Adam Ratzlaff/Guest Columnist and Graduate Student
Miami is expensive. When I was accepted into a PhD program at Florida International University, I was offered modest funding through a Teaching Assistantship (TA), but knew I would need to supplement this income to live in Miami without support. I sent my letter of intent to FIU in mid-March and began my Miami job search.
However, weeks before starting my PhD at FIU, I received more details about TA duties, the most important being that TAs are not allowed to have outside employment without the prior consent of FIU’s University Graduate School (UGS). The petition process for that consent can be lengthy and idiosyncratic. This de facto employment ban makes it harder for graduate students to survive Miami’s high cost of living, limits future job prospects and weakens the educational mission of the institution.
Given the low pay received by TAs, it should come as no surprise that graduate students struggle to make ends meet. This includes funded graduate students taking out loans to provide for their families, going homeless, and, due to the current policy, working under the table to survive. While FIU should be paying graduate students a living wage, increasing graduate student stipends may be challenging given university budget constraints.
Allowing students to take on external employment costs the university nothing. Banning graduate employment outside of the university is not a norm across the country nor in Florida. UCF’s policy explicitly states that they cannot ban outside employment for students on assistantships (even if they can discourage it). Likewise, UF puts the burden of showing that external employment represents a conflict of interest or “…” interfere[s] with an employee’s obligations to the university” on the university rather than forcing the student worker to show that it benefits their studies. These differences allow the students to take on additional employment to supplement their incomes far more readily.
Recently, the University Graduate School tried to clarify the policy and emphasize that this is not an actual “ban” on additional employment. Instead, their “… philosophy is that full-time graduate assistants with a full-time course load should not pursue outside employment.” However, they note that students can work additional hours following “…approval by the faculty advisor and graduate program director. The program must submit a petition with supporting documentation for final approval by UGS.” However, the need to go through the petition process can also result in missed opportunities for professional development as employers may want applicants to start fairly quickly after offering a position.
The policy continues to exacerbate the financial challenges faced by graduate students. As the school paper just reported, UGS requires that additional work must benefit a student’s studies for them to be approved. If the university is legitimately concerned about the impact of additional employment on students’ time to degree or only wants students to take on employment beneficial to student development, they should start by paying a living wage. This would limit the need for students to take on employment that did not help them professionally or academically.
Likewise, students who take unpaid internships are not required to go through the petition process while those that take paid internships do. This further highlights that this is not about addressing the financial problems facing graduate students nor about protecting graduate students’ time, but rather about keeping graduate students in poverty.
While frowned upon by many universities, the graduate student “side hustle” is a regular feature across the United States. Although outside employment takes away from time devoted to studying, it is a financial necessity for many students, including those at FIU. The current policy pushes what is happening to the shadows.
These barriers not only hurt students financially but may also limit future employment opportunities. Although many PhD students look forward to becoming professors someday, the reality is that finding a job in academia is incredibly difficult given that there are more recent PhD graduates than new tenure track positions. Taking on employment opportunities can be a path towards non-academic employment and provides opportunities for students to develop marketable skills and connections. This is all the more important given that many positions also require work experience regardless of educational attainment.
Graduate students working outside of the university also bolsters FIU’s brand. This point should be evident from FIU’s external relations teams promoting the external accolades and work conducted by both FIU faculty and students. Allowing graduate students to engage with the community by working in their field only bolsters FIU’s name. Not only are these accomplishments reported by the university, but many current students proudly list their FIU affiliation and discuss how their education has benefited them.
In addition to boosting FIU’s name recognition, working beyond the university helps our graduate students to better serve the university’s educational mission. Only a small portion of undergraduate students opt to pursue careers in academia. This means that the training that they receive in the classroom should teach them about the topics they are exploring and the necessary skills to excel in the workplace. External employment can add to what teaching assistants bring to the classroom and allows them to connect students with employers and opportunities.
FIU prides itself not only on the quality of its research but also as the driver of social mobility and impact. The university claims this is a “Real Triumph” as it seeks to provide real solutions to real problems. But, let’s be real about the real challenges facing graduate students: FIU’s graduate employment ban limits the ability of grad students to bring real-world experience into the classroom, engage with the real issues, and make an income sufficient to survive in the real Miami area. If FIU will not pay its Graduate Assistants a living wage, at the very least it should allow students to find their own solutions. Allowing students to boost their income by taking on external employment allows us not only to survive in Miami but to better position ourselves for an evolving job market, better serve our university and our communities.
If you think that the situation facing FIU’s graduate students is untenable, please consider signing this petition calling on the FIU administration to examine and implement policies that would support our student body.
If you are a current or former FIU graduate student and you would like to share information about your experience as a graduate student, the hardships that you face(d), or recommendations for improving university policies that impact the graduate student body, please consider submitting an article to Panther Now with Gabriela Enamorado (gabriela.enamorado@fiusm.com).
DISCLAIMER:
The opinions presented within this page do not represent the views of PantherNOW Editorial Board. These views are separate from editorials and reflect individual perspectives of contributing writers and/or members of the University community
Photo from FIU Flickr
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