Lee Mcloughlin/Guest Columnist Completing a month in Miami after arriving from Belize, I’d finally done it— I received my social security card. My relief was palpable, my already bare finances were drying up. I rushed to the International Student Scholar Services office. After collecting yet another batch of paperwork I apparently needed to take over […]
Susannah Barr/Guest Columnist and FIU PhD Candidate Recent attention to graduate student issues at FIU has been focused on the economic burden graduate students face as they struggle to survive on stipends well below the cost of living while they pursue their degrees. In response to questions about these issues, UGS told PantherNow that their […]
Caroline McCulloch/Guest Columnist Despite decades of skyrocketing tuition costs, a large segment of university instruction relies on precarious employment and meager wages. The most exploited employees are adjunct professors. For those unfamiliar with the hierarchy of faculty in higher education, adjunct professors are instructors who are generally hired on semester-long contracts to teach specific courses. […]
T.J. Ligouri/Guest Columnist and FIU Alum I’ve been an adjunct on and off for the past twelve years, teaching over 50 classes and over 1,500 students as an adjunct. During this time, I’ve experienced bouts of homelessness and lingering health issues, all while co-parenting. In January 2009, as a 23-year-old with a FIU Master’s Degree, […]
Tamanisha John/Guest Columnist and FIU Alum I entered graduate school coming from a low-income immigrant family background, where my relationship with money and budgeting, due to the precariousness of money, was always omnipresent. Thus, struggling to survive on a teaching assistant’s (TA) salary at FIU— while shocking and incredibly upsetting— seemed like a continuation of […]
Adam Ratzlaff/Guest Columnist As new and returning FIU graduate students start a new academic year, there is one cold fact that they need to consider— Miami is expensive, and being a graduate student at FIU means resigning oneself to living near poverty. This should not come as new information. A 2019 PantherNow exposé examining nearly […]
Chase Mallory, Benjamin Schaumer, David Tyson/ Guest Columnists For the past year we have been staying home, sacrificing and staying vigilant. While pandemic fatigue is at an all-time high, we cannot let complacency undermine our progress. As medical students and the future physicians of Florida, we ask you to look at the times we are […]
Marek Kong/Guest Columnist On the night of March 16, 2021, eight people were killed by a White gunman in Atlanta, Georgia. The attacker targeted three Asian massage parlors where six of the eight victims were Asian women. These horrific acts have yet to be described by many public officials, newspapers and institutions as hate crimes […]
Ethan Suquet/Guest Columnist In Biscayne Bay, residents have spent the last couple of weeks dealing with daunting challenges in their local environment because of an unprecedented “fish kill,” in which countless fish have washed up on their boat ramps and next to their sea walls, giving off a terrible odor that residents have had to […]
Alfred Soto/Former Editor-In-Chief Let me be clear: Self-exposure has never been my bag. I admit, it’s an issue. For me, it’s always been easier to weave a cloak of impersonality than to walk around emotionally naked. “I wear my heart on my sleeve,” goes one very old pop song, and it was right. “We need […]
Alejandra Gonzalez/Guest Columnist After the murder of George Floyd and other Black innocents, necessary conversations about the treatment of Black communities nationwide have proven to be extremely divisive. Discussions have become particularly tense over the last week or so as the protests continue. Being on social media for even a few moments will confirm an […]
Brian Hurtado/Guest Columnist New Year’s Day. That’s when I got the call to come back home. My father had gone overseas while I visited my family for the holidays. As soon as I saw him at the airport, I knew I was in for a rough few months. Every day after was a grueling mix […]
