Pennyless Student Stories, 2

FYI: The U of C hospital told me to get on public assistance when I couldn't pay a bill...
This summer the student care nurse sent me to get blood work to test for allergies, which turned out to be many hundreds of dollars not covered by insurance. I called the hospital billing people and told them I couldn't afford that and they said that I could apply for aid to have the bill reduced but that I first had to apply for medicare and if I were rejected, then they might reduce my bill.
I don't know what this means for your idea, but just thought I would share.
- Jn


Dear Provost Cohen:

I would like to express my views regarding the situation of advanced graduate students who need to support themselves by teaching in the college as T.A.s, preceptors and instructors. Simply stated, we feel it is absolutely incumbent on the administration to raise the salaries, which have remained at the same paltry level since 1998, the year I entered. I have worked six times as a TA, each time receiving no more than $1500 a quarter, since 2001. I have calculated that if the T.A. salary had been comparable to Yale's in a quarter system, or $4500, my debt level today would be half of what it is now, or some $20,000 less. To give you a sense of how much TAs work for this token wage of $1500, last quarter I graded 30 papers per week for a total of 240 papers during the quarter, spending up to 20 hours a week doing so. In addition, I am a preceptor for BA thesis writers, compensated with a yearly stipend of $6500, or a little over $2000 a quarter. I spend numerous hours every week meeting individually with students, reading their work and providing feedback, as well as conducting a seminar. In the spring I will teach a stand-alone course for which I will receive $3500; I have already put in many hours just in preparation for the course, and will be putting in many more once the course begins. So in total for this year, I'm making $11,500 for teaching or assisting in five courses, a sum that barely covers my rent, much less my living expenses, which the University estimates is some $20,000 a year. I have no other sources of income besides loans. I simply cannot understand why the University of Chicago, with one of the largest university endowments in the country, cannot raise these stipends to the level of a living wage and to adjust yearly for inflation, especially given the ballooning costs of health care. The University of Michigan, with a lower per capita endowment and facing continual state budget cuts, offers graduate teaching fellows $15,000 per semester plus health insurance. Why can't Chicago do the same?

Thank you for your understanding and consideration of these important matters.

Sincerely,
Mikael Wolfe