You may have heard that NUGW-UE Local 1122, the graduate worker union at Northwestern University, recently secured its first contract after years of organizing. While many new workplace rights and protections have now been legally enshrined with this contract, grad workers are continuing to fight for a number of issues, including advanced students funding (funding past 5th year).

Funding beyond the 5th year is typical and expected by many graduate workers particularly those in the Humanities and Social Sciences where 6-7 years to degree completion is an industry standard. These sudden cuts to funding mean graduate workers may be unable to finish their degree!

Grad workers have tried to work with the Northwestern admin in a number of ways to solidify this funding, but admin continues to drop the ball by delaying critical meetings on the issue and neglecting their legal obligation to respond promptly to our requests for information. Despite their significant contributions to Northwestern’s research and teaching reputation through years of hard work, many grad workers may be forced to drop out of their programs due to sudden unavailability of funding. For international grad workers, this would also mean being forced to leave the US as they will not be able to renew their visa.

Particularly at risk are grad workers in Social Sciences and Humanities programs that are known to require more time than Northwestern’s period of guaranteed funding (5 years).

The Advanced Students Funding Taskforce urges fellow workers, alumni, faculty, and community supporters to take action and speak out against these funding cut!

1. Email the TGS Dean and Weinberg Dean through this form.

2. Share this email campaign with community members and especially alumni you may know who experienced advanced students funding issues or were in a department or group likely to experience this problem.

In Solidarity,

NUGW-UE Local 1122 Advanced Students Funding Taskforce