After years of HIV/AIDS activism, I came to the Sociomedical Sciences program at the Mailman School of Public Health hoping a PhD would help advance my commitment to social justice after graduation. Unfortunately, I have spent this entire academic year engaged in a social justice struggle of my own as Columbia refuses to pay me $25,000 for work I performed months ago. As a result, I live in poverty while attending one of the most prestigious universities in the world.

This type of unpredictable, make-up-the-rules-as-they-go treatment by Columbia’s administration is one of the many reasons why a majority of us want a union. A contract clarifying things, including a grievance process to resolve issues like mine more efficiently, will enable us to focus more on our research and teaching, rather than — literally, in my case — figuring out how to pay for the next meal.

Excited and unaware at my graduation from Concordia University in Montreal, QC

As an incoming self-funded graduate student, I knew it would be a lot of work and that I would likely accumulate some amount of student debt. But Columbia was my dream school and I also hoped I might find a teaching or research assistantship (TA or RA), which is how most PhD students make it through graduate school without going deeply into debt.

I was fortunately offered both an RA, through my adviser’s private grant, and a TA position. This was great news for me, as my mother had used part of her retirement fund to pay my first year’s tuition. The amount of funding offered was not as much as many other PhD students receive — for example, I did not receive any kind of tuition remission, fee waivers, and health insurance. But the prospect of earning close to $30,000 gave me a much stronger sense of security and stability moving forward in my life as a graduate student and employee attempting to balance those roles. And even though it would be a lot of work, I really needed to take the jobs that would mitigate the debt that was looming on the horizon, especially as an international student with limitations on how much and where we can work.

The first month was a blur. For my TA position, I had to attend three additional three-hour lectures per week, and host two hour and a half long discussion groups in addition to my own classes. So I was in class or working 45 hours a week and reading 1000 pages on the side. And for all of this work as a TA, I received a meager $2,000 for the entire semester, but I had been assured, my RA compensation would fill in the gaps that remained and cover my living expenses.

But soon I was informed that I could not be paid me for my RA and TA work at the same time due to some existing Columbia policy on having no more than one casual position. At a weekly TA meeting I broke down crying. I had barely been able to buy enough food to have a single meal a day, my roommate had given me money to cover my rent (something she did for the whole semester), while my TA money could only cover my bills. I have been in financially tight situations in the past, but never in a city where I am bound to work on campus. Despite all of this I made it through the semester exceling academically and joined the Graduate Student Advisory Council, because there was a silver lining to all of this. I was assured I would get paid in the spring and I would be able to be financially stable.

I shouldn’t have gotten so excited. My mom lost her job and I was informed that the dean of my school rejected the contract to pay me the $25,000 my research work because it was too much to pay a student in a single semester. All of my optimism this would be resolved has only been met with disappointment. As of today, after many rounds of emails and discussions, all of which distract me from the important work I do helping Columbia fulfill its mission to be a world leader in teaching and research, I have received no money for the RA work I have proudly contributed to the university since September. I have faced an endless bureaucracy and a total lack of creativity in trying to resolve my problem and the entire academic year may come to an end without receiving a full payment from Columbia for my research work.

I understand my problem is unique. But when you peel back the veneer about how great Columbia is there is no shortage of examples of problems that need to be addressed in a systematic process like collective bargaining.

I know of a PhD student who was told when she was pregnant that she should “go on welfare instead of taking institutional money” for her maternity leave. I know of a man who was fired from his job and dropped from his lab because he was went home to China for spring break. I know of women in science who face numerous forms of sexual harassment. Columbia has unilaterally taken away our best option for dental insurance. Columbia misreported tax withholdings for hundreds of international students. Honoring contracts and agreements, paying employees on time, offering liveable wages, offering real rights to parental leave, not firing employees arbitrarily. These are basic. These are not hard to adhere to. These are all things that a union contract with a fair grievance procedure would make easier for us to address.

Columbia runs on the labor of graduate students. Columbia can do better!