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Stanford Graduate Students Won Their Union Vote

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Re: Stanford Graduate Students Won Their Union Vote

#141

Post by throwawaylinux »

shard wrote: post #115
throwawaylinux wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such a weird concept, I could never understand it. Why not spend effort making their local neighborhoods and schools better? Everybody grew up with richer and "better" schools and areas, I would have hated being sent out to those.

Likely a matter of the parents in richer neighborhoods being able to donate more time and money to the local school than in poorer neighborhoods. The buildings are better, there are more resources available to teachers, more extra-curricular activities, skilled teachers fight to be posted there. Certainly things can be improved at schools in poorer neighborhoods, but I doubt it could be equalized to the point where k…

It's not really solving the problem though, is it? The bad neighborhoods and bad schools are still there. And the idea that if you can't equalize it to rich neighborhods (when they can and will never be equal anyway even with this bussig) then there's no point, is exactly the kind of thing I find absurd about it.

I don't deny that it might help some kids some amount. Although now I'm curious -- what kind of improvement does the evidence actually show? Anything close to "equalized"?

Re: Stanford Graduate Students Won Their Union Vote

#142

Post by bezout »

Going on a tangent here: I live in Europe where unions have been present for decades and it’s scary how much I give them for granted.

They are not perfect - far from it - but to think of everyone who fought to establish them and keeps them running to this day… it’s inspiring.

Good for Stanford.

Re: Stanford Graduate Students Won Their Union Vote

#143

Post by hayst4ck »

It will be interesting to see how the union goes.

The quality of the union and happiness of it's members directly reflects the quality of Stanford's liberal arts personnel and especially the quality of their political science and history departments.

If the product of our highest quality institutions can't fight for a better quality of life, what hope do the rest of us have?

Re: Stanford Graduate Students Won Their Union Vote

#144

Post by texuf »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #140
ASpring wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was great for us at UC Santa Cruz. The reason I had healthcare during grad school was because the union won it right before I joined. The reason they have a housing stipend now (in the most expensive rental market in the US[1]) is because the union fought for a cost-of-living allowance. We at UCSC didn't always agree with the course of the larger UAW 2685 but they did a lot for us. I'm not sure what the system was…

I'm confused. The article that you linked says San Francisco is the most expensive rental market. However, you speak about UC Santa Cruz. The campus is about 120 km south. It's a totally different rental market. Do I misunderstand?

It’s an hour and 14 minute drive. It’s not unheard of to commute from there, and it’s far more beautiful than any of the closer beaches, so yes the Bay Area rental prices still apply, in addition to beach community rental prices. As far as calling it SF, some people shorten “The San Francisco Bay Area,” which includes San Jose, to “San Francisco,” and people still know what they mean, though I see why it can be confusing.

Re: Stanford Graduate Students Won Their Union Vote

#145

Post by mlyle »

hayst4ck wrote: post #139
mlyle wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Checking out and moving to an environment that represents your interests well is a way to see that your interests are met, though.

What happens when there is no where left to move, or the cost of moving is too high? Solidarity, not freedom, is the opposite of tyranny. Neutrality and running away implicitly supports the injustice you are running away from. Flight-ing instead of fighting leaves those left behind to the wolves. Political change only happens once people are willing to put themselves at risk.

Not every battle is mine to fight.

I've spent plenty of time tilting at windmills. But there are limits to how much effort I'll put in for collective good.

Re: Stanford Graduate Students Won Their Union Vote

#147

Post by djcapelis »

ASpring wrote: post #135
djcapelis wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The reason I had healthcare during grad school was because the union won it right before I joined. I’m sorry if this is weird, but as someone who also went to UCSC for grad school I found this a bit confusing. So I looked it up and you started at UCSC at 2014, yeah? UCSC grad students had GSHIP coverage for years before that time. I myself was on it when I joined starting in 2009, and there’s plenty of documentatio…

Nice to see a fellow slug! I think you are correct on the timeline being further back. The narrative I recalled was that there was a major victory around health care fee remission before I joined but it looks as if that was part of the original contract the union negotiated [1]. I spent my final years at UCSC working through the systems they had set up internally (administration meetings with GSA, getting on committe…

Likewise! Those housing stipends seemed sorely needed. Nice work on organizing around them and thanks for sharing your perspective on it! :)

Re: Stanford Graduate Students Won Their Union Vote

#148

Post by light_hue_1 »

e63f67dd-065b wrote: post #112
fruffy wrote: post #30

A big part of the reason these unionization efforts are happening: https://csstipendrankings.org/ Many universities are not paying a living wage for the area they are located in.

The numbers for the MIT living wage calculator are completely wrong for most PhD students. For one, they include thing like social security taxes, which students do not pay. They overestimate medical costs, because most PhD students are young and will not have health complications that drive costs. The rent estimate is based on single-occupancy units, which doesn't make sense because most live with roommates ( https:…

This is some nonsense. It's not an overestimate at all.

Grad students do have health issues. I know plenty who do. Actually. I have never had a PhD student who did not have some major health issue in their 5-6 years.

Many grad students have families. They can't live with 6 other people in a unit. They have childcare.

Rent is extremely expensive around MIT. Even a room in a larger unit will easily run you 1.5k or more per month plus utilities.

With 47k in Cambridge even if I shared an apartment and cut expenses I could just scrape by if I didn't have a child. I have no idea how I would make it with one.

Re: Stanford Graduate Students Won Their Union Vote

#149

Post by labcomputer »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #118
EatingWithForks wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TBH the way you explain it sounds to me like 1st and 2nd year stem students were disengaged and uninterested in solidarity with their academic peers who have less options than them. I'm not even particularly fond of the humanities I just don't understand why you wouldn't fight for the allowance for your peers to start families, god damn!

STEM grad students often have much bigger stipends than humanities grad students given that STEM is more well funded. It sounds like the union simply equalized things, although I’m not sure how that would work with DARPA or similar funding agencies, since RA salaries are taken out of grants (maybe just raise overhead to redistribute more funding to humanities, but grants have caps on overhead as well), so maybe just…

> STEM grad students often have much bigger stipends than humanities grad students given that STEM is more well funded.

That was the opposite of my experience, actually.

Re: Stanford Graduate Students Won Their Union Vote

#150

Post by labcomputer »

lapcat wrote: post #92
renewiltord wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an interesting story. I don't understand why it was flagkilled. Is it obviously false or something?

> Is it obviously false or something? Yes. Doesn't "a bunch of them went off and got private sector jobs instead, limiting the size of the undergrad population" sound extremely implausible to you? As if graduate students can control enrollment. The comment sounds like a political hit piece, with no evidence provided. And Scott Walker was a major union buster who spurred massive protests at the Wisconsin State Capitol…

> Yes. Doesn't "a bunch of them went off and got private sector jobs instead, limiting the size of the undergrad population" sound extremely implausible to you? As if graduate students can control enrollment.

You can't run a department without TAs. Who's going to grade homework and exams? Professors? Don't make me laugh.

If you don't have enough grad students to TA your department, you have to borrow some another department. But what if all the STEM departments don't have enough TAs? Do you hire adjuncts (at roughly 3x the rate)?

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