Care beyond the neoliberal University, lessons learned from graduate and student workers

Keywords: care labor, organizing, graduate worker, student worker
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Tuesday
Session Start / End Time: 3/1/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 3/1/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 22

Abstract

According to data recently published by Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service, Colleges and Universities in the United States saw an average 27% increase to their endowments. Elite Universities on average saw a median increase of 34% with some schools reporting gains as high as 127% in the case of UNC Chapel Hill. (Inside Higher Ed, 2021; Bloomberg, 2021) While these increases are attributed in reports to smart distributed investments and an above average S&P 500 gain due to the pandemic in 2020-21, such claims discount systemic disinvestment by neoliberal and neoconservative Universities in both their students and workers. Through ten interviews I conducted during the spring and summer of 2021 featuring students and student workers, this disinvestment becomes clear through the precarity of graduate appointments and funding, the emergence of student run mutual aid and resource organizing networks, and the disregard of threat to physical and mental health experienced by graduate and student workers. In response to recent articles calling for systemic change with foresight to a “caring” University, I argue that such infrastructures may be “of” but not “in.” (Ahn et. al, 2020) The pandemic has solidified the need for and success of care infrastructures beyond the University too, and departments and faculty should acknowledge and support such infrastructures.