When a group of graduate students marched a coffin into a Board of Trustees meeting in 2000, they were making a point-albeit a dramatic one. Without affordable health insurance, the welfare of graduate students here was at serious risk. The same spirit of discontent that turned some of the University's teaching assistants and aspiring scholars into pallbearers four years ago is still alive but partially abated in the 1,500-member graduate student body. Healthcare has improved and stipends have increased.

But the complaints of students have not ceased.

"It would be a wonderful world if we could just take courses, do our dissertations, and teach courses," said Daniel Worden, a Ph.D. student in English. "That would be great, though I don't know what it would be like."

Students say their recently-raised stipends still fall short, especially for those in the social sciences and humanities. They also say that their health insurance coverage has not improved enough.

This works toward a general sentiment among some graduate students that the concerns of their community are brushed aside by the administration. Some attribute this to a lack of cohesiveness among graduate students, which makes sense, as graduate work is often done independently, or in a peer-to-peer setting.

"Graduate students get engulfed underground-often literally, in their labs," said Vanita Neelakanta, president of the Graduate Student Association (GSA) and a Ph.D. student in English. "There is no sense of being part of a larger network."



It's an issue of respect

Students in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) say they work diligently in their respective fields and don't always feel that the University notices.

"I don't think there's a lot of value given to us, when grad students such as myself say, 'Wow, this isn't enough money to live on,' and there's no response to that," said Rekha Rosha, former GSA president and another Ph.D. English student.

Brandeis' small size lets graduate researchers work closely with professors, an experience that students cite as a highlight of their experience here.

But there is a downside to the small community. The graduate student population is less than half the size of its undergraduate counterpart, and some graduate students say they feel ignored or shafted on an institutional level.

"I've gotten the impression that we're kind of a luxury item to the University," Worden said "They could hire adjunct faculty and teach more courses for the same price.

To this regard, Rick Brabander, GSA representative to the board of trustees and a Ph.D. student in comparative history, noted that the history department has accepted fewer Ph.D. students each year in an effort to have fewer unfunded students.

Ayanna Bryan, a Ph.D. student in neuroscience, said that her position as a scientist-in-training can create tension with more experienced workers in the lab. Graduate students have other commitments, which "gets in the way of the machine of research," she said. "We're like a slower version of what the school wants, as far as research."

Professors did not mention this when discussing their reliance on graduate students.

"The graduate students are an essential part of the research university; otherwise you have an undergraduate college," said Prof. David DeRosier (BIOL), the head of the graduate committee for his department, explaining that graduate students perform essential work in biology labs and provide a support network for undergraduates. "That's where the future scientists come from," he said.



State of the Union

In fall of 1999, students tried to remedy this and other concerns by forming a labor union. The University met their demands for the most part, so that movement fizzled. Still, the issues haven't disappeared and students recognize that a union might give them more pull with the administration.

They've lost this option, however, as determined by a July decision by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling that graduate students at private universities can't form unions.

"The ruling tends to deny the reality of graduate student life, which is not uniform," said Mikel Parent, treasurer of the GSA and another Ph.D. student in English.

Students say they feel the decision does not fully represent their role on campus. It confines them to the sole designation of student.

Graduate students perform juggling acts on a daily basis. Many work as research or teaching assistants, and, on top of that, they may be spouses or parents and hold jobs outside Brandeis.

"You can't unite graduate students except by the work they do for the university...they're at different points in their lives. The only thing that unites them is labor and healthcare," Parent said.

The GSA serves as a representative body from the graduate students to the University administration, but according to Neelakanta, the lack of unity among graduate students strains the association's possible influence.

She said that a union is not essential at Brandeis but would exert more pressure than the GSA could currently muster.

"I am not in favor of rebellion," she said. "A union does not have to be synonymous with that. But graduate students shouldn't be made to feel that they do so much work without benefits."

Neelakanta said that the GSA meets with higher-ups in the administration, but would benefit from an intermediary.

We're in desperate need of a graduate student advocate in the administration," she said.

Parent said that the Rev. Nathaniel Mays, who recently left his post as assistant dean at Brandeis to take a position at Lesley University, frequently spoke up for the graduate students.

"Our issues may be put on the back burner now," Parent said of Mays' departure.



A beefed-up stipend still means empty stomachs

In the social sciences and humanities, graduate students are awarded a stipend between $14,000 and $16,000 per nine-month academic year, while science stipends are considerably higher, at around $25,000 for the calendar year. Ph.D. students are generally funded for four and sometimes five years, according to Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe.

This gap exists because the sciences are "grant rich," said Milton Kornfeld, associate dean for graduate education, meaning that science professors compete for federal grants with built-in money to pay for graduate researchers.

Kornfeld said Brandeis determines its stipends based on the market and on comparisons with stipends at other universities. Additionally, some grant-providing foundations like the National Institute of Health set minimum stipend amounts on the national level.

"We try to provide what we hope are competitive stipends," Kornfeld said.

Both Kornfeld and Jaffe said they aspire to pay higher stipends, but that Brandeis' small endowment limits them. Stipends do rise periodically. Worden said that the English department stipend is now $14,500, up from $13,000 when he arrived at Brandeis five years ago.

Michael Walden, a Ph.D. student of biochemistry, noted that his department raises its stipend about six percent every two years. Walden is married and said his wife provides the majority of their shared income.

The science department wages are about on par with other Boston-area universities, according to Walden and Raj Stewart, a Ph.D. student in neuroscience. Both said that their peers in the sciences do not generally hold jobs outside Brandeis, and Walden mentioned that certain research grants do not legally permit outside work.

Meanwhile, over in the humanities, Worden said he does not know a single English graduate student who lives on a Brandeis stipend alone.

"People are paid very little to live in the second most expensive city in the United States. It's as simple as that," Rosha said.



Healthcare

Until four years ago, Brandeis did not pay for graduate students' healthcare at all. The coffin incident and the whispers of unionization changed this.

The University now covers the cost of minimum health coverage for all funded students, though Jaffe noted that many students take more than four years to finish a dissertation, and must pay their own healthcare fees after this point. He said that Brandeis' small size makes it less appealing to health insurance providers, since companies know that sales will be limited. This leaves comprehensive medical coverage more expensive and difficult to come by.

Last year, Brandeis switched to a new healthcare broker called MEGA. Funded students can choose between the Student Health Insurance Plan, which uses the Brandeis Health Center as a primary care doctor and resembles the plan available to undergraduates, the Enhanced Graduate Insurance Plan (MEGA Plus), which is closer to a traditional HMO, or a third option that Brabander said is the Tufts Healthcare plan.

Students say they appreciate that the University now absorbs their baseline healthcare costs, but disagree about adequacy of the service.

Science students mentioned the health risks inherent in working with potent chemicals and equipment.

"Our health care is really abysmal," Bryan said. She works in the Graybiel Spatial Orientation lab, full of large machinery. She cited problems with getting referrals for specialized care and with the prescription plan, which ran out over the summer and forced her to pay full price for prescription medications.

"Dean Kornfeld is open to talk and discuss, but the University doesn't have the money to take care of graduate students as much as [it] should," Bryan said.

Students who have another healthcare option usually opt out of the Brandeis plan. Walden is covered by his wife's healthcare plan. Rosha, who is also a visiting dissertation scholar at Northeastern University, uses that school's healthcare coverage, which she said is more comprehensive than the plans provided by Brandeis.

Brabander worked at Information Technology Services on campus and received full staff benefits-including more complete healthcare coverage-through that job. He quit just two weeks ago, and is teaching 20th Century World History at Bentley College this semester. He decided to extend his health benefits from the ITS job, since this is only slightly more expensive than MEGA Plus. He noted that students with a spouse or children feel the restrictions of current coverage more acutely.



Brandeis unionization: a history

A Web site boasts a large graphic of a clog as its background, overlaid with the words "Healthcare! Pay! Union!" and the motto, "Brandeis works because grads do!" This site, currently with no links or information, and a still-functioning e-mail list are the remnants of a push to unionize five years ago.

The clog is an emblem for the title of the group: CLOG, or the Committee to Lead to Organizing Graduates, formed by a team of GSAS students whose main impetus was the exorbitant price of healthcare.

Graduate students nationwide were taking similar steps, and in 2000, the NLRB overturned a longtime position to allow unionization in a case with New York University. The Board's ruling this July was a reversal of the NYU decision.

CLOG was always a separate entity from the GSA. Brabander and Rosha, who were active in the committee, explained that the group met with union representatives from United Electrical and Radio and Machine Workers of America.

The long process was incompatible with the high turnover rate that is natural with graduate student employees: they finish their degrees and they leave.

"That's why [the movement] stalled," Rosha said. "I don't think it's over."

According to Worden and Brabander, the movement also faded because the University became worried by the possibility of a union and gave in to some of CLOG's terms, mainly picking up the tab on basic healthcare costs.

"The actual unionization process did not go very far, but there was the threat that it could happen," Worden said. "Without that, there is no force behind the bargaining. There is no reason for the University to listen to you."

The NLRB ruling is not the end of the story, Rosha said. "I don't think that people's efforts to resolve problems collectively will stop dead in its tracks. . .we're still talking."

In February 2000, Brandeis formed a body called COGSI, the Committee on Graduate Student Issues. Led by the provost, this group contains students, administrators and faculty and meets to discuss students' concerns. Brabander currently serves on the committee and said that it definitely helps.



Remaining concerns

Beyond healthcare and stipends, students mentioned other elements they'd like to see improve: graduate student space on campus, on-campus housing facilities, transportation within Waltham, recreation options, career help and funding for research and conferences.

A room in the Usdan Student Center has served as a graduate student lounge for the past few years. According to Neelakanta, the administration had promised the GSA a larger space, but the project has now been delayed until 2010.

She said that in the meantime, James Hurley, associate vice president for budget and planning, has been extremely responsive in purchasing furniture to renovate the existing lounge. Hurley described the room as "a collection of secondhand furniture," and said that new furniture and ceiling tiles are on their way.

Referring to the list of desired upgrades, Neelakanta said, "It's not that [the administrators] aren't trying; they are. But they have so much to deal with."



Still the right choice for most

Despite the challenges they noted, most students said they would still choose Brandeis if they relaunched their graduate careers. They chose Brandeis for its strengths in their particular departments. "I would come here again in a heartbeat," Neelakanta said.

Parent also he'd said he'd pick Brandeis a second time around, but added, "I still stick by the criticisms I have about Brandeis at large because I think one has to constantly seek to make [your] community better, even if it's pretty good already."

Worden, though, said he would not choose Brandeis again. "I would choose a grad school with a more vibrant intellectual community and that had more financial resources for research," he said.

Neelakanta said that she has little to complain of personally, but added, "I'm aware that some others have not shared my good fortune." Ultimately, she said, "graduate students are made to wait in line for their turn, which might never come.