We, the graduate workers of the French and Italian department, join NUGW and our colleagues across departments in calling on the administration to guarantee sixth year funding for all graduate students.

Northwestern’s own data about time to completion in the doctoral program in French and Francophone Studies shows that finishing in five years is all but unheard of. The average time of completion for graduate students in humanities programs is actually closer to seven years.  As our department accepts some of the best and brightest from around the world, we believe the average time to completion, over six years, is an accurate reflection of the time necessary to finish our program.

As graduate workers in a language program our research often requires language acquisition, international travel, archival work, and extensive time to process our research. Additionally, the demands of an increasingly competitive job market require that we balance teaching, applying for grants and fellowships, participating in and attending conferences, and publishing our work. Our teaching demands in particular are significant and time consuming.  The university depends upon graduate workers to teach a large number of undergraduate language courses, which translates, for us, into a required six quarters of teaching stand-alone classes that meet four days per week.  In addition to preparation and class time, we hold office hours outside of class and often spend time giving students additional support beyond these designated hours.

Struggling to secure uncertain funding, or going without funding, are detrimental to the mental health of graduate workers, who are already at significant risk of anxiety and depression related to our work. This stress can also negatively impact our research and prospects, and mean that our students may be denied teachers who are at their best. Guaranteeing sixth year funding would significantly reduce the stress graduate workers experience, and ensure that we can continue to do the research and teaching that have made Northwestern and our program so highly regarded.

We believe that it is also important to highlight that capping funding for graduate workers at the fifth year will also disproportionately impact international students, students with children, and other already vulnerable students. International graduate workers make up over fifty percent of our department, and these students face the prospect of having to leave the country before they have completed their degree if they cannot secure funding. Losing access to our home department, and the resources and opportunities being on campus provides, would be severely detrimental to our success on the job market.

We, the members of the French and Italian Department, call on Northwestern University’s administration to guarantee six full years of funding to all graduate student workers.