Grad students examine work conditions

Graduate students are preparing a survey to evaluate the working conditions of their colleagues on campus, and the results may help improve IU education.\nThe survey aims to poll graduate employees at each academic department and gauge the treatment they are getting, said John Johnson, a Ph.D. student in the History and Philosophy of Science Department. Johnson is a member of the Graduate and Professional Student Organization and heads its Grad Employees Committee, whose members are working on the survey project.\n"It's often very difficult for grad students to know what things are really like in other departments" because no such data seemingly exist in the University, said Elizabeth Rytting, GPSO secretary and a graduate student in the English department.\nMany assistant instructors work more than their appointed 20 hours a week because their work demands more time, Rytting said. Johnson said he has heard stories that some graduate employees spend their own dollars on class materials, as their small departments have limited budgets. And others meet with their students at local coffee shops, because their departments have no offices for them.\n"This is my opinion, not the GPSO's, but I think a lot of graduate students just don't know what their situation is," Johnson said.\nNot knowing how their peers in other departments get along, graduate employees find it hard to judge how they are treated.\n"It seems like a lot of graduate students assume however it was when they started is how it is at the University," Johnson said.\nThe survey project will give graduate employees, including associate instructors and research assistants, a picture of what their departments are doing and file complaints if necessary, Johnson said. Likewise, the survey will help departments learn how their counterparts treat graduate workers so they'll be able to follow their peer's suit or take corrective action.\nIn any case, many believe the quality of the University's education will notch up.\nEugene Kintgen, associate dean of the Research and University Graduate School, said that only when the survey is done, the GPSO will become able to take on the next issue: Do poor work conditions hurt the quality of instruction?\n"But the first step clearly is gathering reliable information, and I support the GPSO in their desire to do this," Kintgen said.\nFor all the benefits it may bring, the survey project may not reach graduate employees for a year or more. That's because of multiple projects the graduate employees committee runs, the seasonal turnover of its volunteer members and limited free time committee staff can spare for the survey, Johnson said. But being slow is also deliberate.\n"If we did a bad job, asked ambiguous questions, got confusing answers and did inadequate data analysis, we wouldn't be any better off than if we had no information," Johnson said.\nThe GPSO is a division of the Research and University Graduate School, and the official government for graduate and professional students in Bloomington. The organization is made up of representatives from each department, who bring to the GPSO any concerns held by their fellow graduate students.