5 ms·
In many of the physical sciences both Masters and PhD students are usually paid a living wage, do not pay tuition, and work double or triple duty as student, te
by llccbb 9y ago
In many of the physical sciences both Masters and PhD students are usually paid a living wage, do not pay tuition, and work double or triple duty as student, teacher, researcher. These students usually do not accrue additional debt beyond what was needed for their undergraduate degree (if any). Despite their importance to many parts of the university system such as instruction, research, and funding (NSF proposals that don't have explicit funding for grad students are D.O.A.), they can still be treated pretty unfairly. Given the hours they work, it is still most common for them to be on the books as part-time employees (0.49 full-time) which cuts off access to employee sponsored health care that is mandated under the ACA. In almost all cases they have no benefits outside of tuition payment.
I think grad students unionizing is a fantastic idea. They are in every way the critical grease that keeps the capitalistic university system running. They should be able to protect themselves and have a stronger impact in how the universities are run.
The only concern I have is the huge turnover. Unions are most effective and most rationale when the members are committed for life. The longest any of these students could be there is 15 years (5 masters, 10 PhD). This would be very extreme. Most are looking to be out in 2-6 years.
Are there any other examples of unions for occupations that have mandatory turnover or term limits?
- kevindong 9y ago> Given the hours they work, it is still most common for them to be on the books as part-time employees (0.49 full-time) which cuts off access to employee sponsored health care that is mandated under the ACA. In almost all cases they have no benefits outside of tuition payment. As far as I'm aware, all reputable American colleges will do the following for graduate students who are teaching assistants: 1) waive tuition 2) pay for the majority of a health insurance plan 3) issue a modest living stipend that's enough to live on, albeit not very comfortably. I know this is the case for Purdue.
- munin 9y agoMany won't pay for health insurance, or if they do, it is the health insurance that only gets you access to the student health center, which is basically just a dispenser of tylenol and condoms. Most will waive "tuition" but won't waive "fees" which can still be substantial (10% of your take home pay, in my case). This was at a top-10-for-CS grad program.
- TJSomething 9y agoMy experience in my CS MS was that there was ~50% discount on tuition, a subsidized health insurance plan, and not quite enough to live on.
- secabeen 9y agoMS is often a different deal that PhD or MS/PhD.
- Fomite 9y agoIndeed, in my field, terminal Masters students are a profit center.
- azinman2 9y agoTop tier usesally doesn’t have terminal MS. MS means you didn’t cut it or you want out. In either case they pay you.
- luckydude 9y agoI think that's not completely accurate. In physics and math and probably other hard science disciplines, yeah, you are correct, a masters means "thanks but you're not gonna make it to a PhD". I have a masters in Computer Science from UW-Madison and I had nothing to do with the PhD track. I just wanted more learning and the CS department was happy to provide it. There was no stigma associated with a masters degree there and it's definitely helped me in my career.
- gehwartzen 9y agoThat was the case at VCU and every other state school I looked at in VA. Only for Science/Engineering though. All other subjects had very few if any TA/RA positions and a ton of people competing to get them. About 10 years ago the stipends were around 25-35k/year. Plenty to live off of in Richmond or Charlottesville.
- djsumdog 9y agoMy masters program offered really affordable health care to students (both undergrad and grad). That was around 2005 though. Not sure if that's still the case.
- spaceseaman 9y agoThese are precisely the kinds of things that unions will fight for though. Just assuming that the university (out of its goodwill?) will do any of those things is kind of ludicrous. At my university, we had to fight tooth and nail (we had a union) to get the university to improve our health insurance and full waive our tuition (They did a tricky thing where they would waive all people with 50% TA-ships, and then they gave everyone a 49% one. Universities are not noble, altruistic actors. Far far from it)
- mathattack 9y agoThese things come at a cost. If the cost of grad students goes up, we'll see some combination of the following: 1 - Less grad students. 2 - More undergrads doing the work of grad students. 3 - More adjuncts doing the work of grad students. 4 - Grad students being asked to do more. The irony is this is happening at the great home of Price Theory!
- Ar-Curunir 9y agoThe cost could be offset by administrators not taking a huge cut. Quite literally these administrators do nothing of worth; it's the work of grad students and not-yet-tenured professors that keeps universities rhnning., Not the endless circles of bureaucrats
- alphaalpha101 9y agoI don't think it's at all ironic that the home of the failed ideology of neoliberalism is the place this is happening.
- dnautics 9y agoI would have concern in that unions are typically great when labor is fungible. If there's a wide spread in individual productive value, unions are not so great. Unionizing is basically capitulation to the ethic that grad student labor is a commodity, which it may already be, but is certainly not the aspiration. If I were a grad student at the uofc I would almost certainly be a strike breaker. Your experiment waits for no one.
- Symbiote 9y agoThere are highly skilled professional unions in Europe, such as for doctors, pilots or engineers. Before striking, there's working to rule. The experiment can continue, but the extra hours spent grading papers or doing additional tutorials are not worked.
- CPLX 9y agoYour premise is dubious. The entertainment industry unions are among the most longstanding and effective and there are no greater spreads in economic value than there are between a novice actor or screenwriter and a global movie star.
- dnautics 9y agoI think you've made my point for me: the unions in acting basically serve to cement and magnify inequality in the system.
- dredmorbius 9y agoExtending the scope of the union to post-docs and adjuncts may help. You're now talking a decade or so in many fields.
- Spooky23 9y agoUnions work out pretty well in retail and hotel trades where there is a mix of high turnover and longish tenure people. When I worked retail in high school and college, one of my employers was a union shop. It was nice in that there was less abusive and capricious scheduling behavior. I moved up to a level where I saw store P&L and the economics looked to be about the same — but it was more equitable and predictable for the employees.