‘Enormous Surge’ in Unions Reflects Disconnect Between Colleges and Graduate Employees

Andrew Eneim has a front-row seat to what he describes as the “leaky pipeline” of graduate school. Low stipends, high workloads, and “rampant” poor treatment force some students, particularly those without independent wealth, to drop out and give up their tenure-track dreams to pursue more-secure careers, said Eneim, a Ph.D. candidate in biophysics at the Johns Hopkins University. Such working conditions, he said, exacerbate higher ed’s struggle to diversify the faculty. Those concerns prompted Eneim and other Johns Hopkins graduate students to vote in favor of a union this spring. Johns Hopkins officials said in a message to the campus that they looked forward to working with the new union. Johns Hopkins isn’t alone.