Yale Grad Students' Hunger Strike For Even Cushier Benefits Involves Eating When Hungry

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Yale doctoral students currently earn a stipend $30,000 a year, receive free health care, and have their $40,000 tuition paid in full, according to Yale News. The university administration said in a statement that they understood the students concerns, but "strongly [urge] that students not put their health at risk or encourage others to do so."

I'd urge them not to risk their health, too, if I were paying for their insurance... Jesus...at Carolina we made something like 7k per year (not including summer teaching if we could get it), had dicey tuition remission, and no health insurance. Of course that was back in the paleolithic, but still. You couldn't actually live on it. 

   I remember when a grad student group (we didn't/couldn't have a union) run by PC types started a movement to get us better pay and insurance. A lefty friend of mine was in the group, and started going on to me one day about how we had a right to more money, and it was an outrage and this and that. I didn't come from the same kind of background as most philosophy grad students, and I was pretty much just happy to be there. I'd turned down a lot more money from other programs, and I knew what I was getting into when I accepted the offer from Carolina. I wanted more money and some insurance, but I didn't think we had a right to it. Actually, I considered us very fortunate. We ended up in kind of a semi-angry argument about it, and I pointed out that, in my opinion, we were a lot better off than, say, the housecleaning staff, and if I were going to get all huffy about something, I'd rather see them get more than see us get more. Most of us were doing what we loved, getting training for our careers, and going on to fulfilling and at least minimally well-paying jobs. The housekeepers...weren't. My friend kinda left in a wee huff...but I was amused to see, about two weeks later, that the group had changed its demands to include better pay for the housekeeping staff. In fact, hat amused me a whole lot more than it should have, tbh.

   So anyway, what's my point? Oh, who knows.