We are committed to creating livable, sustainable, and equitable conditions at BU. Over the past several years, thousands of conversations with our fellow grad workers have made it clear that conditions at BU are not meeting our needs. By bargaining for a union contract, we have the ability to negotiate with the university about key aspects of our working conditions. We are fighting for the pressing issues described below, in addition to racial and gender justice, COVID safety, protections from harassment, transportation and child care subsidies, and so much more.
Graduate Workers fulfill our duties exactly like other salaried professionals, completing our work (including teaching and research) no matter how long it takes. But, we are compensated with wages more comparable to a low-skilled hourly job. According to MIT’s Living Wage Calculator, the cost of living in Boston for a single adult is $46,918. Funding for graduate workers in BU departments ranges from $25,000 to $45,000, with some departments receiving no funding in the summer. This means that every single BU graduate student is being paid less than a living wage, and many of us egregiously so. We are fighting for living wages, with regular cost-of-living increases, for all grad workers.
Dental insurance: The only options that Boston University offers for offsetting dental costs are dental discount programs. A 10% discount on dental treatment is not sufficient when procedures frequently cost multiple months’ worth of graduate stipend wages. Dental care is healthcare. We deserve the same benefits that other university employees receive, including dental insurance.
Health insurance: Currently, Student Health Services (SHS) does not provide consistent care. Grad workers do not have a primary care doctor and see a different healthcare practitioner at each visit. Yet, BU health insurance requires SHS referrals for primary care, OBGYN, mental health, etc. BUGWU aims to improve and strengthen BU health insurance for graduate workers to ensure better access to healthcare, improved disability services, better mental health coverage, and more.
Vision insurance: Boston University does not offer any form of vision coverage beyond one annual routine eye exam covered under the Student Health Insurance Plan. Vision insurance should be part of a comprehensive healthcare plan.
Health insurance for dependents: Currently, any graduate worker that wants to add a dependent (a child or spouse) to their health insurance has to opt into the Student Health Insurance Plus option. This upgrade alone is costly, and when combined with additional fees, adding one dependent can cost over $5,000. BU requires this be paid in a lump sum in the Fall semester. These costs and requirements ignore the reality of graduate workers’ financial situations: many of us do not get paid in the summer, and it is not realistic or fair to expect graduate workers to make a lump sum payment equivalent to almost half our annual stipend at the beginning of the year just to cover a basic need like healthcare for our families.
International students face unique economic and social disadvantages at grad school:
• We are subject to higher taxes on our already small stipends, and we risk deportation if we attempt to supplement our income with off-campus work.
• We face high relocation costs in moving to campus, including hundreds or even thousands of dollars in visa and immigration fees, travel costs, and other expenses.
• We are not eligible for most US grants, fellowships, and loans. Even most BU fellowships and scholarships are restricted to American citizens, widening the funding gap between us and our domestic student peers.
BU is an international students’ visa sponsor and often our only authorized employer. This creates unequal power dynamics between international students and the institution, making us uniquely susceptible to harassment and discrimination. We also face social and cultural challenges ranging from language barriers to difficulty navigating rental leases, health insurance, and taxes. The International Students and Scholars’ Office (ISSO) at BU does not provide us the support we require to thrive at BU. Through our union, we are fighting for fairer pay, improved ISSO support, immigration leave, reimbursements for relocation and visa costs, secure work appointments if we are stuck abroad, and more.
We perform vital work for the university, including teaching, research, and service. But our jobs as-written are far from the duties we are expected to perform in reality. Without workload protections, lead instructors and principal investigators are free to burden us with limitless work.
Teaching: Many graduate workers are nominally capped at 20 hours of teaching per week, but really teach much more than that. Some of us teach three or more sections of classes with well over 20 students each, and grade for all of those students. Graduate workers in the lab sciences can be responsible for teaching multiple lab sections, which involves setting up, conducting the lab session, and then grading.
Research: Many graduate workers, especially those in science and engineering disciplines, primarily contribute labor at BU and other institutions through doing research. Although BU states we are only doing 20 hours of work per week, the truth is that we all work well over 40 hours per week. The amount of time off we receive is fully at the discretion of our advisors, who sometimes demand over 100 hours of work in a week.
Service: Many of us provide service to Boston University through sitting on committees, reviewing for journals, and volunteering at conferences. Some of us provide training and support to other schools and community organizations. This labor is rarely counted towards our typical working hours.
BU has created a predatory housing market of its own to take advantage of international students, especially grad workers. International grads typically aren’t permitted to work off-campus, nor are they able to access federal student loans. In full knowledge of this, BU provides a scant supply of housing at market rates (among the highest in the country), and charges these students $500 just to apply! And for grads who do manage to “win” one of these housing units, they can look forward to BU’s almost criminal neglect of basic habitability. When the heat goes out in the dead of winter, apparently BU would rather see grads sleeping in their offices to stay warm than to fulfill its basic obligations as a landlord to provide safe, habitable spaces to its tenants.
Through bargaining for a contract, we plan to make sure BU knows that we’re done tolerating its predatory behavior. Although BU is not legally required to negotiate over housing, our union will give us the power to amplify our voices around this issue and make sure that they can’t hide the way they prey on their own students and workers.