Dear colleague,
We are writing to full-time faculty to clarify some confusion about our current union contract. Some faculty, particularly PIs on grants, have expressed concern about the contract’s language around five years of funding for incoming AY 2024 grad workers.
The agreed-upon language, which applies only “beginning with Fall 2024 for students entering their PhD graduate program that semester,” reads:
At the conclusion of a full-time PhD student’s one-year term of appointment as a TA or a GA, or following the conclusion of such student’s one-year fellowship, the University shall offer the full-time PhD student support through the completion of the fifth year of the student’s doctoral program provided the student is making adequate academic progress in their program through TAships, GAships or University-sponsored fellowships. (see page 158 of our new contract).
Some PIs have told us that they understand this passage to be a “job guarantee” or mandate to fund a GA off of their grant, with no ability to remove a grad from their lab due to poor academic progress, chronic lateness, malfeasance, etc.
In fact, the contract states that the University (and not a PI) shall fund a grad student for five years, in the same way that the University is obligated under the contract to provide health insurance for graduate student workers. Our union doesn’t bargain with specific departments or labs but centrally with the University. Few PIs know what their grant funding situation will be for the next five years. This requirement in the contract provides secure funding for grad students without requiring any individual faculty member to predict their budget beyond the lifespan of a given grant.
PI union members and Grad Program Directors from the following departments that operate a high number of grants tell us that they have either explicitly or in practice offered five years of guaranteed funding to new grad student workers, contingent on “adequate academic progress,” for years. They believe that this has helped in grad student recruitment, making Rutgers a more attractive place to work, publish research, and win further grants:
- SAS – Division of Life Sciences (Cell Biology and Neuroscience, Genetics, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Kinesiology, Molecular Biosciences Program)
- SAS – Physics and Astronomy
- SOE – Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
- SOE – Biomedical Engineering
- SOE – Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
- SAS – Computer Science
- SAS – Statistics
- SASN – Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience
If you would like to discuss this issue further, contact Trent McDonald, STEM union staff organizer, at tmcdonald@rutgersaaup.org, and he will be happy to speak with you or connect you with a colleague from a STEM department that has already been offering five years of guaranteed funding.
In solidarity,
Todd, Becky, and Miguel
Todd Wolfson, President, Rutgers AAUP-AFT
Rebecca Givan, General Vice President, Rutgers AAUP-AFT
Miguel Rodriguez, Secretary-Treasurer, Rutgers AAUP-AFT
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