In the last year, I have been either a project manager or research assistant for five projects on campus. With my graduate stipend, I have a steady income and health insurance. With my extra research positions, I can pay for groceries and my own dental care. I might have $10,120.85 in credit card debt and quadruple that in student loans, but my partner and I don’t have children, and we live with two other roommates. I can survive on the paltry $21,000 stipend that Northeastern doles out to Ph.D. students in the humanities. Besides, I’ve lived at or below the poverty line for the last decade, so I’ve mastered 100 varieties of beans and rice for dinner.
Last year, my life here in Boston felt stable. Because of that, I was too comfortable to join the unionization efforts of the Graduate Employees of Northeastern University (GENU). Last year, I didn’t want to be the person handing out flyers on campus and getting told by the police they had to leave. I didn’t want to sit at a table on campus reassuring people that GENU is not an outside organization, because I didn’t want the administration to see me and learn my name. Even though retaliation against union efforts is illegal, I was afraid, and I didn’t want to put myself on the line for other people in less stable positions than me. Last year, I didn’t want to agitate.
But then things changed (they always do). The week of Aug. 14, I worked and billed hours to two research assistantships in two different departments. At midnight on Aug. 25, I got paid for my work. At 10:01 a.m., I got an email from one administrator, saying that they hadn’t meant to approve my timesheet or pay me for my work that week. They thought I had maxed out the hours on the budget (I hadn’t).
I was told that my paycheck would be pulled back out of my bank account and was asked not to spend the money. But my bills are set to auto-pay every Friday when I get paid, so that advice came too late.
I panicked. I sent frantic emails with typos to two administrators and my supervisor to prove I still had hours left to work in that budget. It was the end of the week, though, so my emails weren’t answered. Saturday, I woke up to find that one small oversight had caused my entire paycheck—including the money I am paid from another department—to be withdrawn from my bank account. To prevent an overdraft of $288.40, my bank automatically transferred money from my savings account. I was left with $84.47 to my name, so I cancelled weekend plans and settled into my beans and rice.
By Monday, I was fuming. I had no idea how the university could revoke money they had already given me for work I had already done. By Tuesday, my department and I had reached an understanding, and I was told from the Student Employment Office that I would be re-paid that paycheck in 4-5 business days. But I’m writing this on September 6, and there is still no sign of my paycheck. For those of you keeping track, that’s 12 days longer than the 24 hours it took Northeastern to reach into my bank account and take my money.
Money that I had worked for.
I want to pause here and say that I understand that mistakes get made. I’m not upset at the administrative assistant in my department and I’m not upset about the miscommunication about the budget. I’m not even too upset about the fact that my bank just charged $100 to my credit card (with 12.9% interest) to cover more bills that I couldn’t stop from posting to my empty bank account. What’s another $100 of debt, anyway?
Instead, I am mad because Northeastern has made me feel helpless, while before I felt safe.
Before, I felt confident and successful because my research positions are funded through external grants.
Now, the illusion of stability has vanished.
Before, I should have been willing to fight for other people’s rights instead of just my own, but I wasn’t ready.
Now, it’s time to be brave. With a union contract, I would have had a formal grievance procedure instead of wondering if my paycheck would ever come back.
So now I, Lara Rose Roberts, am fighting for our union. You can find me in the English Department.
For more information on the unionization efforts, please visit http://www.nugradunion.com/ .
