Faculty Demand Support for Graduate Students
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4 SPORTS 6 ARTS Just For Kicks: NYU Taekwondo Team Clive Davis Junior Returns With Music Discusses Their Season’s Premature Ending During Quarantine 5 CULTURE 7 OPINION The Uncertain Future of The Graduate School of Arts and Summer Internships Science Must Do More For Its Students VOLUME LIV | ISSUE 13 MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2020 Faculty Demand Support For Graduate Students Faculty members in the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis and the Department of English have sent letters to the administration asking for extensions of graduate student funding. By EMILY MASON News Editor The Department of Social and Cultural Analysis and the Depart- ment of English both sent letters to university administration calling for extended funding for graduate students facing rescinded job offers, grant delays and income gaps. The letters were addressed to Graduate School of Arts and Sci- ence Dean Phillip Brian Harper and Provost Katherine Fleming. They were sent on Tuesday, April 24 and Wednesday, April 25 respectively. The Department of Social and Cul- tural Analysis department’s letter called for the university to waive tu- ition and fees for master’s students who will need to take more time to complete their degree work. They also demanded an exten- sion of MacCracken Fellowships — which support Doctoral candi- dates in the first five years of their dissertation work — and summer funding for all students. SCA ar- gued in its letter that the depart- ANNA LETSON ment was especially well positioned NYU’s Department of Social and Cultural Analysis + English have demands for NYU’s Graduate School for Arts and Science. They call for increased graduate funding in face of the to make these demands. hardships affecting graduate students during this pandemic. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 When Sharing Becomes Healing By ANNA-DMITRY MURATOVA with a burden heavier than stones on your vors we interviewed. It intended to show, to focus on the process of coming to terms Dedicated to April being Deputy Managing Editor shoulders. Thank you, for just being. as one of the interviewees, Angelica, said, with the need to heal and on healing itself. Sexual Assault Awareness No story matches another exactly — the “We’re the evidence walking around on If you keep on reading because you’re Content warning: this article focuses on circumstances, the hurt, the psychological this campus.” I believe it did. But, with looking for what I was seeking or any other Month, this personal the subject of sexual violence. Please, and physical impact vary from survivor to this, I discovered something else. reason, thank you for letting me share my proceed with caution. survivor. Yet, somehow, there’s one con- When I started processing my trauma story with you. I hope my vulnerability essay details one person’s stant we all share. last year, I didn’t know who or where to will support you the way the vulnerability path from unlocking Foreword It was not our fault. It was not your fault. turn to. While listening to other survivors of others supported me. I’m sorry April being Sexual Assault Earlier this year, a lot of brave people and sharing my own pain with friends in While I write about sharing my experi- memories of their sexual Awareness Month isn’t just words to you. trusted me with their stories of surviv- distressing times, I noticed the healing hap- ence with people and recovering through I’m sorry this has happened to you. I’m sor- ing sexual violence after Professor Avital pening within me. Through their stories of connection, don’t think this means that trauma to pursuing ry you know this crookedly intimate kind Ronell, who was found guilty of harassing struggle and recovery, I was assured I could you should too, especially if you don’t and finding healing of pain. I’m sorry your body and mind her graduate advisee, returned to campus. take back control. Through confiding in think it’s the right or the safe thing for you. were used as a weapon against you. I’m sor- The project, titled “This Should Have loved ones, I learned to feel safe again. I’m certain you’ll find what works for you, through compassion and ry if you don’t feel safe. I don’t know you Never Happened To You,” was published That’s why I wrote this. I won’t be shar- and I’m in awe at your strength no matter (or maybe I do), and I admire you regard- in January and was solely possible through ing any details of my assault to avoid poten- what you choose to do! understanding. less. You’re making it through, day by day, the vulnerability offered to us by the survi- tially triggering material. Instead, I chose CONTINUED ON PAGE 8 2 Washington Square News MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2020 [email protected] NEWS Edited by LISA COCHRAN and EMILY MASON Faculty Demand Support For Graduate Students CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 to hear a response regarding fund- students must still pay. The department confirmation that the adjunct posi- the mental and financial strains of the “We enroll and train (and place) a dis- ing extensions from administration in has made some healthcare changes, in- tion was cancelled. pandemic, in addition to cut off access proportionate number of first generation the coming days. cluding covering COVID-19 testing. She isn’t alone; many graduate stu- to libraries and other academic resources, working and lower class students of color “GSAS has been working to address Students remain unclear on how leav- dents across departments have suddenly causing the need for extensions on time- (many of whom are also LGBTQ),” the this issue since the University went to ing New York — or returning to homes found themselves without income for the to-degree requirements. However, some letter from the Department of Social and remote instruction last month, and I will abroad — may affect their coverage. First- coming months, regardless of year. Silcox students are concerned that this exten- Cultural Analysis read. “We are proud be informing our doctoral students of the year English department doctoral student said his plan to fill a summer funding gap sion will lead to more students applying that our department has had such a signif- plan we have devised within the next two Nicholas Silcox elaborated on this concern. in the MacCracken fellowship was to find for jobs once they all complete their de- icant and tangible impact on broadening days,” Harper told WSN in a statement. “People who aren’t in the city it’s not a job, which no longer appears feasible. grees, making the employment hunt even the scope of knowledge in ways that res- While English department faculty clear how the insurance would transfer, “We were going to go three months more difficult. onate far beyond NYU. We cannot afford praised GSAS for these support measures, there might be additional copays and without funding anyway, which is why To combat this possibility, GSAS has to lose this generation of scholars.” the letter went on to explain why more such, so there’s that additional expense,” there’s the expectation to find work but eliminated waitlists for doctoral pro- The Department of English letter steps needed to be taken. Posmentier said Silcox said. “So that was highlighted be- the seventeen of us are looking at three grams, Harper said. made similar demands to SCA, calling for she believed GSAS would do everything cause we’re asking the school to eliminate months without funding in the most ex- “The reason for our doing so was to re- three-month emergency summer fund- possible to extend time and funding for those costs on top of additional expect- pensive city in the country,” Silcox said. alize some degree of savings in our fellow- ing, extending time-to-degree deadlines graduate students, but that not every de- ed costs and loss of income with all the Rogers explained that because grants ship budget that we might subsequently and funding for students, and waiving mand would be met. stuff going on.” and fellowships — graduate students’ put to use in providing funding exten- healthcare fees for masters students. Oth- “The Provost has been very frank in In addition to healthcare uncertainty, main sources of income — are not taxed, sions for current PhD students,” Harper er universities including Yale, Northwest- her reply that the broader, more systemic graduate students also face a hostile job students are also not eligible for unem- told WSN in a statement. ern and Penn State University have also requests — requests that would indicate market as nation-wide hiring freezes and ployment benefits. Dagman explained why this measure called for extensions to graduate funding, a commitment from the top — are too expected declining enrollments for fall “In my mind, NYU is a tax-exempt was not included in the English Depart- according to the letter. One of the signa- expensive,” she said. “We all know that undergraduate students and furloughs institution and we cannot get unem- ment students’ letter to faculty. tories of the letter, Sonya Posmentier, an NYU, like all businesses, will be changed threaten to diminish already scarce posts. ployment,” Rogers said. “Americans are “The idea I think right now is to con- associate professor, commented on the by these circumstances. I think students Summer employment or academic kept afloat right now because of unem- serve available funding to help out cur- necessity of these measures. and faculty alike are asking for more of a funding during the pandemic is also dif- ployment. They’re surviving despite the rent students because the situation is ex- “It goes without saying that training voice in HOW NYU changes, and what ficult to find and many graduate students fact that they’re not working, so in my tremely difficult for those who are already the current generation of scholars and priorities we can hold onto or even imag- face rescinded job offers and pushed opinion NYU has to do the same to have enrolled, and to take on more students teachers is at the core of a research uni- ine as we face this crisis.” awardments of research grants, according a stopgap measure so that we can survive would to some measure compromise the versity’s mission,” Posmentier told WSN Second-year doctoral student with to the letter.