Columbia Ends Some Teaching Roles for Grad Students

Less than a month before the semester, Columbia told Ph.D. students they would not teach this fall. The university said the change reduces teaching load so graduate students can finish in six years rather than seven. Graduate students and their union contend the move aims to weaken union bargaining power during contract negotiations that expired June 30. Affected students will be paid a lump sum at semester start instead of biweekly stipends, while replacements will be hired. Michael Thaddeus estimated paying both groups likely costs the university millions of dollars. Many sixth- and seventh-year Ph.D. candidates traditionally teach core undergraduate courses, a time-consuming role that sidelines research.

However, instead of receiving a biweekly teaching stipend, they'll get a lump sum at the start of the semester. To pay both the Ph.D.s and their replacements, "the cost to the university likely runs to millions of dollars," estimated Michael Thaddeus, a mathematics professor at Columbia and vice president and acting president of the Columbia chapter of the American Association of University Professors.

Columbia has traditionally tapped sixth- and seventh-year graduate students to teach foundational courses and some of the undergraduate college's Core Curriculum classes, which includes courses, like University Writing and Frontiers of Science, that all first-year students are required to take. The work is more time-consuming than a regular TA job; as the so-called instructors of record, the Ph.D. students must teach two two-hour lectures and attend a pedagogy seminar each week.

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