There may be this passage from Camus’s The Insurgent that I taught to my college students a few years in the past and has caught with me ever since. Speaking about rise up towards The Absurd, Camus says that “the logic of the insurgent is to need to serve justice in order to not add to the injustice of the human situation, to insist on plain language in order to not improve the common falsehood, and to wager, regardless of human distress, for happiness.”
I’m a philosophy grad scholar at Temple College. Our graduate scholar union, TUGSA, has been negotiating with the administration for over a yr with no contract and, because of the administration’s refusal to offer us with a wage and advantages that can permit us to stay within the metropolis the place we research, educate, and analysis, we’ve been on strike for over a month now (to study extra in regards to the strike, click here). Our relationship with the administration shares similarities with “the confrontation between human want and the unreasonable silence of the world” that Camus says offers rise to The Absurd. Nonetheless, these making an attempt instances have introduced out the true spirit of our philosophical group and taught us an vital lesson in belief and solidarity between college and college students.
Graduate faculty expertise could be very a lot characterised by the relationships between college and graduate college students, being these important for mentoring, securing letters of advice, networking, and even simply receiving beneficial skilled and private recommendation. Due to this fact, the danger placing college students face could be very vital, because it extends past the suspension of stipends (or, within the case of Temple’s harsh makes an attempt to bust the strike, medical insurance and tuition remission as nicely). The choice to strike will not be well-received by all, particularly in departments like ours that closely depend on graduate college students as instructors of document (quite than as Educating Assistants or graders). School in these departments are instantly affected by the strike, encountering apparent difficulties in fulfilling their instructing and analysis duties. Some college students in some departments at Temple have, sadly, skilled such a scarcity of solidarity from college, which will definitely impression their relationships lengthy after the present deadlock with the administration is over.
Regardless of the challenges we face, the philosophy division is main by instance, prioritizing group values and heeding Camus’s name to make use of plain language to handle injustice. Since all graduate scholar staff within the division, together with each union members and non-union members, went on strike on January 31, now we have not solely strengthened {our relationships} with each other however with our college as nicely, culminating in philosophy turning into the primary division to publicly declare its backing of graduate college students, as demonstrated on this latest assertion:
As members of the Division of Philosophy college, we assist the calls for of the Temple College Graduate College students’ Affiliation (TUGSA) of their present contract negotiations with the College. We additionally strongly oppose the College’s revocation of placing graduate college students’ tuition and medical insurance advantages. Our graduate college students depend on Temple medical insurance to satisfy their fundamental healthcare wants. Instantly threatening the well being and welfare of members of our scholar physique evidences a disregard for our group and undercuts the College’s claims to care about fairness.
Graduate staff are a key a part of our division and our college: with out them, we aren’t capable of full our personal analysis, mentor undergraduate college students, or successfully educate college students in our programs. For over a yr, TUGSA has put ahead proposals to make sure honest wages, working circumstances, dependent well being care protection, and depart insurance policies for graduate TAs and RAs. These proposals would enhance the lives of graduate staff, in addition to benefiting our division and enhancing the standard of undergraduate instruction.
We consider that the members of TUGSA, even whereas they’re on strike, stay Temple graduate college students, and we hope that the College will chorus from unnecessarily harsh or disrespectful therapy of them.
Eli Alshanetsky, Philip Atkins, Katie Brennan, César Cabezas, Lee-Ann Chae, Eugene Chislenko, Paul Crowe, Kristin Gjesdal, Espen Hammer, Brian Hutler, Miriam Solomon, and David Wolfsdorf
Division of Philosophy, Temple College
The solidarity and profound sense of belief which have emerged inside our division in latest weeks are essential not just for making a optimistic graduate faculty expertise, but in addition for fostering an atmosphere of respect, kindness, and mutual recognition that enables for significant relationships and good philosophy. The arrogance within the values we share and the goodwill now we have for each other are constructing the foundations for a stronger division the place we are able to flourish. I’m assured it will final lengthy after we win.
Eli Benjamin Israel
Eli Benjamin Israel is a philosophy PhD scholar at Temple College, and beginning in July, a member of the APA’s Graduate Scholar Council. His major analysis pursuits are within the discipline of ethical philosophy, with a historic give attention to Kant, in addition to on modern debates regarding autonomy, the function of needs in sensible reasoning, and the character of consent in interpersonal relationships
