Grad students stage walkout as Queen’s considers cutting award

On Friday, grad students at Queen’s University staged a walkout after learning that the university is considering removing the Queen’s Graduate Award (QGA) that is distributed to master’s students.

The award represents a $4,100 stipend granted to master’s student, and Queen’s says its removal would save the university $3.5 million annually.

Grad students and supporters gathered in front of Richardson Hall on Friday in protest of that decision, although Queen’s has said at this time nothing is final.

A statement from the Society of Graduate and Professional Students (SGPS) says that Queen’s Senior Leadership Team approved a series of cost-cutting and fundraising efforts at a September 17 meeting, and were shocked to see the QGA proposed as a potential cut.

They say such a cut will shift more of the financial burden of education onto grad students, and disproportionately affect marginalized communities while compromising both the research and education delivered by grad students.

“The estimated $3.5 million savings it would generate come at too high of a cost to our academic and research mission. Any realized savings would likely be diminished by a loss of tuition from reduced enrolment and other negative impacts,” the statement from SGPS reads.

“Our community has been advocating for increased graduate funding for some time, and we are all too aware of the hardships caused by the existing inadequacies in financial support. We cannot imagine the further detrimental and counterproductive consequences this proposal would have on an already struggling community.”

SGPS says stipends are already not enough to adequately support grad student workers, and the university is looking to move in the wrong direction with this proposed cut.

In its own statement last week attributed to Provost Matthew Evans, Queen’s says the average stipend that a master’s student receives is currently good for 5th among the U15 Group of Canadian Research Universities, and third-highest in the U6.

The statement says even with this reduction the stipend offered by Queen’s would be competitive, and the university says it would intend to eventually reinvest those savings into graduate students.

“This measure would result in an annual cost savings of $3.5 million for the university, and over the longer term, enable the university to reinvest funds in PhD student programming and stipends,” Evans said.

“Queen’s would not only remain ranked in the top 10 of U15 for master’s funding, but fifth in the U6 as well. Through reinvestment in PhD funding, it would also allow the university to improve its overall ranking for PhD funding in the range of third to sixth position within the U15 Group of Canadian Research Universities.” 

While SGPS and PSAC 901 – the union representing grad student workers – have accused the university of making this decision behind their backs in secret, Evans’ statement says a final decision will be broadly circulated if made official.

PSAC 901 President Jake Morrow says grad students argue that a cut like this will have an impact on the university’s stated Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Indigeneity (EDII) initiatives, and that the university has essentially told them to prove it.

While SGPS has put forward an effort of collecting personal attestation from grad students on how the loss of this award will impact them, Morrow says PSAC 901 doesn’t believe it’s the responsibility of grad students to prove that, and that is should in fact be common knowledge.

“This is obviously asking the community who is being affected by these cuts to do the work of proving that they are disadvantaged by the decision-making of the upper-level administrators of this university who have time and again used their standing in this university to enrich themselves to exorbitant degrees,” Morrow said.

“If they think that there needs to be work done to understand if there’s a connection between those folks affected and the stated goals of equity, diversity, inclusion and indigeneity, then what are they doing running a university? This is not a kindergarten classroom. We all know about systemic racism here.”

Morrow says PSAC 901 is calling on the resignation of Principal Patrick Deane, Vice-Principal of Finance and Administration Donna Janiec, and Provost and Vice-Principal (Academic) Matthew Evans in light of their decision to consider making this cut, which the university did not respond to.