Grad students are not ‘workers’

According to your Aug. 31 article, 'UI graduate students protest fees, low wages,” it seems many graduate students are not satisfied with their assistantships. One doctoral student was quoted as complaining that her stipend is insufficient to support her three children and herself and her income put them below the poverty line. In like fashion, a student organization, the Campaign to Organize Graduate Students (COGS), reports that a third of grad students earn stipends below the poverty line.

What on earth? I thought that grad students were primarily that - students. Since when did students become 'workers” who should be supported above the poverty line? My, how times have changed. Many decades ago, when I was a graduate assistant, I was grateful to receive a stipend. I never would have expected to be supported above the poverty line. Rather than complaining about my finances, I got a second job at a private business to make ends meet. What a quaint idea.

COGS also reports that other universities waive or reduce charges for their graduate students. Fine, let these UI students go there.

Rich Zeis

Walker