Together with Northwestern University Graduate Workers, the graduate students of the History department implore the University to deliver on its promise to fund sixth year graduate students. While welcome, the recent announcement of 6th and 7th year funding opportunities in the History department falls short of a guarantee, and leaves those of us who are early in the program feeling the same uncertainty as our colleagues across departments. The potential for limited funding opportunities to arise again for advanced doctoral students in the future not only distances Northwestern from professional practices in History, but would also inhibit graduate students in our department from establishing successful careers.

According to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a PhD in History takes about 7.2 years; across the humanities, 6.9. This extra time is by no means a matter of idleness. Northwestern’s History graduate students aim to graduate and secure promising lines of work as quickly as possible. However, in order to succeed in an increasingly cutthroat job market, graduate students are now required to go above and beyond completing a dissertation. While some students are required to commit significant time and resources to immersive language training and in-depth field research, each and every candidate is expected to present at conferences, publish articles, and build up significant teaching experience. In short, forcing students to rush to the job market with premature records and shallow experience places Northwestern graduates at a distinct disadvantage when vying for coveted positions.

To be sure, such practices also threaten the department’s reputation. Pressuring unprepared candidates to try their luck on an unstable job market will ultimately affect the department's long term ability to recruit the best graduate students. It is standard practice for History departments to post their graduate placement record. Prospective graduate students look at these placements when deciding between schools, and seeing a number of graduates still on the market due to lack of offers will not make the department (and by extension the university) look appealing. In particular, given the fact that federal loans become due after completing graduate school, prospective students skeptical of an institution’s ability to place recent PhDs in good academic jobs are likely to look elsewhere for admission.

Beyond the department and the university’s reputation, the lack of secured funding beyond the fifth year makes the History department inhospitable to graduate students who face structural and/or unforeseen barriers during their time at Northwestern and in the broader academic job market. Put simply, a system that pushes underprepared graduate students into a precarious job market favors the success of graduate students who are best able to weather financial and social insecurity; in other words, graduate students who are white, cis-male, heterosexual, able-bodied, US citizens, independently wealthy, childless, and healthy. The Graduate School states that a diverse graduate student population is a “key element of the educational experience of students in the Graduate School.” By ensuring that students from a range of social, economic, and cultural backgrounds and experiences are able to have the financial security to complete innovative research and compete meaningfully on the academic job market, sixth year funding would unquestionably further TGS’s initiatives for diversity and inclusion.  

The good news is that the University is in a position to guarantee sixth year funding now. Despite claims that a financial crisis requires the University to implement austerity measures, Northwestern's own reported numbers tell a much different story. Recent financial analyses highlight the exponential growth of the University’s unrestricted assets, investment returns, and overall endowment -- the latter of which is said reach “new heights” at $15.47 billion. Furthermore, we are well aware of the University’s practice of relying on external fellowships to subsidize graduate student funding. Instead of solely profiting from the merits of its students, the University could at the very least return to providing the kind of financial support that is most deserved and due. Surely a world-renowned research institution with such a sizable endowment doesn't need to cut corners by tightening the budget on student funding!

We acknowledge that the University has an interest in ensuring students do not take longer than they need to complete their degrees. The best way to do this is to ensure that we have the financial support to finish our degree on an appropriate schedule. Six years is still well below the median time to completion for PhDs in History (and the humanities overall). Funding students for six years provides graduate students crucial time to be prepared for the job market while also furthering the university's interest in incentivizing graduate students to graduate in a timely fashion. As winter quarter is coming to an end, receiving a guarantee of this funding will go a long ways to providing financial security for graduate students and our loved ones.

It is with these facts in mind that we, graduate students in the History Department, join with Northwestern University Graduate Workers in calling on Northwestern University to guarantee 6th year funding opportunities for all current and future graduate students in our department.