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Same. My air purifier has been on high alert. Got to humidifier running now. 🤷🏻‍♀️

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My mother is an artist, apparently the Athenaeum does affordable large prints and is known among the artist community for that

Also, I’ve been looking for a dnd group here for a while

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I definitely understand that different life circumstances and departmental requirements play a role in the decision to strike. My department is extremely laid back and I am the only TA I know in this department who actually works 20 hours/week. I had a different assignment last semester and I know I wasn’t putting in the full 20.

I don’t think the strikers are lazy at all. Sometimes I question how many are caught up in the hoobaloo and maybe aren’t considering how much this has the potential to destroy their academic career. Academia is really all about who you know and I hope striking does not lead to negative reputations/outcomes for students but the possibility is definitely there.

There is not a universe in which it would even be possible for me to strike. I support myself financially 100% and I am a cancer survivor that takes medication to live so I could literally die without healthcare. This implication that anyone who isn’t striking is “in the way” is incorrect and sort of what I’m standing up against. It is perfectly logical for some TAs to do the risk benefit analysis and choose not to strike and it doesn’t make them bad or immoral people.

They’re demanding to be treated more like employees. The reality of working half-time is that it pays less than full-time and also that it makes it easier to take coursework and study. It also rarely comes with benefits, let alone benefits of an equivalent value to tax-free tuition. And if students were leaving for full-time work, Temple would have more incentive to pay better; but it’s not that likely that they’ll choose full-time work and tens of thousands in bills and loans over half-time work, free tuition, and a smattering of loans.

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I do get that. In the context in which it was brought up, it sounded like a dismissal of the folks struggling on the picket. It's pretty common for folks to accuse them of just all being lazy out of touch rich kids that have never had to work a real job and so it sounded like we were flirting into that territory and I wanted to make it known that such an accusation would be a grave mischaracterization.

I can appreciate you acknowledging the variance in experiences as well. I know a lot of really heart breaking stories among the picketers, especially from our international fellow grads who had been misled about the livability of their stipends in this city. Glad you can make it work; I've had it easier than many as well, living with a partner and getting incredibly lucky on expenses.

Regardless, though the functional compensation, the amount we can actually use to pay rent and feed ourselves, is untenable and needs to be increased substantially (Also, you illegally cut my fucking healthcare and I'll do everything in my power to make your life miserable as possible).

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Many of those aren't execs, but very highly paid doctors.

The RR Canada. Am I doing this right?

Which is the larger issue. You obviously have to do projects and work to complete the degree, but there's a lot of work you have to do that makes the university money but which isn't necessary or even helpful for meeting that goal. In many PhD programs, this work is first and foremost; you can be reprimanded for spending too much time on your studies because you are cheap labor first and a student second. I didn't realize this before entering grad school. I was shocked how little "school" there actually was in Grad School as a PhD student.

It's common practice in PhD programs to categorize some of this non-degree labor as being worthy of compensation and other work as "just what you have to do". You might TA a few classes and get paid for that, but you might also have to collect data, run studies, or write for things that have nothing to do with dissertation but which the university can submit for grant funding and not get any compensation for this. You wind up spending 80 hrs a week doing all of it, but they get to say "you only actually worked 20hrs ^based ^upon ^how ^we ^define ^your ^labor." Furthermore, after 2 years, you aren't even taking classes. You are literally only there to labor and eventually write a dissertation, so the tuition remission they claim to so beneficently be bestowing upon you is largely a means of putting money back into their own pocket with fairly limited expense actually tied to it.

It's still not such a bad deal getting to do something you really like and immerse yourself in it. But when you don't even make enough to pay rent, and the university exploring you profited over $500 million in two years, it's untenable.

So nobody wants to talk about this title? I thought I was having a stroke. I mean I am having a stroke but it's unrelated to the title.

Templetown can gargle my nuts

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I’m not pulling “poverty Olympics.” Just pointing out that I’ve actually had to survive on poverty wages and this ain’t it.

I’m not on board, but I’m not in your way. I hope your strike is successful and you receive the higher pay you are demanding. My experience has been different and I am acting according to my experience.

Also lived through poverty. Grew up single parent household. Worked 70 hr/week making less than minimum wage in some cases from the age of 14 to 22, and then continued working crazy hours but for above minimum wage until I started grad school. Don't pull out poverty Olympics shit. Plenty of us have gone through it.

If you're not on board, get out of the way. Thrilled for you if you're one of the 0.01% of grad workers whose experience is a cake walk, but that's highly irregular. Most of us spend far more than that on our work. It's precisely why Temple won't even address adding grievance procedures for being overworked like we've been asking for. They know they can't afford it. The only way my compensation is $62.50 is if I use the figures Temple claims they pay me and then add another $5k.

I’m actually a house DM at a card shop just over the bridge in NJ! We play Wednesday nights 6-10pm

I have a semester based contract that pays >$10k/semester in wages before taxes. My tuition remission is ~$10k/semester. I do not know what the value of the full year of healthcare would be so I didn’t include it. I have 2 semester long contracts throughout the year so the total comp not including healthcare is ~$40k.

You can save some, but you can’t save them all.

(This quote originates from something about decluttering but feels relevant here too.)

Economically and culturally, I think we’re past the point where major refurbishment projects are possible. Focus is going to shift towards maintaining what’s already well preserved.

How are you getting a value of over $40k in compensation? Striking 4th year COG Neuro TA here. My 12 month compensation for everything is $30,816 before taxes or student fees, and approx. $6800 of that is tuition and health insurance which won't put food in my stomach or a roof over my head.

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