermore, not everyone is cut out to be a teacher, especially some of the professors who may have the all important Ph.D. but have no idea how to teach their subject to undergrads or anyone else.
First of all if the star professor isn't teaching he/she should not be used to draw in students who then think they can take a course with that professor. Second, just as in grades K-12, college instructors, no matter what their degrees are, should be able to teach, not lecture at students. Since being a teacher is hard work I think that those who teach the courses should receive the most compensation whether they are professors, grad students, TAs, or adjuncts. When we go to college we are paying for an education and all too many professors have no idea how to educate. Some don't even want to do that and rely upon their grad students or TAs to do the teaching. Since it's a time consuming job the grad students and TAs deserve to be paid the going rate or at least a livable rate.
First of all if the star professor isn't teaching he/she should not be used to draw in students who then think they can take a course with that professor. Second, just as in grades K-12, college instructors, no matter what their degrees are, should be able to teach, not lecture at students. Since being a teacher is hard work I think that those who teach the courses should receive the most compensation whether they are professors, grad students, TAs, or adjuncts. When we go to college we are paying for an education and all too many professors have no idea how to educate. Some don't even want to do that and rely upon their grad students or TAs to do the teaching. Since it's a time consuming job the grad students and TAs deserve to be paid the going rate or at least a livable rate.
16
Students go to college to get a degree that leads to a job, and that is what parents are paying for. I've been teaching for 50 years and at this point in time I would estimate that fewer than 10 percent have any interest in getting an education. Star professors add prestige to the degree and also attract talented students to enhance the networking opportunities. When I started teaching Universities were educational institutions. Now only a few private institutions , not all of them elite, take the educational mission seriously. If students and their parents are customers, they will not be educated, just serviced.
RG, star professors are not always good teachers. And I went to college to get an education. I resented it every step of the way because all college was was a glorified high school with too many students there who didn't belong. But colleges don't help with the marketing and the hype. And, in a sense students are customers. Some of us do expect our professors to be capable of teaching instead of lecturing at us.
1
I went to college and graduate school for an education. So did my daughters, and now my granddaughter is doing the same. Sometimes the right job comes with other kinds of outside of the university training.
1
It is a great step in the right direction, but as long as those of us who send our children to college, and those that go to college do not stand up for the rights of teaching assistants, adjunct professors and grad students which make up a majority of those teaching our college students, not much will change in working conditions or the price of college. Most likely you or your child will have a majority of part-time adjuncts and grad students teaching them throughout their college years. Ask the professors if they have health insurance and if they can pay their bills. Most adjuncts are so poor they qualify for Medicaid after years of study and accomplishments. College students are standing up for all equality throughout the county, which is wonderful, however, they should be standing up for the income inequality on their own campuses as well. They are complicit in a system that talks a liberal talk, but walks a corporate walk.
75
When I was a TA, I was compensated with a tuition waiver, free health insurance and a monthly stipend that was not lavish but certainly paid most of my bills. I graduated with an MA from a Big 10 university, with zero debt whatsoever. Not bad for "teaching" for a handful of hours a week and spending another handful of hours grading papers or lesson planning.
Having been on both ends - as a TA and on the receiving end of classes "taught" by TAs, I think many graduate students overestimate their value as instructors.
Having been on both ends - as a TA and on the receiving end of classes "taught" by TAs, I think many graduate students overestimate their value as instructors.
30
Reality:
Since you don't tell us where you are from and how you got such a plum assignment, we are left to wonder if it was in some paradise unknown to us. It was also in the past. Newsflash: times have changed. As an adjunct I got no health insurance, my pay dates were disrupted without any warning (I found out when the direct deposit didn't happen) and the only way I knew that I was not being hired for the next semester (after 5 years of real teaching not "teaching" ...whatever that is) my porthole to my teaching website was closed.
Because you seem to indicate that you were on the receiving end of "teaching" by TAs doesn't mean all TA's "teach".
Since you don't tell us where you are from and how you got such a plum assignment, we are left to wonder if it was in some paradise unknown to us. It was also in the past. Newsflash: times have changed. As an adjunct I got no health insurance, my pay dates were disrupted without any warning (I found out when the direct deposit didn't happen) and the only way I knew that I was not being hired for the next semester (after 5 years of real teaching not "teaching" ...whatever that is) my porthole to my teaching website was closed.
Because you seem to indicate that you were on the receiving end of "teaching" by TAs doesn't mean all TA's "teach".
9
How long ago was that?
2
It sounds like you had a positive experience, but it makes me curious about when you were a TA and in what discipline, especially since it sounds like you were working for your MA when working as a TA. Most of the TAs that I know already have their MA. They are also working significantly more than what you describe.
I think it is also important to recognize that TA responsibilities and benefits differ significantly depending on the school, department, and departmental resources. This is purely anecdotal, but I have noticed a large difference between the duties and expectations of TAs in the humanities versus the "hard sciences". I have also noticed a difference between the responsibilities TAs had when I first went to graduate school in the late 1990's and today.
I think it is also important to recognize that TA responsibilities and benefits differ significantly depending on the school, department, and departmental resources. This is purely anecdotal, but I have noticed a large difference between the duties and expectations of TAs in the humanities versus the "hard sciences". I have also noticed a difference between the responsibilities TAs had when I first went to graduate school in the late 1990's and today.
3
Unions are the backbone of any democracy.
When anyone chips away at unions , then they are really undermining the fabric of our democracy which is our voice. Again, when we organize and use our strength as one, then there is not anything we cannot accomplish.
Getting paid a decent wage for our time is but on of those rights.
When anyone chips away at unions , then they are really undermining the fabric of our democracy which is our voice. Again, when we organize and use our strength as one, then there is not anything we cannot accomplish.
Getting paid a decent wage for our time is but on of those rights.
29
Uh, no, unions are not the backbone. Representation is the backbone.
And there is no right to a decent wage. You cannot define it, so how can it be an absolute? And, if you can organize, you can certainly negotiate for your definition of a decent wage.
"life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"
And there is no right to a decent wage. You cannot define it, so how can it be an absolute? And, if you can organize, you can certainly negotiate for your definition of a decent wage.
"life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"
I wish this was available to me when I was a Ph D candidate- the newer faculty (my mentors had retired) denied me a chance to defend my dissertation and the faculty led by the Chair behaved as if they were dictators. They all left may be due to pressure from the administration as they had done this to many students especially women and non Anglo Saxon.
8
Back in the late 60s and early 70s when I was a grad student at the U of Wash in two different departments, grad students were treated very poorly if they did not "serve the ship", a la Ben Hur, but looked out for themselves. This behavior gradually changed in the 70s after the U lost some suits brought by grad students for "arbitrary and capricious treatment". This will always be a problem, because of the wiring of the mammalian brain.
3
I did my graduate work at the U of Wash in the early 70s. Some good, some bad. My statistics class was taught by a grad student as the Professor who showed up twice during the entire semester was off "consulting." Most people took the class pass/fail because the teaching was so bad. (I earned a 4 point as did one other student, but the rest would never have come close to passing without grading on the "curve.") Waste of tuition for most.
If you won't give me tenure, I'll take a union. Good for them. I don't think this article mentions it but the ruling also applies to undergraduates. That's good and bad. Good because it sets a wider more inclusive precedent. Bad because some other judge will likely flip the decision again. Better tell students to get moving while the ball is in their court.
3
Non-workers of the world awaken from the fog of your intellectual curiosity and caste off the chains of your teaching and grading duties! Stipends away!
5
Teaching and grading is non-work?
6
As current graduate students at Columbia in the MFA program, we're delighted by the NLRB's decision and welcome the vote to unionize and get a contract. But, with all due respect to Mr. Katz and the work of his peers, it depends on what department you're in at the university that determines your "fundamental concern." We in the School of the Arts — MFA candidates, many of us TAs but without stipends or much in the way of non-loan financial aid — are certainly fundamentally concerned about MONEY. Columbia's MFA program is broken and grossly underfunded (http://bit.ly/1stOOxS). Graduate Arts programs, at least at Columbia, have become accessible to only the international super-rich, with students routinely going $200-300K in debt. Inspired in large part by the organizing efforts of the GWC, grad students at the film school have been doing some amazing work this year lobbying our school's administration to make change—bringing to their attention, especially, the discrepancy between the perceived costs of attendance upon admittance and the real, hidden costs of the program. You can find student testimonials outlining these concerns, as well as our initial petition here: https://cufilmaction.tumblr.com/
White we hope and expect the new union will be an avenue of support for student workers like us, we also think there is a desperately needed conversation that must be had about Higher Ed nationally, as well as funding for the Arts and Humanities. The Ivory Tower is rotting.
-CUFA
White we hope and expect the new union will be an avenue of support for student workers like us, we also think there is a desperately needed conversation that must be had about Higher Ed nationally, as well as funding for the Arts and Humanities. The Ivory Tower is rotting.
-CUFA
37
Throughout our economy, there are many of these types of "jobs" that appear to offer a valuable learning experience for young people, but, in reality are the very definition of exploitation. You often think, yes, in business, exploitation, is the name of the game. But the profit motive is alive and well in academia, in the "nonprofit" world, and even in our two political parties, which have normalized the exploitation of young campaign workers.
41
As a graduate student, years ago, I was directly involved in the struggle for unionization. In addition to attending protests and meeting with administrators, a leader in the graduate student government I successfully pushed for student activity fees be ear marked for union organizing efforts; the hiring of union organizers, and so forth. So, I am very happy with this ruling!
3
While I cheer a ruling that will inhibit the exploitation of graduate students, I'm concerned with forcing graduate students to pay for unionization.
Students may have won something in the short term but in the long term it simply makes them less attractive than other alternatives. Teaching functions can be performed by low-paid adjuncts; research can be performed without compensation by foreign PhD students willing to pay their own way in return for a chance to stay permanently in the US.
7
You mean adjuncts are paid less than graduate students?
5
Exactly, market forces will rain on this parade soon enough. The end result here means graduate students present a more expensive and distracting option for doing the work that needs to be done. The winner here are adjuncts who can swoop in and perform a better and cheaper alternative.
Often times, especially when you take grad students' tuition waivers into account, adjuncts are paid RADICALLY less than grad students. I am/have been an adjunct at two NYC colleges and am friends with several current PhDs who make considerably more than I do.
1
Good for them!
We need more unions in this country. Sure, they definitely have their problems, but without them workers are powerless against the abuses of management. Especially when unemployment is high or in other cases when switching employers is unusually difficult (in the case of grad students, requiring the rigamarole of academic transfer).
And no, the academic world isn't different anymore. That's because the administration has gone to great lengths to replace all the tenured faculty with adjuncts and grad students, and applying business thinking to the university setting. It's not uncommon these days to have university presidents that have never taught anybody anything nor engaged in any kind of academic research, and instead have a business background.
We need more unions in this country. Sure, they definitely have their problems, but without them workers are powerless against the abuses of management. Especially when unemployment is high or in other cases when switching employers is unusually difficult (in the case of grad students, requiring the rigamarole of academic transfer).
And no, the academic world isn't different anymore. That's because the administration has gone to great lengths to replace all the tenured faculty with adjuncts and grad students, and applying business thinking to the university setting. It's not uncommon these days to have university presidents that have never taught anybody anything nor engaged in any kind of academic research, and instead have a business background.
27
"And no, the academic world isn't different anymore. That's because the administration has gone to great lengths to replace all the tenured faculty with adjuncts and grad students, and applying business thinking to the university setting. It's not uncommon these days to have university presidents that have never taught anybody anything nor engaged in any kind of academic research, and instead have a business background."
Ah, the rise and fall, and rise of Trump U.
Ah, the rise and fall, and rise of Trump U.
5
In Belgium, grad students get paid the same as entry level employees in industry. But in America, students must be paupers; and the reason - exploitation - is obvious. C. I. L. Cheap Intelligent Labor. Not to mention plagiarism of their work by their so-called sponsors. Don't grieve, organize! Union!
72
This certainly doesn't reflect my recent experience during grad school in the USA. The pay was good, the demands were reasonable, and the tuition was free. I never felt exploited. I'd say most of the folks yelling about poor "working conditions" are inflating their real value and haven't a clue about the real world.
4
I agree, RR.
3
It may actually be time to go back to grad school. Columbia tops my list!
I think a generation of Math/Sci gradstudents/adjuncts have been imported from Asia to work in the Sciences (I think universities have the unlimited ability to give out H1B Visas).
Hopefully native Americans who want to go into the sciences may find it easier.
This is good for EVERYONE.
I think a generation of Math/Sci gradstudents/adjuncts have been imported from Asia to work in the Sciences (I think universities have the unlimited ability to give out H1B Visas).
Hopefully native Americans who want to go into the sciences may find it easier.
This is good for EVERYONE.
7
This NLRB decision to allow private university graduate student employees to unionize has come at a great time. I was witness to the organizing of graduate student employees that took place at the University of California system in the 1990's. The UC administrators fought to the end to deny the right of these workers to form a union. The graduate employees taught most of the classes offered, graded papers and exams taught by full professors, and were abused in the process. They weren't given family health insurance, were paid less than $10,000 per semester despite working more than 40 per week, had no grievance process, paid vacation or sick days, and were told they were lucky to have the opportunity.
It's been over 16 years since they were recognized by the CA State Public Employees Relations Board and the sky has not fallen on the UC system. The Private universities will get used to having to negotiate contracts with the new union. They may not like it, but such is the price to have a democratic workplace where the people who do most of the actual work finally have a voice over their work lives.
It's been over 16 years since they were recognized by the CA State Public Employees Relations Board and the sky has not fallen on the UC system. The Private universities will get used to having to negotiate contracts with the new union. They may not like it, but such is the price to have a democratic workplace where the people who do most of the actual work finally have a voice over their work lives.
42
I assume graduate assistants once unionized will pay tuition as part of their income.
8
Graduate students are already taxed on any tuition benefits they receive as part of their TA/RA income. It can be very challenging given that many universities have really high tuitions generating large tax burdens, and many grad students earn only 25-30k.
16
Graduate students are not taxed on tuition benefits. According to existing IRS rules, income from fellowships and stipends are only taxable on the portion that does not go towards tuition and required class materials. Plus, the way that most PhD students receive tuition benefits is through a tuition waiver/financial aide type system, where the school just moves money from its left pocket to its right pocket.
3
You are required to pay tax on the tuition under current IRS rules, however many people choose not to and get away with it. All of my tax forms I receive from my university include my tuition (which they waive) as part of my income. I get paid ~25k a year from teaching. I get taxed on ~37k because of tuition.
1
Graduate-student union representation works best in general when the students are represented by the same union as the faculty. That's what happened at Wisconsin in the 1970s, and it led to decent stipends for TAs. I once opined that I never lived so well before or since—a bit of an exaggeration, but only a bit compared to my early days as an assistant professor in a "right-to-work" state (read: right to be poor). But then, we've seen what has happened to unions in Wisconsin.
Unions that would pit students against faculty can't overlook the simple fact that faculty write recommendations for post-graduate jobs. And the idea of TA overtime just won't work, because TAs are essentially "salaried"—they generally receive a stipend academic term by academic term (or for the whole year). Limitations on the time devoted to grading or classroom teaching function better.
Unions that would pit students against faculty can't overlook the simple fact that faculty write recommendations for post-graduate jobs. And the idea of TA overtime just won't work, because TAs are essentially "salaried"—they generally receive a stipend academic term by academic term (or for the whole year). Limitations on the time devoted to grading or classroom teaching function better.
10
NYU voluntarily recognized its graduate students' desire to unionize after more than a decade of courageous collective action by several generations of grad students, underhanded undermining of the union by the Administration, and extreme University intransigence. This tore the university apart and produced long term conflict and ill will. Even now, in the wake of its 'voluntary' recognition, the University's bargaining has been in poor faith. NYU was and is being pushed by students sick of being treated like disposable cheap labor. The voluntary nature of its capitulation was a preemptive surrender to the inevitability of this welcomed NLRB decision.
35
NYU's voluntary recognition also excluded a large chunk of students, such as those in the sciences. A union that could push the university to take safety rules and what-not more seriously is badly needed, given that universities have nearly non-existent safety cultures.
8
Honestly, it's about time. Universities have loved to use the 'student' label because it serves their own interests, especially their wallets. But it comes at the expense of their de facto employees - the TAs and graduate research assistants, the latter who drive forward a lot of major research in this country while getting very little of the recognition. In reality, PhD student training is like an apprenticeship and less about being a traditional student, and as the NLRB rightly pointed out, it's possible to be both a student and an employee simultaneously. And being an employee is highly beneficial to graduate research assistants, such as getting the protection of worker safety laws (safety and compensation) and being able to bargain for better working conditions and benefits, just to name a few.
51
So unionization might intrude on academic matters, such as the indignity of making full time professors spend time teaching those stupid undergraduate courses?
8
In the late 1960's, some of my best professors were those that enjoyed teaching the introductory level undergraduate courses. You could see and feel their passion for the subject area where, in my case, it inspired me to change my major and career path. Now, almost half a century later, I fondly remember those freshman and sophomore years.
9
Stanford had a policy in the 1970's of giving full professsors beginner-level undergraduate courses - walking to my graduate classes with one of these professors, he related to me, "You know what this guy said in the Nature of Human Language the other day?" That's all he talked about.
Now the adjuncts need to unionize. When I worked as an adjunct I made about $5 an hour before taxes. It was dismal work at a very large public university. When they refused to pay for my parking, which meant that I would go in the hole to teach and not make any money at all I quit.
93
Not a big fan of unions, but this couldn't happen to a more deserving group of employers.
22
I was a member of the Univ of Michigan graduate student union in the 1990s. It gave me a lifelong distaste for unions.
As a STEM grad student, my teaching hours were quite valuable to the students and faculty. The humanities grad students, who all voted for the strikes, were generally grading instead and no one cared. I didn't feel so strongly as to cross the picket line, so I struck with them but I felt used.
It was certainly true that we STEM students we less poor and less overworked than the humanities students, but that was (and still is) an issue of supply and demand. The real issue here is that too many people are trying for academic careers, especially in the humanities. I believe that arises mainly from the academic environment -- most of the successful people these kids meet in their college years are college professors, and so that becomes their mental model.
As a STEM grad student, my teaching hours were quite valuable to the students and faculty. The humanities grad students, who all voted for the strikes, were generally grading instead and no one cared. I didn't feel so strongly as to cross the picket line, so I struck with them but I felt used.
It was certainly true that we STEM students we less poor and less overworked than the humanities students, but that was (and still is) an issue of supply and demand. The real issue here is that too many people are trying for academic careers, especially in the humanities. I believe that arises mainly from the academic environment -- most of the successful people these kids meet in their college years are college professors, and so that becomes their mental model.
16
Pessimist: But the universities are only too happy to admit those liberal arts grad students, aren't they? This creates a type of Ponzi scheme: the graduate professors, tenured and tenure-track, keep their jobs, teach one or two classes per term with about 10 people in each class. Usually each of the grad students believes he/she will be the lucky one who will land the tenure-track job. I've noticed the professors don't disabuse those grad students of that notion. Keep it churning; the money rises to the top and its supply depends on a new crop of investors every year.
6
This is exactly the reason I am hoping from afar that my former dissertation director's death is moderately painful.
I was a teaching assistant at Columbia, and have been a CUNY adjunct for over 10 years. We adjuncts belong to the same union as do the full-time faculty. suggest that any union formed by TAs remain separate from a labor organisation that includes full-timers. Although our union claims that our new contract - signed after 6 years of fighting the City, State and CUNY - is a big step forward for adjuncts, in reality the distance between our pay and that of the full-time faculty has widened and only a handful of us - about 1,000 out of 14-15,000 - will have greater job security.
Two-thirds of CUNY courses are taught by adjuncts, many of whom have Ph.D.s and many years of teaching experience. Yet as the Bureau of Labor Standards inflation calculator confirms, our salaries have fallen by 60% since the 1970s. Classes can be cancelled a week or two before the beginning of a semester, leaving an adjunct with even less expectation of income over the next months. The contracts that will be offered to CUNY adjuncts under the new union deal are not based on seniority, but rather on continuous service for five years, so anyone who has had a course cancelled, or taken a semester off to write a book or attend to family matters, will not be eligible.
Many of us feel that the union prioritizes full-time faculty, and is willing to accept a crummy deal for adjuncts if the full-timers are placated. I suggest to part-timers that they stay clear of unions that include full-time workers.
Two-thirds of CUNY courses are taught by adjuncts, many of whom have Ph.D.s and many years of teaching experience. Yet as the Bureau of Labor Standards inflation calculator confirms, our salaries have fallen by 60% since the 1970s. Classes can be cancelled a week or two before the beginning of a semester, leaving an adjunct with even less expectation of income over the next months. The contracts that will be offered to CUNY adjuncts under the new union deal are not based on seniority, but rather on continuous service for five years, so anyone who has had a course cancelled, or taken a semester off to write a book or attend to family matters, will not be eligible.
Many of us feel that the union prioritizes full-time faculty, and is willing to accept a crummy deal for adjuncts if the full-timers are placated. I suggest to part-timers that they stay clear of unions that include full-time workers.
59
Your final analysis is interesting. I'm teaching a full load as an adjunct at two colleges making a pittance that won't hit my bank account a month after I've already been in the classroom, unlike my FT colleagues of course. Something must change.
25
The New York Times would do a great service doing an unbiased analysis of the corporatization of universities. More and more they follow the money as a priority pursuit; while the faculty and students see how this priority intersects with the pursuit of knowledge and truth. Following the money produces vanity buildings, obscene salaries for presidents and financial vice-provosts, clubhouses as dorms, sport contracts above all, etc. while abandoning faculty governance, tenure, scholarships, and mentorship of younger faculty. Of course it is better to have adjuncts and so-called untenured professional specialists who can be fired. Great scholars in the position of chairs and directors go along for the ride, trapped by the promise of money for their projects. Academic life was the refuge of truth and decency. Is it any longer? Why does this need to happen?
149
25 years ago, Will-TV (Champaign- Urbana) did a program on contaminated farm wells (herbicide-pesticide) in Champaign County. All of the wells tested were contaminated. You guessed it. Lost a lot of funding from Agri Business.
6
Grad students in Florida public universities have been unionized for decades now, with no noticeable negative side effects from their having fair salaries, health care, and so on. These unions' success came at a cost in a prolonged battle with Republican governors and legislators, including one move breaking up the then "State University System" allegedly to "promote competition," but the back story was to crush the strong faculty and graduate student union. Even stronger, university-independent("where there was one, then there were nine"), unions emerged.
82
Now all you abused, used, frustrated, penniless ADJUNCT college lecturers and professors need to unionize and stop this horrible abuse of teaching faculty that has now become the rage and the standard for college and university education. Your salaries and futures hav been sacrificed at the altar of administrative salaries and club-med type living arrangements for delayed adolescents whooping it up in dorms while pretending to study !!!! (I know from experience.....)
130
Roads scholars. Whether adjuncts in USA or sessionals or contingents in Canada, these people are exploited yet furnish their universities with the backbone of basic introductory course instructors. They get neither health benefits nor retirement pensions. Employment security is nil. The sad thing is that when one leaves, there is a long line of would be adjuncts ready to take their place. Universities thus have a system where department faculty are both full time and adjunct. with the latter second class citizens. It will take a major overhaul in policy to change the current system. And yes, universities can be top heavy with administrators who rely on the lovely adjuncts to do the real work of teaching.
23
It wasn't necessary for you to admit that you didn't study. You could have just talked about the administrative salaries and outrageous benefits of retired full professors who continue to have both staff and on campus offices.
3
I hope the students succeed. The Universities have the money. They continue to build fancier and more luxurious student centers and recreation centers across the country while paying grad students poverty-level wages with only bare bone benefits. The inequality at our universities and colleges mirrors the gross inequality in our society at large. And undergraduate education students who fork over very high tuition while teaching in public schools with no pay - a requirement to graduate -- should follow their lead. Labor is labor.
125
Glen, I too hope the students succeed, since in a market economy you do not get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate. And organized groups can negotiate with stronger voices.
But I disagree that "labor is labor." Why do education majors spend time in real classrooms? Could it be more about both gaining critical, practical experience? Plus evaluating their performance (both for themselves and for those who have to certify their ability)? Should a music major be paid for the hours she spends at the piano? Does it depend on whether graduation requires a pubic recital? Should a geology student (my field) be paid for the days they spend mapping in the field as part of undergrad or grad research, when the primary benefit goes to the student in terms of new skills, but the mapping gets included in a bigger publication?
But I disagree that "labor is labor." Why do education majors spend time in real classrooms? Could it be more about both gaining critical, practical experience? Plus evaluating their performance (both for themselves and for those who have to certify their ability)? Should a music major be paid for the hours she spends at the piano? Does it depend on whether graduation requires a pubic recital? Should a geology student (my field) be paid for the days they spend mapping in the field as part of undergrad or grad research, when the primary benefit goes to the student in terms of new skills, but the mapping gets included in a bigger publication?
3
Bob, I do see you point about "gaining critical ... experience" and agree. But a semester of teaching without taking any other classes to the tune of a $15k tuition bill? The balance has tipped in favor of the institutions at the expense of the working students. Note, I was once a delighted grad TA at UNC-CH.
3