REAL graduate student funding data: Minimum packages provided by each department, SGS 2011-2012

Well, you can rest assured there are people who get $0 a year. A lot of people past 5 years, at an increasing rate up to 10 years. When you hear of a graduate student doing 6 TAships at a time at UTSC? that's a student past their funding limit. Also, any graduate student who's spent a lot of time teaching courses - either because the time spent drove them over 5 years, or conversely they're doing it because they need the money.

I honestly have no clue how many get $15K a year. Everybody in my department is is between $0 or ~$17k for MScs. The people in departments I collaborate with are between $0 and like ~$19K? I've met people who say they get $15K from the arts and humanities, but ... honestly, I'm a data fiend too, but being in computational biology, I've gotten used to the idea of dealing with shoddy data. I think the best you can expect is either something like this, a summary doc of mins or averages or mins-maxes, or a (possibly biased) self-reporting of funding levels. I think there's an effort underway to produce that, but it'll take time, and it'll be self-reported and such.

IF the university has the data, they're sitting on it hard. As /u/champben98 says, the university admin told the grad student funding committee that they did not have such data. The union tells me that the university insisted they didn't have the data, and now they're PO-ed that suddenly that letter came out that indicated they did have that data.


Also, again, can I say, I really think the bigger issue is the $0 beyond the funding limit. I'm unclear as to why the $15000 exactly became the focus, whether that was what the union decided to push for at some point or whether the university is hammering the point in the media or what? But goddamn, I'm in year 5, and I have NO guess as to how much money I may receive next year. And I feel like I'm getting punished for spending time in student government, teaching courses, doing extra TAships, running TA training, helping run our undergraduate summer research program, trying to improve my department's culture, organizing departmental events, etc, etc,.

I mean, I'll come right out here on Reddit and fully admit this: I was in fucking tears earlier today, practically throwing a goddamned shit-fit at a departmental graduate student event, because it has been a long long time since I felt this minimized and reduced as an individual. I'm a fucking Internet troll, and I can't recall the last time someone's made me feel as bad as Cheryl Regehr, with the complicity of many others, has. I have never asked for more than my $17000 or $19000. I have tried to decline extra TA pay when I worked over hours. I tried to insist on not getting paid for TA training work. I'll hang around for extra hours marking exams until midnight with my profs so they can go home to their families AND return the exams to the students ASAP. I can't imagine what I've done to Cheryl Regehr or the university admin or all the undergraduates who now hate me for some reason to deserve this.

... sorry, I'm getting emotional and ranty again. (What is this, LiveJournal?) I'm just saying. I don't speak for the union. I sure as hell don't speak for all the people who make less money than I do. But I don't want more money. I just want some goddamned respect.

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