Wyth,
Did you see my previous email with URL links? There's some information
in those related to this.
Another organization you might be interested in (albeit not one for
students) is the National Postdoctoral Association (a United States
organization). As postdocs we have the same problem - since we are
temporary it is difficult to get administration and even fellow postdocs
interested in our needs since PRESUMABLY we will be moving on to more
stable and career appropriate positions soon (which these days is far
from reality). It's also difficult because the people we work for now
(collectively) also control our upward mobility.
Also, you note that there isn't recognition that students (and postdocs)
do a LOT of the research in this country. This is not an accident - if
we do so much of the research, it becomes more difficult to justify the
stature (and salaries) of faculty. Of course many faculty do a lot of
great hard work and have great ideas - but so do students and postdocs.
We are suffering from a severe lack of independent thinkers in
independent/stable (eg: appropriate) positions.
Aaron T. Dossey, Ph.D.
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Wyth Marshall wrote:
I also have followed this thread with interest. I agree that many of us have been motivated by curiosity rather than being driven by career -- possibly due to being in biology rather than business.
That aside, I am not aware of any unification of graduate and post graduate scientists in the academic systems. If we organized this we could very easily put together a page with the current minimum stipends, office space, teaching salaries, average number of years until graduation, course loads, tuition waivers, top-ups, etc. for each department within each academic institution. This would offer prospective graduate students useful information for choosing schools. This would also help current graduate students with the argument that institutions need to be competitive to recruit top students. Because graduate students are short term employees there will always be less incentive to lobby for change.
Value? The contribution towards teaching and the universities has been
discussed. However the value of the research is being fairly poorly recognized
by society and perhaps by the university administration. These are assumptions
but if 50% of biological/environmental research is done in an academic setting
and if graduate students outnumber faculty by at least 2:1, this would mean
that half of this scientific research is being done by highly educated minimum
wage workers. This is an important contribution that I don't think many people
are aware of. However this leads to other issues that would be easier to
address via an organization. I am not aware of such an organization in Canada?
Wyth Marshall
