#grad labor

International students coming to Penn State need two immigration documents to enter and to stay in the United States: the F-1 student visa, issued by the State Department, and a 3-page paper document called I-20, issued by the school and the Department of Homeland Security. The I-20 contains information about the school and degree program's start and end dates. In my 4 years at Penn State, I had to write the The Directorate of International Student and Scholar Advising (DISSA) office nervous emails 3 times because they were confused over paperwork. I wrote the first email in the summer of 2014. I got an "URGENT" email from DISSA saying that they are shortening my I-20 because I was graduating; my I-20 still had 3 more years before it reached the stated program end date. It took the entire summer for DISSA to fix it because the first DISSA employee I talked to simply forgot to fix the record. I had to write my second email asking them exactly the same thing I had asked them 3 months before.

They say teachers are the most important school-based determinant of student achievement. Not only do teachers pass on knowledge to their students, but teachers also serve as role models who inspire and encourage students to strive for greatness, live to the fullest potential, and do good in society. I enrolled in a Ph.D. program at Penn State because I wanted to be an educator that does all those positive things listed above. Throughout graduate school, I have worried about passing the qualifying exams. I have worried about getting my works published. I have worried about finding a tenure-track position once I graduate. What never really concerned me was my paychecks. Being a graduate student, I obviously wasn't paid as well as some of my other friends who have gone on to become medical doctors, lawyers, financial analysts, etc. However, I was very aware of the financial limitations of being a graduate student and I carefully calculated every penny I spent so I would not be overwhelmed with those limitations. While I was able to get by for the most part, even my careful budgeting wasn’t enough when I became an instructor for a summer course that was cross-listed in two departments.

I was excited about the opportunity to teach, again, for the reasons listed above, but I certainly was not excited about the $2,500 (before taxes) I received for the summer that I taught. I taught for five days a week, an hour and 15 minutes each day, for six consecutive weeks. Being a responsible teacher, I devoted myself fully to the six weeks that I taught, which meant I spent far beyond an hour and 15 minutes every day on teaching. Preparing PowerPoint slides, lectures, group activities, discussion questions, practice quizzes, and exams easily took eight hours a day. Since I was on a $2,500 stipend, I only received $1,667 (again, before taxes) for one month. Given that the average rent is close to $1,000 a month, I didn't have much money left for other basic needs. It was the first time in my five years in the graduate program that I felt abandoned and exploited by my department. I had roughly 18 students in my class. Each student had to pay $2,821 for my three credit course, which adds up to the $50,778 that the University would receive in tuition from 18 students. Yet, my stipend was only 5% of the total tuition the University received from the students for this course. Where did the rest of the money go? Yes, the University had to pay for infrastructure, classroom equipment, staff, etc., which is all understandable, but were my efforts as an instructor really only worth 5% of the tuition paid by the 18 students? 

Last May, our department head had to step down because of some personal issues. Many of the changes he implemented during his headship had to be revised. For example, Ph.D. students all received five years of funding, but also an unofficial sixth year stipend. Accordingly, we grad student-employees planned our graduate career trajectories around this schedule. Anyway, the former head received some pressure from the College, and had to implement some new requirements in order for students to receive their sixth year. This included turning the sixth-year into a postdoc appointment if you finished and defended your dissertation during the summer before. So there was some grumbling, and then he stepped down as head, and then new person comes up as the new head. Everyone assumes they would keep these changes until last November, when the new director of graduate studies said: Okay, here are some adjustments, in the future, you need to have your whole dissertation ready by the end of the first semester of your fifth year in order to get that postdoc. For those of you who are already in the fifth year, we’ll make some slight adjustments, like you can still finish by the end of your fifth year. Oh, and we also need you to apply for this new system we told you about just ten days before its deadline.