We received the results of our application for a childcare stipend last week. The University has awarded my family, which includes two preschoolers, an elementary school aged child and two graduate students, the sum of $1,000 "to cover spring and summer quarters." We are certainly glad to have this money!
On the other hand, it cannot be said the University has now demonstrated a serious effort to address the childcare needs of graduate student parents. The grant of one thousand dollars to last us six months means that we have been allocated $166 per month, or $83 per child under 5 per month.
[To put this amount in context, graduate students like myself who have entered advanced residency at the University, and support themselves by teaching, can earn 3,000 $ per quarter as TAs, or 5,000$ per quarter as lecturers. The maximum amount of teaching that a graduate student may take on is capped in my division (Social Sciences) at four TAships or lectureships during the academic year, such that the maximum possible yearly income from teaching is between 12,000 and $20,000 (though I have rarely heard of any grad student securing more than two lectureships in a single academic year). With yearly incomes of this order of magnitude, an extra $1000 is very welcome]
Fast food workers nationwide are lobbying for a minimum wage rise to 15$/hr, and I certainly could not square it with my conscience to pay anyone less than that to look after my two (very precious) four year olds. So that 166$ a month will buy me eleven hours of babysitting per month, or an additional short afternoon of undisturbed work per week. Given that this is my eighth year in grad school and I have hitherto had no assistance with childcare, this is a very welcome step in the right direction.
This spring, I will be able to take the quarter off from teaching and focus on my dissertation for the first time since the spring of 2009, when I was pregnant with my twins. Of course, by taking time off from teaching I make myself liable to pay AR tuition fees, which now amount to 784$ per quarter. There goes most of that childcare grant - and with it the hope of additional afternoons when I would be able to work on my dissertation. Academics who are mothers need time of their own, just as Virginia Woolf needed a room of her own.
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In order to advocate better for student parents on the University of Chicago campus, members of the Student Parent Group (SPG) and Graduate Students United (GSU) are gathering information on the recent child care stipend results. We strongly encourage student parents to fill out the brief form at this link with their results. Give as much information as you feel comfortable reporting. All information submitted is anonymous.
Having access to these results will help advocates to hold the University administration accountable to its publicly stated commitment to helping student parents succeed.
On the other hand, it cannot be said the University has now demonstrated a serious effort to address the childcare needs of graduate student parents. The grant of one thousand dollars to last us six months means that we have been allocated $166 per month, or $83 per child under 5 per month.
[To put this amount in context, graduate students like myself who have entered advanced residency at the University, and support themselves by teaching, can earn 3,000 $ per quarter as TAs, or 5,000$ per quarter as lecturers. The maximum amount of teaching that a graduate student may take on is capped in my division (Social Sciences) at four TAships or lectureships during the academic year, such that the maximum possible yearly income from teaching is between 12,000 and $20,000 (though I have rarely heard of any grad student securing more than two lectureships in a single academic year). With yearly incomes of this order of magnitude, an extra $1000 is very welcome]
Fast food workers nationwide are lobbying for a minimum wage rise to 15$/hr, and I certainly could not square it with my conscience to pay anyone less than that to look after my two (very precious) four year olds. So that 166$ a month will buy me eleven hours of babysitting per month, or an additional short afternoon of undisturbed work per week. Given that this is my eighth year in grad school and I have hitherto had no assistance with childcare, this is a very welcome step in the right direction.
This spring, I will be able to take the quarter off from teaching and focus on my dissertation for the first time since the spring of 2009, when I was pregnant with my twins. Of course, by taking time off from teaching I make myself liable to pay AR tuition fees, which now amount to 784$ per quarter. There goes most of that childcare grant - and with it the hope of additional afternoons when I would be able to work on my dissertation. Academics who are mothers need time of their own, just as Virginia Woolf needed a room of her own.
----
In order to advocate better for student parents on the University of Chicago campus, members of the Student Parent Group (SPG) and Graduate Students United (GSU) are gathering information on the recent child care stipend results. We strongly encourage student parents to fill out the brief form at this link with their results. Give as much information as you feel comfortable reporting. All information submitted is anonymous.
Having access to these results will help advocates to hold the University administration accountable to its publicly stated commitment to helping student parents succeed.
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