As graduate students, we are Instructors and Teaching Assistants. In these roles, we teach your children everything from Gen-Ed courses to advanced topics in their major. We write them recommendation letters. When professors are of an older generation, graduate students become the ones who give your children real and accurate advice from when they ask, "What can I do with this degree?", "How do I get this internship?", "Should I apply to grad school?"

Not so long ago, we were undergraduates ourselves. We can't wait to complete our degrees and live the life we aspired to. It's those aspirations that keep us going as we work towards our own higher-ed degrees, while being undervalued, underpaid, and ignored by the University. Did you know most of us get paid only 9 months of the year? We have a tough unemployed summer ahead. We are asking the University to recognize the work we do and support us through this pandemic summer so we can put food on the table and don't have to depend on the odd jobs that don't even exist right now. Students with jobs like ours can't apply for unemployment benefits. A lot of us are international students who bring important global perspectives to your children's education - we are not eligible for aid from the US government to tide us over.

Will you and your family step up to ensure that we and our families can survive the summer?

Please ask Chancellor Subbaswamy to take us seriously, do the right thing, and support us during this difficult time. UMass works because we do. There's a whole lot of Administrators in the UMass system who make a lot more than we do, and likely more than you do too.

This is a historic moment, a pandemic that has impacted our lives in ways that no one had imagined. This is when you get to decide: Which side are you on?

Sincerely,

UMass Graduate Students