Calling them "students" is not helping, the work is often part of their professors' output. Maybe should be called research apprentices/assistants/interns or just PhD candidates.

You could owe them both in one of the most expensive places in the US to live. Teaching the lower division courses you won’t touch should at least afford rent, groceries, and gas.

Oh and Berk also objects to DEI, how surprising coming from an Apartheid-era relic. He’s just another conservative, tenured piece of shit who likes riling up the student body.

He's another South African who grew up in the Apartheid era, and left South Africa around the time Apartheid ended. You can taste the vile Apartheid poison in all his work.

The Stanford University endowment includes real estate and other investments valued at $36.5 billion as of August 31, 2023,[1] and is one of the four largest academic endowments in the United States.[2] The endowment consists of $29.9 billion in a merged pool of assets and $6.6 billion of real estate near the main campus. Along with Stanford's pension assets, working capital, and non-cash gifts, the endowment is managed by Stanford Management Company (SMC), a Stanford-owned investment management company.[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_University_endowment

The same Stanford that charges $62k per year in tuition and is located in one of the most expensive areas in the U.S.? Maybe the grad students should commute from Wyoming in order to teach Professor Dickweed's classes for him so they can afford rent? The disconnect from reality is ridiculous.

I finished my Biochem PhD in 2023 and the only way I survived the 6 years of indentured servitude was by working from 2014 to mid 2017 in the pharmaceutical industry. I saved and invested every penny I could, then moved to Pittsburgh where the $23,500 pre tax stipend went a bit further. Also, graduate student in my department were banned from having any other jobs, and yes it was enforced. One of my cohort had got in serious trouble working at the museum and one had minor issues when they picked up a faculty member while driving Uber.

Weird. Here I thought having to work a full time job came at the expense of education. I have coworkers who only take once course per semester, because they literally have no time for more.

Then again, our mistake was being born into the working class. We should’ve tried being born into rich families that could provide for us during school instead.

Let him know what you think about it: jbberk@stanford.edu

Several generations were sold a lie about college being a necessity to move ahead in the world. Now people are calling these guys out on it and they're all surprised Pikachu face.

Hazing is the reason I decided not to become a doctor or an academic or a frat bro. Well, that and bad grades.

I agree that there's no right to a living wage, or any job at all. What there is a right to is basic income, whether it's in the form of negative taxes, jobs programs, or other means.