Recently, we learned that the Columbia University administration is planning to drastically reduce – or even eliminate – teaching positions for graduate students in the Core Curriculum.

The university describes the Core as the “defining element of a Columbia College education.” We agree. The Core is foundational not only to the education of both undergraduate and graduate students, but to the academic life of the university itself. Through the teaching labor of graduate students, Core classes become a place where students engage deeply and critically with works of art, literature, and music, and orient themselves to the range of perspectives that structure contemporary civilization. Despite Columbia’s stated commitment to these classes, the university is seeking to casualize Core instruction (replacing stable jobs with contingent positions), increase class sizes, and cut graduate student instructors.

We call upon supporters of the Core Curriculum to resist the casualization of academic labor and ask Columbia to recommit to strengthening – not weakening – our academic community. Take action to protect graduate student preceptorships in the Core! Fill out your information to email administrators and decision-makers to demand they save grad student preceptorships.