President's Postings: Graduate Students as Second-Class Citizens?

January 30, 2007 : Last week's opinion piece by Graduate Senator Danny Rogers, "Graduate Students as Humans" brought attention to a problem that many graduate students on campus face: a general lack of respect and consideration.

Danny brought up the example of a faculty member referring to his class as "just graduate students" and therefore unworthy of fair treatment. I believe many of us have been treated very unfairly in our time here, and have accepted this as par for the course for graduate school. For example, I know of many graduate students who are expected by their advisors to go to one or more professional conferences a year and to pay for it themselves. Also, many of us who have worked as TA's are often expected to work far more hours than the 20 per week that we are paid for. (This has been confirmed by last year's Graduate Assistant Survey Report.) We are expected to accept this without complaint -- and we often do.

Part of the problem is that there is no effective manner of lodging a complaint against a faculty member. Graduate students (usually accurately) believe that they will be "found out" if they complain. Grads also fear retaliation. There is a tremendous imbalance of power between a grad students and advisors. Our advisors have the power to deny our funding, or even to prevent us from graduating, so it is very difficult to complain against someone who has such power over your life. Understandably, most graduate students are hesitant or even fearful of speaking out against a faculty member.

"But graduate school is supposed to be hard," you might say. Certainly, no one expected it to be easy. But the difficulty of graduate school should come from the academics, not from being treated as second-class citizens. This kind of treatment does nothing to improve the scholarship, teaching, or research at this University, and it certainly doesn't make this an appealing place for graduate students to study.

Some faculty members adopt a "take it or leave it" attitude towards graduate students. Graduate school was difficult for them, so it should be difficult for you too. Take the abuse, or go somewhere else. Be careful what you wish for. A smart prospective graduate student will go somewhere else. If you had the choice of going to a school where graduate students were treated with respect, or to a school where graduate students were treated as second-class citizens, where would you go?

Laura Moore
GSG President