A recent article in the Chicago Reader sums up well the problem facing graduate students across the country: It is “the university as corporation, [the model in which] some university heads are calling themselves CEOs, graduate students are more than ever an exploitable source of cheap labor, and most Ph.D.s are doomed to a lifetime of multiple, low-paying, part-time jobs.”
While some universities move to amend the situation, the University of Chicago administration, once again, follows rather than leads. Provost Thomas Rosenbaum’s recommendations on graduate funding in February, while providing some additional funding opportunities, failed to address key financial issues for students—instead treating them as if they were employees of the University. (Though where that line rests is unclear. At an open forum in March, Rosenbaum consistently described departments as “hiring” rather than “admitting” graduate students into their Ph.D. programs.) Issues of increased pay for all teaching and T.A. positions, as well as the provision of appropriate benefits like health care for student employees, remained unresolved.
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Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Memo from Board of Trustees Student and Campus Life Committee
The University of Chicago Board of Trustees
Student and Campus Life Committee
Memorandum
To:
Hollie Gilman, Undergraduate Student Liaison
John Mark Hansen, Dean, Social Sciences Division
Rick Rosengarten, Dean, Divinity School
Erica Simmons, Graduate Student Liaison
From: Klingensmith, Chair, Student and Campus Life Committee
Subject: Recent Meeting on Graduate Student Funding Issues
I am writing on behalf of the committee to thank each of you for participating in the May 5, 2008, meeting to discuss graduate student issues, particularly the University's financial support of current and future graduate students. Strengthening our graduate programs has been identified by the administration as a strategic priority, and the Board recognizes and appreciates its importance. The Student and Campus Life Committee has the particular responsibility to understand the situation of the current and future student body so that it may advise the whole Board on strategic matters connected to student and campus life that support the institution's overall mission.
Although specific academic and administrative decisions remain the province of teh faculty and administration, it was very useful for the Committee to hear from your different perspectives more about the context and complexity of the issues having an impact upon graduate education at the university. We recognize and are sympathetic to the concerns expressed to us by current graduate students and wish that the University must manage carefully all of the many worthwhile demands on its resources and make decisions in the best interests of the University as a whole.
We wish to thank in particular, Erica Simmons, Graduate Liaison, for raising many of the issues we discussed thoroughly through her term. We have been impressed with the work of the students who have supported her efforts and brought forth information and arguments that enabled all of us to think more broadly about these issues.
To be sure our discussion reinforced the importance of enhancing the graduate student experience in all of its components. We appreciate all the work that has been done to date and the Committee looks forward to being kept appraised by the administration of the work of Cathy Cohen and Kim Goff-Crews, including their review of teaching stipends and advanced residency tuition.
c: Members of the Student and Campus Life Committee
James Crown, Chair, Board of Trustees
Robert Zimmer, President
Thomas Rosenbaum, Provost
David Fithian, Secretary of the University
Kimberly Goff-crews, Vice President and Dean of Students
Martha Roth, Dean, Humanities Division
Cathy Cohen, Deputy Provost
Student and Campus Life Committee
Memorandum
To:
Hollie Gilman, Undergraduate Student Liaison
John Mark Hansen, Dean, Social Sciences Division
Rick Rosengarten, Dean, Divinity School
Erica Simmons, Graduate Student Liaison
From: Klingensmith, Chair, Student and Campus Life Committee
Subject: Recent Meeting on Graduate Student Funding Issues
I am writing on behalf of the committee to thank each of you for participating in the May 5, 2008, meeting to discuss graduate student issues, particularly the University's financial support of current and future graduate students. Strengthening our graduate programs has been identified by the administration as a strategic priority, and the Board recognizes and appreciates its importance. The Student and Campus Life Committee has the particular responsibility to understand the situation of the current and future student body so that it may advise the whole Board on strategic matters connected to student and campus life that support the institution's overall mission.
Although specific academic and administrative decisions remain the province of teh faculty and administration, it was very useful for the Committee to hear from your different perspectives more about the context and complexity of the issues having an impact upon graduate education at the university. We recognize and are sympathetic to the concerns expressed to us by current graduate students and wish that the University must manage carefully all of the many worthwhile demands on its resources and make decisions in the best interests of the University as a whole.
We wish to thank in particular, Erica Simmons, Graduate Liaison, for raising many of the issues we discussed thoroughly through her term. We have been impressed with the work of the students who have supported her efforts and brought forth information and arguments that enabled all of us to think more broadly about these issues.
To be sure our discussion reinforced the importance of enhancing the graduate student experience in all of its components. We appreciate all the work that has been done to date and the Committee looks forward to being kept appraised by the administration of the work of Cathy Cohen and Kim Goff-Crews, including their review of teaching stipends and advanced residency tuition.
c: Members of the Student and Campus Life Committee
James Crown, Chair, Board of Trustees
Robert Zimmer, President
Thomas Rosenbaum, Provost
David Fithian, Secretary of the University
Kimberly Goff-crews, Vice President and Dean of Students
Martha Roth, Dean, Humanities Division
Cathy Cohen, Deputy Provost
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