100 signatures reached
To: Grinnell College Administration
Grinnell College Lost Jobs
1. Create remote work positions for student workers who need jobs.
Although most student workers clearly will not be able to work in person, there is still a lot of important work that they could do remotely. This work includes developing resources and supporting peers in our difficult circumstances, projects that help the wider Grinnell community, and academic work that could give additional help to professors. Students could be hired both in remote versions of previously existing jobs and in new positions. It is important that students have the option to work, even if they receive grants for work-study awards. For one thing, many students already need to work more than their work-study awards to pay for essential living expenses, and the pandemic has only increased those expenses. Further, many students rely on the academic benefits and the work experience that on-campus jobs provide. Creating remote work opportunities for students is a win-win that will let students support themselves financially and will benefit the Grinnell community.
2. Expand grants to cover all students' need-based work-study awards as long as the COVID-19 pandemic affects Grinnell’s operations.
This fall, Grinnell College converted only half of work-study awards into grants, and the other half into optional loans. For the vast majority of student workers, these loans are not optional. The chance to pay-as-we-earn is an essential part of affording Grinnell for many student workers, and the need for work study credits has only increased during this recession. While unemployment remains high and a new wave of covid-related closures occurs, assuming that students can find employment where they live to replace the lost campus jobs is not reasonable. Telling students to pay up front with money they do not have or to take on additional debt is not a fair and equitable choice. Grinnell College is mistaken if it believes offering debt lessens the financial strain caused by student unemployment. However, there is a clear remedy for this mistake: during last spring semester, when students ceased work due to the pandemic, Grinnell College turned all remaining work-study awards into grants for student workers. This decision aligned with the college’s commitment to meet 100% of student financial need, and gave peace of mind to many student workers during a turbulent time. The current decision to offer so-called optional loans does not. As long as students' work-study is paused by the pandemic, the College needs to convert 100% of need-based work-study awards into grants.
3. Listen to student worker voices and input when creating student employment policy.
Students understand the jobs they work. Student workers provide essential insight into how existing employment can transform in response to COVID-19. We provide essential labor, for departments including but not limited to academics, IT, and Residence Life. We are the essential stakeholders in campus employment decisions. Yet Grinnell College has no student worker representatives helping manage the employment issues caused by COVID-19. These employment decisions, which could pause student employment within whole departments, will have repercussions across campus and need to be coordinated above the department-level. Our labor changes how students can live and how professors teach, and our input on labor issues is crucial for a smooth transition into remote learning. For these reasons, we demand a way for student workers to share their voices when decisions about their jobs are being made. We know the only way for student workers to have a true say in the college's decisions is through collective bargaining, which would be achieved through full expansion. We recognize that this is a longer struggle, in which the college has been resistant to recognize expansion even after a supermajority of student workers voted in favor, and in which UGSDW has not stopped fighting for all workers on campus regardless of legal status. In this spirit, we demand the college listen to the demands of student-workers who have lost their jobs, provide an audience for these workers to list their demands and take action to implement these demands immediately. We are also demanding timely communication from the college about which and how many remote employment opportunities are currently available to students.
Although most student workers clearly will not be able to work in person, there is still a lot of important work that they could do remotely. This work includes developing resources and supporting peers in our difficult circumstances, projects that help the wider Grinnell community, and academic work that could give additional help to professors. Students could be hired both in remote versions of previously existing jobs and in new positions. It is important that students have the option to work, even if they receive grants for work-study awards. For one thing, many students already need to work more than their work-study awards to pay for essential living expenses, and the pandemic has only increased those expenses. Further, many students rely on the academic benefits and the work experience that on-campus jobs provide. Creating remote work opportunities for students is a win-win that will let students support themselves financially and will benefit the Grinnell community.
2. Expand grants to cover all students' need-based work-study awards as long as the COVID-19 pandemic affects Grinnell’s operations.
This fall, Grinnell College converted only half of work-study awards into grants, and the other half into optional loans. For the vast majority of student workers, these loans are not optional. The chance to pay-as-we-earn is an essential part of affording Grinnell for many student workers, and the need for work study credits has only increased during this recession. While unemployment remains high and a new wave of covid-related closures occurs, assuming that students can find employment where they live to replace the lost campus jobs is not reasonable. Telling students to pay up front with money they do not have or to take on additional debt is not a fair and equitable choice. Grinnell College is mistaken if it believes offering debt lessens the financial strain caused by student unemployment. However, there is a clear remedy for this mistake: during last spring semester, when students ceased work due to the pandemic, Grinnell College turned all remaining work-study awards into grants for student workers. This decision aligned with the college’s commitment to meet 100% of student financial need, and gave peace of mind to many student workers during a turbulent time. The current decision to offer so-called optional loans does not. As long as students' work-study is paused by the pandemic, the College needs to convert 100% of need-based work-study awards into grants.
3. Listen to student worker voices and input when creating student employment policy.
Students understand the jobs they work. Student workers provide essential insight into how existing employment can transform in response to COVID-19. We provide essential labor, for departments including but not limited to academics, IT, and Residence Life. We are the essential stakeholders in campus employment decisions. Yet Grinnell College has no student worker representatives helping manage the employment issues caused by COVID-19. These employment decisions, which could pause student employment within whole departments, will have repercussions across campus and need to be coordinated above the department-level. Our labor changes how students can live and how professors teach, and our input on labor issues is crucial for a smooth transition into remote learning. For these reasons, we demand a way for student workers to share their voices when decisions about their jobs are being made. We know the only way for student workers to have a true say in the college's decisions is through collective bargaining, which would be achieved through full expansion. We recognize that this is a longer struggle, in which the college has been resistant to recognize expansion even after a supermajority of student workers voted in favor, and in which UGSDW has not stopped fighting for all workers on campus regardless of legal status. In this spirit, we demand the college listen to the demands of student-workers who have lost their jobs, provide an audience for these workers to list their demands and take action to implement these demands immediately. We are also demanding timely communication from the college about which and how many remote employment opportunities are currently available to students.
Why is this important?
Grinnell has stated that they want to maintain a high quality college experience and education, even though we face an international crisis. With that in mind, they are asking us to pay the same amount of tuition and take on the same amount of debt. Grinnell works because we do, and that hasn't changed because of the pandemic. Now more than ever, we need paid remote positions so we can pay for our education, broaden our post-graduate opportunities, and provide ourselves and our peers with the same academic, social, and structural support during a time when most things feel uncertain and unsafe.
