UPDATE: Jeremiah is enrolled - all out for Clew and Karina 9/28 at noon!

We have exciting updates regarding Jeremiah's case, and we're asking everyone who's in Providence to join us as we keep pushing for Karina and Clew: we're rallying 9-28 at 12pm at Brown's Main Green, from where we'll march to the School of Public Health to support Clew and Karina!

After our petition launched, Brown paid Jeremiah for the time he worked without pay this Summer. Combined with his GoFundMe and other support, this enabled Jeremiah to pay off his balance from last Spring and re-enroll as a student! He's no longer at risk of having to leave the US this term.

But Brown still hasn’t agreed to equal pay for equal work for tuition-paying masters grads, and we’re still fighting for Clew and Karina. We need to keep the pressure on: GLO is going ALL OUT for Clew and Karina!

-------

We formed our union at Brown because we need consistency, transparency and equity in completing our programs. We’ve fought for and won better compensation and rights as workers who Brown depends on, because we should all have a fair chance at completing our degrees.

We’ve taken on and won cases of grads being unfairly pushed out of their programs. Now three grads, all of whom have contributed their labor to Brown’s research and educational mission, are being forced out of their programs. Working with their stewards, they’ve exhausted every possible option to try to remain in school. Now we’re asking GLO members and supporters to stand together and demand that the University live up to its promise to support graduate students.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion doesn't end at a press release. Join us in telling Brown it must support the grads it accepts!

 

Jeremiah Zablon

Jeremiah is an international grad from Kenya in Brown’s Masters of Public Health program. After spending his life savings towards his tuition, he had planned to pay for the rest with support from his family, but recent economic crisis in Kenya has made that impossible.

Since then, Jeremiah has followed the University’s guidance in pursuing multiple different loan options to cover his tuition, including asking for a loan from Brown. Unfortunately, all of his applications were rejected. In the meantime, Jeremiah has worked as a research assistant throughout his first year.

Although masters grad researchers were originally part of GLO’s Bargaining Unit, the University has begun excluding masters grads who pay tuition, paying them significantly less money for the same work as PhD grads and arbitrarily cutting them out of our unit. GLO and the University are currently in arbitration over this dispute.

Jeremiah owes nearly $30,000 in tuition. However, he - like all tuition-paying grad workers - has not received equal pay for equal work.

Even worse, with Jeremiah unable to pay his tuition, the University has placed him on inactive status, meaning that he can’t be employed. This also threatens Jeremiah's student visa status. In June he was paid half as much as he had been promised, and then was not paid in July. In total, Jeremiah should have been paid nearly $12,000 more than he was.

Brown has made it impossible for Jeremiah to continue in his program without paying down his tuition. Because of his outstanding balance, Jeremiah also cannot retrieve his transcripts so that he can apply to a school that offers more substantive support for masters grads. Brown needs to recognize the value of masters grads’ labor, provide equal pay for equal work, and support Jeremiah so that he’s able to complete his program.

 

Karina Santamaria

Karina is a 7th-year doctoral grad in Public Health. Now that she’s nearly ready to defend her dissertation, she’s being forced to leave her program.

Due to extensive financial and health difficulties, Karina was granted an extension to complete her dissertation proposal in 2019. After defending her proposal and passing with revisions, she submitted her revised proposal three days late, and her program terminated her. She won reinstatement on appeal to the Graduate School — but on the condition that she be placed on indefinite warning status. The School took away the Brown-Wheaton fellowship that Karina had previously earned, depriving her of thousands of dollars to fund her research. 

Karina's warning status also made her ineligible for external grant funding, further preventing her from funding her research. These funding disruptions delayed Karina's research progress by over six months.

As a condition of her reinstatement, Karina was ordered by the Graduate School to focus solely on completing her dissertation, and to avoid “ancillary activities.” This meant that she was unable to secure a TAship, leaving her without income in her seventh year. She had to drive Uber to pay her rent and basic necessities for nearly four months, which she also spent searching for more reliable employment while working on her dissertation.

In May of 2021, Karina’s committee refused to let her proceed on her final papers, insisting that she needed to collect more survey data - which she could not afford to pay for. One year later, in May of 2022, they informed her she could proceed, giving her only a month to finish her papers. In such a short period of time, Karina was able to draft part of her dissertation but unable to finish her papers. Instead of providing her with time to finish, her program has canceled her dissertation defense. Karina is now facing removal from her program at the cusp of finishing her degree.

The punitive measures imposed by Karina’s indefinite warning status have sabotaged her progress throughout her degree. Now that she’s on the verge of finally finishing, she’s being kicked out. Tell the School of Public Health to give Karina three months to finish her final papers, and a chance to defend her dissertation.

 

Clew

Clew is entering their third year in the Brown/Trinity Masters of Fine Arts Theatre program. Actors like Clew in this program work six days a week making anywhere from $0 to $13k/year, acting in shows for both Brown/Trinity and Trinity Repertory Company. 

Clew’s program refuses to grant unpaid leave for professional opportunities, a discretionary policy that has impacted B/T grads in recent years. It’s especially deleterious for grads of color like Clew, who studies show have disproportionately fewer job opportunities in theatre. Clew has been in a production over the summer through October that actually pays them a living wage — an achievement that adds value to the program and should be celebrated. Instead, Clew’s request for professional leave was denied, and this impacts their ability to complete their MFA. At worst, they could be withdrawn and their MFA rendered incomplete.

Clew has since learned that their sister and only living immediate family member will need to undergo chemotherapy through December. Clew requested family leave so that they could care for their sister, but after a lengthy delay, this was also denied.

Clew’s colleagues have already begun to circulate this letter of support, demanding that the program accept Clew’s reasonable requests for leave. If B/T won’t pay its masters actors a livable wage, it’s doubly punishing to block grads like Clew from pursuing the professional opportunities they need to support themselves. It’s further absurd and cruel to deny anyone leave to be with a family member facing debilitating treatment for a life-threatening illness.

Clew needs one semester of unpaid leave to finish their show and be with their sister. Sign this petition and tell Brown to respect grad actors!