4th year PhD student Charles Bakker at Western writes:
The reason that I am writing to you is because I know that you have a soft spot for helping potential graduate students discern which schools/programs to apply for, and I was hoping you could help spread the word about how things are right now for graduate students at Western.
As it stands, the graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) are on strike at Western, as you can see here: https://globalnews.ca/news/10417515/graduate-teaching-assistants-on-strike-western-university/ The reason we are striking is because the average graduate student at Western is only guaranteed to receive roughly $23,000 per year, even though the University itself recognizes that the cost of living in our beautiful city of London, Ontario is now over $40,000 per year. While it is true that our hourly wage as GTAs is competitive, as well as over twice what the minimum wage is here in Ontario, the fact remains that GTAs are only allowed to work 10 hours a week (overtime is frowned upon). What is further, what we earn as GTAs is part of our guaranteed funding package. So, it is not like we are earning money that is additional to our funding package. Even if we were allowed to work more hours, this would only cut into the amount of time that we have to work on our own research.
As I see it, there are two problems with the way things stand. First, if this has not already occurred, it will soon be the case that only independently wealthy students and those who receive full scholarships will be able to become graduate students at our University. Not only is this an obviously unethical situation, but it will also have a long-term impact on the prestige of the university. This is because, as one shrinks the pool of potential graduate students able to attend one's university, the chances of world-class graduate students doing ground-breaking research at that university diminishes. In turn, this entails that the number of top tier potential graduate students seeking to work with faculty at that university will also diminish, thus risking harm to the prestige and careers of faculty members as well. Over time, word will get around, and top tier faculty members will themselves be less inclined to want to come work at that university, which will only have a snowball effect on how many of the best graduate students will want to work there as well.
In sum, not only is it unethical to ask graduate students without means to somehow make up almost half the cost of living in order to attend Western, but it is also stupid to do so from a business standpoint as well. For let's be honest here, almost all universities have become businesses, and prestige is a valuable currency in the economy of higher education. Without prestige, you do not attract students and faculty, which means, you do not attract grant money and government subsidies.
My hope is that by raising awareness about our situation, we will put pressure on Western to take meaningful steps to preserve its prestige. For if it becomes widely known that graduate students will face financial hardship at Western, there will be less desire to consider attending here. To be clear, I love my department. Not only are the faculty members brilliant and leaders in their fields, but they are kind, and they support us as graduate students in our fight to be treated fairly. Thus, I am not looking to trash our reputation. I am looking to put pressure on our University to do their part to maintain it. And if they are not willing to do so, then at the very least I will have given other potential graduate students a fair warning about what they can expect should they come here.
$23,000 really is extremely low by the standards of a major research department.
UPDATE: Professor Corey Dyck, current Director of the Graduate Program in philosophy at Western, writes:
I would like to commend Charles (who ably TA'd for me this academic year) for bringing wider attention to the financial situation of our graduate student TAs and to their laudable efforts to improve their working conditions. I won't claim to speak on behalf of the department but I know that there is strong support for this labour action among my colleagues (many of whom I have also seen out in support on the picket lines). We remain hopeful that negotiations will be resolved soon and in a way that recognizes how vital the contributions of our graduate students are to the success of our undergraduate classes.
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