When momentum met magnitude, graduate students were left hungry.
In an open letter posted on Nov. 29, PSAC 901—the labour union representing graduate and postdoctoral workers at Queen’s—asked alumnus Stephen Smith to give $500,000 to reopen the union’s exhausted Emergency Food Fund. The request follows Smith’s $100 million donation to engineering education at Queen’s.
So far, there has been no response from Smith Engineering or Queen’s University.
“We find it challenging to share in the excitement while we are aware that graduate student employees, including many at Smith Engineering, are living well below the poverty line,” PSAC 901 wrote in the open letter.
In the winter term of 2023, 30 per cent of graduate student workers who accessed PSAC 901’s Emergency Food Fund were employed by Smith Engineering. The Emergency Fund ed over 800 students, but exhausted their resources on November 24, just 12 days after Smith’s donation announcement.
“We believe that momentum would actually meet magnitude if no graduate student employee needed to apply for emergency food programs,” the letter reads.
The open letter was forwarded to top s at Smith Engineering and Queen’s University to raise awareness about food insecurity amongst Queen’s students and workers.
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Philanthropy won’t solve food insecurity at Queen’s, PSAC 901 President Justyna Szewczyk El Jassem told The Journal in an interview. She said the University must take more responsibility for the issue.
“We know that we need a systemic solution, which is higher funding and better wages,” she said.
El Jassem acknowledged the unlikelihood Smith would donate $500,000, but hoped the open letter would raise awareness within Queen’s istration about food insecurity in its student body. PSAC 901 will embrace any conversation with Queen’s on food insecurity but has found the University’s silence deafening.
“We felt like we were talking to a wall or screaming at a wall, with no one responding,” El Jassem said.
With recent budget cuts posing concerns for graduate students, the union has turned its focus to preparing for April, when the collective agreement between PSAC 901 student workers and the University expires. El Jassem is concerned student workers will be teaching more for less compensation to balance the budget.
“If we’re going to teach more, and we’re going to take the brunt of teaching, the compensation should follow,” El Jassem said.
El Jassem understands that the $100 million didn’t come without strings attached, and it’s unreasonable to expect the donation to be allocated to graduate students immediately. However, she believes how Queen’s spends and budgets reveals their priorities.
“[It’s] the people who do the research, and the people who teach it, [who are] the people who make math, engineering, what it is,” El Jassem said.
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James McDonald
If only these issues were known before the students signed up.
If only.