Currently I’m a second semester MA student at a top 20 school. So far I’ve frankly been baffled how desperately academia is trying to pretend everything is normal. There is a massive global pandemic which forced everything online, we’re seemingly in a second great depression, and many countries including my own (United States) are falling into deep civil unrest. And while all this is going on, as graduate students we’re expected to carry on like everything is fine. But everything is not fine. The world is on fire, yet professors keep piling on the work expecting us to keep up.
It’s absolutely unreasonable to expect us to be able to focus on our research during a time like this. Personally, online remote learning is absolute hell. The lack of libraries or cafes open to study outside my room makes studying sooooo much more difficult. Add to that the lack of social interaction for those of us living alone and it’s no wonder grad student mental health going down the drain as the world also goes down the drain.
But strangely…academia has failed to recognize these issues in any meaningful way. When reaching out to professors, advisors, and family friends in academia they all echo the same sentiments “Push forward” and “Seek therapy”. Even today I received a tone deaf email from the dean of my school saying something along the lines of “During these unprecedented times I hope we can seek refuge in our intellectual research”. To me this is a refusal to acknowledge the emotional, mental, and sometimes even physical difficulties some students are now going though. We’re not research machines…we’re human beings. Since the beginning of the year I’ve moved 5 times and was staying in motels for a bit. I know quite a few other grad students with similar experiences…
I find it funny that academia prides itself on being so open to change and forward thinking. Yet when push comes to shove and the world rapidly changes around them, academia proves itself to be just another large (profit motivated) institution that is slow to adapt and recognize problems.
Academia is deeply in denial about the current state of affairs and it’s expectations of students. I know I’m not the only one who feels this way but nobody wants to talk about this. What do you guys think?
Update: Since this seemed to really resonate with fellow grad students and some faculty in this sub I decided to expand it and post it on medium.
I mean, personally, I have a seminar on Veteran’s Day to “make up for lost time” because school started a week late, so I completely feel you. There hasn’t been a reduction in readings or workload, quite the opposite, for some reason, as if I don’t have to prepare for my other seminars or prepare to teach my own increasingly apathetic students, so there’s that too ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I think these problems were present before covid. Mental health issues are high in graduate students for a reason. In the US a Harvard study saw it over 3 times more likely graduate students experienced mental health issues than other Americans, The Emotional Toll of Graduate School | Scientific American. Covid has only exacerbated this issue and many people who actually run the school are pretty disconnected from the students as they are mostly administrators and not educators. Honestly it’s hard to say how much the administration cares for students aside from bringing in Grant money, paying tuition, and boosting the schools educational stats. My advisor is more understanding especially as he is a new professor and recently was in school himself, but he doesn’t control the major school policies. All schools are different but this is the feel I’ve gotten from most of my friends at other institutions too. Sadly, academia is another large ivory tower along with this most admins are accountable to their board of trustees. Most at my school are associated with large private entities like Warner Bros, CNN, etc, but clearly a group who really are probably just trying to make money off of their stake in the school
I absolutely feel the same way. My department has done nothing to make the first-years (like me) feel welcome or supported. We’ve gotten the usual platitudes of “if you’re struggling, reach out, etc.”, but when I reached out to my professor/head of the department about feeling overwhelmed/isolated, I got no help and was told “it’s hard for everyone.”
I feel like I’m missing out on crucial interactions with older students and my own cohort. I can’t even use the facilities on campus (which are beautiful and part of the reason why I chose to attend the school!). I moved several states from home, I live alone, and all of my academics are online - I may as well make my own Wilson at this point.
Also, no one wants to talk about the fact that they’re struggling! It’s so frustrating. I understand if people don’t want to complain or feel like they don’t want to show weakness, but come on! We’re in a freaking pandemic and you want me to believe you’ve never had a bad day?
Sorry, I don’t know where this went. I am incredibly frustrated and disappointed by my experience and my mental health has taken a critical hit. It’s comforting to know other people feel the same way.
That’s partly why I’m on leave, and I’m glad I’m not the only person to acknowledge this. Between the burnout from the grind of grad school, to finding out that three of my relatives caught COVID and two died in the same week, I would not have been able to do any work at all.
I feel this in my soul. My department recently said that all graduate students should be back in the labs full time, but I have an 8 year old in remote learning so I can’t do that and I can’t afford the extra costs of daycare. My PI is actually just 4 months older than me and I’m her first student but she has no fucks left about how the university has been treating graduate students, and straight up asked if the department was planning on paying for my daycare costs if I’m expected to be in the lab, she is amazing and I am so grateful she is my PI (especially considering the department chair who said this was someone I rotated with last fall, I dodged a damn bullet).
Anyway, I agree academia is in denial and ignoring the impacts this whole situation has on the vast majority of people.
I think the apathy stems from the stability of jobs for people in supervisory (often tenured) and administrative (salaried, long term employee) roles. I’m losing my fucking shit while trying to start a project and manage my finances. Meanwhile, nothing is being done to accelerate the process in any meaningful way by people in charge.
The thing that bothers me the most is that grad student employees at my university are expected to be very flexible with undergrads and their needs, but the university doesn’t encourage the same type of flexibility for us. We are expected to maintain teaching and mentoring standards while often being in very similar financial and living situations as undergrads. And I’m just waiting for the university to axe our funding even further due to all the lost revenue from Covid.
I’m having so many second thoughts about why I’m even in school during covid. I’m in my first semester of a STEM PhD and my University doesn’t give a rats tail about us. Thankfully the department seemingly does, the professors in mine are very easy. I don’t even know if that makes up for the university being a money-driven entity that I wish I didn’t have to be a part of. I am absolutely terrified of tomorrow.
Our department head emailed us telling us in essence: we still have to teach and our duties on Nov 4th, and our students rely on us etc.
I guess in the end, yes that’s true, but this is a huge societal event and we don’t so much as get a day off. I don’t know what I’m going to do if this election goes sour.
I wholeheartedly agree. There was, at one time in my hometown, a situation where city buses were bursting into flame. A study was conducted, and it was found that this was due to the buses being poorly maintained, and old. The solution the local government came to was to install an emergency exit door in each bus. I think the role of ‘therapy’ or taking ‘refuge in work’ is a similar solution, a band-aid over a much more serious problem.
Genuine academics who care about their students’ development are few and far between, and the ‘publish or perish’ culture has turned academia into a predatory system that preys on the ideas and aspirations of graduate students.
As biomedical grad students, our work generates the data that our advisors use to apply for more grants to fund the lab. So when the economy is going down, NIH/government has less money to give out, the competition gets more fierce, and we’re put under more pressure to produce. It is totally a profit generating system where you’re the worker on the bottom.
Similarly, universities need undergrads and paying grad students to continue to enroll to salvage as much of their revenue as possible.
They’re not in denial at all, but rather trying to prepare for the hard times ahead… it’s simply not preparation for our benefit, that’s all.
There is a reason why you, me, and the rest of /r/GradSchool are in graduate school. It’s to change academia with fresh insight and new minds. The lack of awareness is one more reason why we need to keep going! Keep up the hard work everyone!
This is truly the worst year of my life. I am also a masters student and just today my professors pushed back my defence to next semester. They were honestly really great about it, but I am completely over academic work during this time and I am literally so close to just dropping out. I usually have a pretty good focus but it has been so hard to stay motivated and consistent during this time, and everything feel super important but also meaningless at the same time. What is time? Deadlines? I feel like it was March two weeks ago.
I just finished a one year MA program which was hell to complete under COVID circumstances. My thesis topic was derailed because lockdown meant I didn’t have access to a lab. I was one of only two students (out of nine) in my year able to successfully change topics and complete a thesis grounded in theory. Students have been admitted to this program for this year, and no provisions are being made to accommodate potentially being locked out of the labs again. Students are being encouraged to do practical based theses like there’s no chance of another lockdown. I worry that this is going to destroy their chances to complete their MAs, and really wonder what other research based institutions are doing to accommodate difficulties like that. I guess the answer is, “None.”
I find it funny that academia prides itself on being so open to change and forward thinking
I agree, the irony of it is sickening. I did undergrad research last summer, and my team used Slack to communicate. Our professor said we must communicate with him as a team over email, which is no big deal, but he himself admitted that it was a “stone age” way of communicating.
When I asked him why the scientific community doesn’t simply adapt, he responded with “It’s just the way it’s been for a while, and it’s the way it is now.”
Bit of a less serious example of what you were talking about. Best of luck man, I can’t imagine the situation you’re in.
Sent an email to my advisor/professor about the difficulties I’ve been having during this time with regard to keeping my shit together and being able to maintain my motivation to do my work.
His response was basically “we’re all going through it,” sure did feel reassuring to read that. /s
I was literally about to post something very similar - I’m feeling the same.
As a TA, I’ve gotten so many emails about how we need to be mindful of student stress during these unprecedented times, but it feels like the school and professors are only thinking of undergrads when they send out these statements. I’ve had one faculty member say “if you need more time for any assignment because of anything that’s going on right now, I will give you more time”. One person out of three professors, an advisor, and the instructor I’m TAing for.
A lot of young academics are constantly talking about how this system needs change. Where is it? I thought that mental health of graduate students, who already are predisposed to poor mental health during normal times, would be considered during a pandemic and a heated election.
Before this, I thought I’d want to stay in academia forever; I dreamed of it. Now, I feel betrayed. As a first semester masters student, I’ve felt less and less happy with this system each week. I’m crushed.
Above all else, academia prides itself on rewarding research output.
Some people will not be so mentally affected by the pandemic. Maybe they don’t care one bit about things outside their field, or are in great health, have enough family money to weather any crisis, etc. Such people are going to get out of the pandemic with a greater quantity and quality of research than those of us constantly stressed. Then, they will be the ones to find jobs and establish the culture and expectations for the next generation.
I think of my director—most brilliant person I’ve ever ment, paradigm-shifter in the field, great teacher, kind and reasonable mentor. But she could hardly wrap her head around ‘emotional and mental stress’ affecting productivity. She is a perfect research machine. People like her have won the race in academia, got director/chair positions, and establish the norms we’re suffering from, not out of malice but simply by natural selection.
This is what meritocracy means: the most hyper-focused and priviledged will succeed and go on to run things in their own image.
I’m earning a humanities degree that is fundamentally impossible without access to physical archival materials & the completion of fieldwork. i have NO idea how i will complete ANY of the projects i had started—it feels like i’m at a complete standstill. it’s absolutely absurd to me that nobody in my department has yet voiced any serious concerns to us about those of us still training at the graduate level!!! like, i’m trying to complete my comprehensive exams right now without access to ANY of the typical on-campus resources available to all other students in years before me—you’d think they’d adjust our time-to-degree timelines/expectations, or something, anything at all to acknowledge the extremely, historically stressful circumstances we are in. so disappointed in how everything has turned out—i agree that this is very revealing of how performative a lot of the seemingly radical, leftist rhetoric used by academia is. it’s easy for tenured professors and board members to play the good guy when they’re not actually asked to sacrifice anything or change their ways!