We asked graduate students about how COVID and the university administration’s response to it had affected their lives and work, and how a year’s extension of funding would help them. Here’s what they told us:
“I am a year-five PhD student, and I run out of funding this June. Due to COVID delays and travel restrictions, my research got delayed for more than a year. Although the graduate school offered a summer stipend last year, I have no promise of any extended funding for the next academic year. As an international student, I also need to extend my visa. Although my department has offered to hire me for a PTL position for the Fall semester, I would not have health insurance, and my salary would not be enough to maintain my status, health insurance, and the cost of living here. I can’t take a job outside of the university, because of the student visa. So COVID and the University’s response has put me in a stressful situation for the next academic year, putting a question mark on my work.”
“I am currently in my fifth and final year of my funding and urgently need a sixth year. The pandemic has significantly disrupted my degree progression timeline, severely limiting my capacity to complete academic requirements, carry out dissertation-related research under safe working conditions, and travel to conduct ethnographic and archival research at multiple sites. As an international student, I also had to return to France in March 2020 for a medical/personal emergency: to care for my elderly mother, who was laid off as a direct result of pandemic-related events. A single additional year would make a world of difference for me, giving me enough time to finish up my research and complete dissertation writing.”
“I faced a delay in my research timeline because of lab closures and loss of cell cultures caused by restricted maintenance. In addition to this, as a Teaching Assistant, I had to adapt all my course material into an online format, which took away valuable time from research. On the personal life front, I am an international student who hasn’t visited my family for two-plus years. I’ve put in the work over the years, and I want it to reach fruition. An extension would enable me to do just that.”
“I am over a year behind in completing my doctorate due to delays and issues related to the pandemic. However, I run out of funding in May and have been unable to secure a job, even part-time, to support myself after May. I have to figure out what I am going to do (possibly move, continue trying to find a job while I am moving, and continue working towards my dissertation while moving and trying to find a job). Most of these tasks/responsibilities are incredibly stressful in isolation, but undergoing these life changes all at once really adds to my stress, in addition to taking away time that I could be working on my dissertation. A one-year funding extension would allow me to stay where I am living (rather than working on contingency plans of moving in with family and friends in another state) and continue to focus on my dissertation.”
“I was just about to start completing my last pre-dissertation requirement before the pandemic started. As my research is ethnographic in nature and relies heavily on in-person interactions, I was not able to start completing this requirement until the Summer of 2021, when vaccines and decreasing cases made in-person interactions feel a little safer. Add to that major IRB waits, and you are effectively talking about a two-year delay. A funding extension would be of immense help. I could complete my dissertation without having to worry about my financial security and about my status as an international student. Not being a U.S citizen or resident, I am not eligible for most grants and fellowships, and my status does not allow me to look for employment outside of Rutgers.”
“The courses I teach were designed for in-person instruction, and the pivot to teaching over Zoom or even totally asynchronously has been extremely time-consuming. This is time that I could have put into completing my dissertation. The other major impact has been that I’ve been unable to visit archives for research. These have all been closed for the duration of the pandemic and only recently reopened to outside scholars. As a parent of a small child, much of my time has been committed to parenting because daycares have been closed (or have been unsafe) for much of the pandemic. At this point, I’m basically a full year behind where I should be, and I’m totally out of funding in July.”
“An extension of funding would allow me to focus on finishing my degree and my research without having to worry about whether I can afford to keep a roof over my head and food on the table. The sense of job security would improve my mental health and my academic progress as a whole.”
“More devastating has been the feeling of total institutional flippancy about the long-term impacts of COVID on research, travel, funding, and general mental and social well-being. We have been expected to persevere while our departments are scrapped, sports coaches get six- and seven-figure salaries, and we face a devastated and precarious (lack of) job market. Personally, I have had to delay research plans, reduce work hours to take care of family, and relocate several times.”
“I spent a lot of time trying to find financial support for my dissertation writing but mostly failed. The department urges me to finish my dissertation but doesn’t give enough consideration of the impact of COVID on my work or the problem of employment after graduation.”
“I have funding until the end of summer, yet I still have about 18 months of work left to complete my dissertation research. Without further funding, I will soon be looking for a job in industry, and I will be forced to leave the program this summer as a doctoral candidate who hasn’t completed a dissertation. I am not alone. In my cohort of grad students, all of us are in the final months of funding, and none of us are anywhere near finished with our dissertation research. All of us were affected by COVID-19, and Rutgers has done nothing for any of us. At an academic level, this situation is angering and upsetting. For a world-class research university like Rutgers to discard their grad students who perform scientific research like trash while showering sports teams and coaches with money is, honestly, disgusting. Laying off grad students who haven’t completed dissertation research this summer is going to be a huge black eye for Rutgers as a research institution. But perhaps even worse than this is the personal hurt we as grad students feel from Rutgers’ behavior regarding COVID relief funding. This has been a huge betrayal of trust.”