Sunday, May 04, 2003
When Grad Students Strike :
The New York Times Magazine is running an article (or is it an editorial?) entitled Eggheads Unite. I was one of a few graduate students who quietly opposed the unionization of graduate assistants at the University of Washington. The question remains for me whether these are employees or apprentices. Far from being oppressed, I felt very well treated as a graduate student. I was embarrassed to see my fellow grads marching for their own community instead of for the truly disadvantaged of Washington State. (Let me include a caveat here: many of those students also worked for those less advantaged, but it still rung a little off-key when they considered themselves somehow disadvantaged.) Part of this also came of being "lifted" from paying tuition to being supported. Those pushing for unionization considered themselves exploited labor, I thought of it as a scholarship and a chance to get teaching experience. Those who were paying for their education would gladly have availed themselves of this "exploitation" rather than working part-time or full-time in real jobs while paying tuition. Moreover, we were paid far more per hour than the folks in the student union who were doing real work.
If the argument is that TAs are an economic rather than an educational decision, explain to me why we don't hire adjuncts instead. I fully support unionization of adjunct and temporary instructors. Here is a market of experienced teachers who are often exploited. (Again, there are the exceptions, but by and large this is the case.) If it is a strict economic decision, it is an easy one: hire temporary, adjunct, and visiting instructors rather than TAs. They have more knowledge and experience, and do not require tuition-waivers.
Many who argue for unionization point to campuses where it has occurred and say that there were no negative consequences. It's hard to imagine that they can be so naive as to think that changes in culture are either so immediate or so measurable.
Maybe they are right. Maybe the university is already too much of a corporation to retain these pre-capitalist ideas of service and apprenticeship. But I hope they are wrong.
Posted by alex at May 3, 2003 10:02 AM | TrackBack
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I never understood why having the CHOICE to apprentice and receive (and make the most of) an education that many other people would gladly accept (and be grateful for) is being "exploited." I was sadly disappointed in graduate school to run into more people interested in escaping from or staying out of the real world than in pursuing the "life of the mind." I know each university-setting is different and sometimes even reflects the geographical constraints of the region but, in general, only my professors encouraged this higher pursuit. I was back in school so that I could earn my credentials to teach at the college level. I had a goal in mind and wanted to get there as fast as possible. I thought 26 made me old but quickly found people several years older who had NEVER left school. In other words, their only real life experience was being a student. I'm glad they had it down pat but it was pretty amazing to see their insecurity so often surface as superiority and disdain for others who dirtied their hands (and broke their backs) for a living. We need all kinds of people in this world to do all kinds of jobs and we shouldn't be judgmental about the choices of others - but that usually comes when we're not happy with our own choices. If being a graduate assistant was a forced servitude, I would understand, but it's a choice. And, while in graduate school, you have to make several adult choices about how you will handle everything that is thrown at you. But, you come out stronger in the end. I remember discovering fellow graduate students pushing books behind the shelving in the library so that no one else could find them. Even my junior high students didn't usually stoop that low.
Having sad all that, there are many people genuinely striving to enhance their education in graduate school. It's only a few who can spoil the image of the bunch. I chuckle a bit to myself when I read about a recent unionization vote that did not pass and the losers, like some political party losers I know from the 2000 election, just claim that they "didn't get their message across" - NOT that people got their message and just don't agree.
The New York Times Magazine is running an article (or is it an editorial?) entitled Eggheads Unite. I was one of a few graduate students who quietly opposed the unionization of graduate assistants at the University of Washington. The question remains for me whether these are employees or apprentices. Far from being oppressed, I felt very well treated as a graduate student. I was embarrassed to see my fellow grads marching for their own community instead of for the truly disadvantaged of Washington State. (Let me include a caveat here: many of those students also worked for those less advantaged, but it still rung a little off-key when they considered themselves somehow disadvantaged.) Part of this also came of being "lifted" from paying tuition to being supported. Those pushing for unionization considered themselves exploited labor, I thought of it as a scholarship and a chance to get teaching experience. Those who were paying for their education would gladly have availed themselves of this "exploitation" rather than working part-time or full-time in real jobs while paying tuition. Moreover, we were paid far more per hour than the folks in the student union who were doing real work.
If the argument is that TAs are an economic rather than an educational decision, explain to me why we don't hire adjuncts instead. I fully support unionization of adjunct and temporary instructors. Here is a market of experienced teachers who are often exploited. (Again, there are the exceptions, but by and large this is the case.) If it is a strict economic decision, it is an easy one: hire temporary, adjunct, and visiting instructors rather than TAs. They have more knowledge and experience, and do not require tuition-waivers.
Many who argue for unionization point to campuses where it has occurred and say that there were no negative consequences. It's hard to imagine that they can be so naive as to think that changes in culture are either so immediate or so measurable.
Maybe they are right. Maybe the university is already too much of a corporation to retain these pre-capitalist ideas of service and apprenticeship. But I hope they are wrong.
Posted by alex at May 3, 2003 10:02 AM | TrackBack
-----------------
I never understood why having the CHOICE to apprentice and receive (and make the most of) an education that many other people would gladly accept (and be grateful for) is being "exploited." I was sadly disappointed in graduate school to run into more people interested in escaping from or staying out of the real world than in pursuing the "life of the mind." I know each university-setting is different and sometimes even reflects the geographical constraints of the region but, in general, only my professors encouraged this higher pursuit. I was back in school so that I could earn my credentials to teach at the college level. I had a goal in mind and wanted to get there as fast as possible. I thought 26 made me old but quickly found people several years older who had NEVER left school. In other words, their only real life experience was being a student. I'm glad they had it down pat but it was pretty amazing to see their insecurity so often surface as superiority and disdain for others who dirtied their hands (and broke their backs) for a living. We need all kinds of people in this world to do all kinds of jobs and we shouldn't be judgmental about the choices of others - but that usually comes when we're not happy with our own choices. If being a graduate assistant was a forced servitude, I would understand, but it's a choice. And, while in graduate school, you have to make several adult choices about how you will handle everything that is thrown at you. But, you come out stronger in the end. I remember discovering fellow graduate students pushing books behind the shelving in the library so that no one else could find them. Even my junior high students didn't usually stoop that low.
Having sad all that, there are many people genuinely striving to enhance their education in graduate school. It's only a few who can spoil the image of the bunch. I chuckle a bit to myself when I read about a recent unionization vote that did not pass and the losers, like some political party losers I know from the 2000 election, just claim that they "didn't get their message across" - NOT that people got their message and just don't agree.
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