Opinion
Wednesday, February 8, 2023 — 9
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

On Jan. 10, University of 
Michigan 
President 
Santa 
Ono held a talk to discuss the 
University’s 
record 
on 
and 
aspirations for the ideals of 
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. 
Members 
of 
the 
Graduate 
Employees’ 
Organization 
were outside holding a picket 
to call attention to how the 
University 
has 
created 
a 
crisis 
of 
affordability 
and 
unsafe 
working 
conditions 
for 
graduate 
workers. 
This 
situation 
disproportionately 
affects graduate workers from 
marginalized 
backgrounds 
and 
is 
directly 
counter 
to 
the 
University’s 
crucial 
commitment to DEI. Graduate 
workers have been fighting for 
months for a contract that would 
hold the University accountable 
to that commitment and ensure 
affordability and dignity for all 
graduate workers.
Our bargaining platform is 
motivated by one transformative 
idea: Being a graduate student 
at the University should be 
possible 
for 
everyone, 
not 
just those who have access to 
generational wealth. That’s why 
dozens of graduate students 
spent hundreds of hours putting 
together a set of demands that 
would make life as a graduate 
student here in Ann Arbor both 
affordable and dignified for 
all of us. Our platform would 
guarantee a baseline living wage 
for graduate student workers 
while also providing additional 
support to certain groups of 
workers, such as parents and 
international students, whose 
cost of living can be much 
higher. We’re also calling for 
policies 
that 
would 
reduce 
vulnerability 
to 
harassment, 
including a transitional funding 
program for graduate students 
to 
escape 
abusive 
advisors 
(and other relationships) and 
funding 
for 
a 
community-
based, 
non-police, 
unarmed 

response program. These are 
common-sense reforms that the 
University can implement by 
using a tiny fraction of its vast 
material resources.
The 
centerpiece 
of 
our 
platform — a living wage of 
$38,838 a year — would make 
life as a graduate student in Ann 
Arbor livable for those who are 
not independently wealthy. The 
gap between the cost of living in 
Ann Arbor and what graduate 
student 
instructors 
typically 
make in a year has been growing 
ever since the pandemic. While 
GSIs were “only” facing a deficit 
of $5,240 when our current 
contract came into force in 
2020, now — at the end of our 
contract’s lifecycle — we’re 
facing a gap of $14,484, more 
than 60% of our total salary. 
For many graduate students, 
the $24,053 we currently get 
for teaching in the fall and 
winter semesters is all we have 
to live on for the entire year. 
The vast majority of us — fully 
80% — pay more than 30% of 
our salaries in rent each month, 
meaning our rent burdens are 
unaffordable according to the 
U.S. Department of Housing and 
Urban Development. A graduate 
student paying the average Ann 
Arbor rent of $1,912 a month 
would have only $1,109 left over 
for the entire year. For graduate 
students who can’t rely on 
family wealth for support — and 
especially for those graduate 
students who have to support 
their families themselves — the 
current salary is barely even 
enough to scrape by. The 2% 
annual raise proposed by the 
University in the most recent 
bargaining session — which 
represents an effective wage 
cut in real terms given current 
levels of inflation — does not 
even come close to addressing 
the serious financial shortfall 
grad students are facing.
For large sections of our 
membership, however, even that 
living wage is not enough. Equity 
means giving additional support 
to those whose cost of living 

is higher. Disabled graduate 
students shouldn’t have to risk 
going into overdraft to pay for 
treatment for chronic health 
conditions. Similarly, given the 
well-documented mental health 
crisis among graduate students, 
we should have access to vital 
mental health care without 
onerous copays. An emergency 
fund for international graduate 
student 
workers 
(something 
already available at Harvard) 
would mean that international 
graduate 
students 
wouldn’t 
have to worry about covering 
unexpected 
visa 
costs 
or 
purchasing 
an 
expensive 
plane ticket home in case of a 
family 
emergency. 
Breaking 
down 
barriers 
to 
accessing 
transgender 
health 
care 
would 
reduce 
the 
financial 
and 
emotional 
costs 
that 
trans graduate students have 
to bear if they are to avail 
themselves of this lifesaving 
care. 
And 
a 
centralized, 
common 
application 
would 
make GSI positions and their 
accompanying tuition waivers — 
a crucial lifeline that can make 
increasingly expensive Master’s 
degrees possible for those who 
aren’t independently wealthy 
— 
more 
accessible. 
If 
the 
University wants people from 
marginalized social positions 
to be part of this community, it 
needs to make graduate school 
work for everyone.
Getting serious about equity 
also 
means 
addressing 
the 
way the University currently 
undervalues “feminized labor” 
— care work that is traditionally 
(though not exclusively) done 
by 
women. 
Activists 
and 
scholars have long argued that 
such work is underpaid, if it 
is compensated at all. Indeed, 
a big part of the struggle is 
getting those in power to even 
acknowledge that this kind of 
labor is work, and therefore 
worthy of compensation. Our 
platform addresses this issue in 
two important ways. 
First, we’re demanding a 
minimum wage of $20 per hour 

for the mandatory, unpaid, field 
placement 
internships 
that 
Master of Social Work students 
must do as part of their degrees. 
Social workers as a whole 
are 
already 
underpaid 
and 
overworked, and according to 
Aerie Davey, a former U-M MSW 
student, “it sends a message that 
the work we do is not valuable, 
which is a lie. And I would also 
say … it’s misogynistic, as well, 
in this predominantly woman-
dominated field.” Unlike in 
the woman-dominated School 
of 
Social 
Work, 
mandatory 
internships in the Ross School 
of Business and the Ford School 
of Public Policy are typically 
compensated. 
The second way our platform 
addresses 
the 
University’s 
undervaluing 
of 
“feminized 
labor” is through our childcare 
demands. 
Right 
now, 
the 
childcare 
subsidy 
eligibility 
requirements exclude any care 
that is not done by a licensed 
childcare provider. The work 
of childcare does not stop being 
work if it is done by a family 
member, a neighbor or a nanny. 
All childcare labor is work and 
deserves to be compensated as 
such. That’s why we’re calling 
for the University to remove 
the licensed care requirement, 
as it did during the height 
of the COVID-19 pandemic. 
Even the loftiest speech about 
equity 
counts 
for 
nothing 
if the University refuses to 
compensate care workers.
Our 
platform 
would 
also 
make campus more inclusive 
by addressing the widespread 
harassment, discrimination and 
abuse that disproportionately 
targets the most marginalized 
people at the University. High-
profile cases of harassment 
and 
assault 
are 
only 
the 
most 
prominent 
indicators 
of 
the 
University’s 
culture 
of 
harassment. 
Our 
2021 
membership survey found that 
up to 29% of female graduate 
students 
had 
been 
sexually 
harassed at the University, and 
at least one in four grad students 

of color had experienced racism, 
with even higher rates among 
disabled, Black, LGBTQIA+ and 
economically 
disadvantaged 
graduate 
students. 
We 
propose a no-questions-asked 
transitional funding program 
that would provide at least one 
semester of funding so that 
graduate students could escape 
abusive advisor (and other) 
relationships. This would build 
on a similar but limited program 
already established by LSA. 
For too many, police are 
also a source of harassment, 
discrimination and abuse. Our 
membership 
survey 
showed 
that over a quarter of students 
had negative interactions with 
DPSS, with higher rates among 
Black 
graduates. 
The 
vast 
majority of DPSS activity is not 
in response to violence but rather 
to situations that do not require 
armed police officers. There is 
an urgent need for a non-police, 
unarmed alternative to police 
to address public safety needs 
— and the community-based 
Coalition 
for 
Re-envisioning 
Our Safety has been doing 
just that for over a year; CROS 
received 
endorsements 
from 
GEO and more than 40 other 

organizations. CROS’ evidence-
based public safety program 
would serve all of Washtenaw 
County, 
including 
the 
Ann 
Arbor campus, so we’re calling 
on the University to pay its fair 
share to support this innovative 
and exciting new initiative.
Taken 
together, 
these 
proposals would make graduate 
school 
significantly 
more 
inclusive 
and 
equitable 
by 
the beginning of the 2023-24 
academic year. As graduate 
workers, we recognize that our 
struggles 
are 
interconnected 
and that we must fight for a 
campus and community in which 
people from all backgrounds 
can not only survive but thrive. 
The common-sense reforms in 
our platform would support the 
greater diversity on campus that 
is so urgently needed. 
In setting out the University’s 
new workplace values, President 
Ono said, “words are not enough 
— our behaviors matter.” We 
couldn’t agree more and hope 
that his administration will stay 
true to its commitments to DEI 
and work with us to make these 
proposals a reality.

GRADUATE EMPLOYEES 
ORGANIZATION

Snow reason not to: Embrace your inner child

Meaningful DEI must include affordability and 
dignity for all grad workers for Michigan

F

ive inches can mean a lot. 
For some, it can mean 
an extra layer of warm 
clothing, a longer drive to work 
or a trip to get some gas for the 
snow plow that’s gone unused 
for suspiciously long. 
For students at the University 
of 
Michigan, 
it 
meant 
assembling on the Diag for a 
snowball fight of spectacular 
proportions. 
I happened to join the snowy 
spectacle after an hour and a 
half of Calc II. As I exited Mason 
Hall, students suffused the Diag 
from corner to corner, laughing, 
smiling and hurling snowballs of 
all shapes and sizes into the air. 
Two opposing walls of students, 
having formed near the north 
end, engrossed themselves in 
endless, lighthearted combat.
For me, the scene was similar 
to elementary school recess. 
No one was preoccupied with 
who they were playing with, 
nor with what happened and 
what didn’t. Almost nothing 
mattered, except one thing: the 
ephemeral pursuit of happiness. 
Hundreds of students put aside 
the looming responsibilities of 
school, work and their future to 
just have fun, like children do. 
Oftentimes we spend our 
whole lives doing our best to 
grow up as fast as possible. 
Rituals, 
calendars, 
clothes 
and sometimes the occasional 
piercing or tattoo have readied 
people 
for 
their 
entrance 
into 
adulthood 
throughout 
human history. We reject our 
perceived immaturity in pursuit 
of adulthood, abandoning our 
childlike tendencies in pursuit 
of 
our 
desired 
destination 
in 
the 
social 
structure. 
Sometimes, though, acting “like 
a child” is not a bad thing. The 
commonly-held 
connection 
between childlike actions and 
immaturity is grounded in weak 
foundations 
and 
completely 
undermines any benefits that 

come along with its associated 
actions. 
Someone might tell their 
friend who just made a dick joke 
to “stop being so immature.” On 
the other hand, another person 
might 
tell 
their 
significant 
other who repeatedly refuses 
to leave the toilet seat down the 
same thing. Despite being two 
completely different situations, 
immaturity as a concept is used 
to hurl insults and invalidate 
the opinions and credibility of 
others. 
In addition to the negative 

air surrounding the concept, 
there exists a commonly-held 
connection between immaturity 
and certain childlike actions. In 
the Oxford Advanced Learner’s 
Dictionary, 
for 
example, 
immaturity 
is 
defined 
as 
behavior “typical of people who 
are much younger.” However, 
the actions and behavior of 
young people exist on a very 

wide spectrum, ranging from 
benign to objectively harmful, 
rendering 
this 
umbrella 
definition useless. 
On the more good-natured 
side of the spectrum exists 
the tendency for children and 
younger people to humorize 
situations 
that 
might 
not 
always be overtly humorous. An 
example of this could be seen 
in any sex education course in 
middle school or high school, 
where laughter and humor is 
often conjoined with education. 
Adults who might exhibit the 

same behaviors are scolded 
for their “lack of maturity” 
when dealing with the topic. 
While this behavior might be 
childlike, it’s not inherently bad 
and doesn’t deserve the negative 
connotation that comes with the 
label of immaturity. 
However, 
there 
definitely 
are childlike behaviors that 
rightfully 
carry 
a 
negative 

connotation. 
Egocentricity, 
behavior 
that 
is 
inherently 
selfish, is a trait often seen in 
children and adolescents. If 
egocentric behavior continues 
throughout 
adolescence 
and 
adulthood, the lack of empathy 
can lead to an array of adverse 
consequences. 
The 
connection 
between 
the concept of immaturity and 
childlike behavior is grounded 
in the idea that, as we grow 
older, we grow out of our 
childlike behavior in order to 
contribute positively to society. 

In this way, a negative attitude 
is attached to all childlike 
behavior because it is seen 
as something that should not 
persist into adulthood, even 
when there are clear benefits to 
those behaviors. 
As children, we often find 
ourselves ceaselessly enamored 
with things that, to an adult, 
might seem trivial or worthless. 

The telephone poles next to a 
highway, someone in a poorly-
made costume of a superhero 
and a heavy snowfall are all 
things that most older people 
wouldn’t bat an eye at, but to 
a child it fosters wonder and 
curiosity. Similarly, this interest 
extends to the tasks they want 
to accomplish. A child could 
care less about how it might 
be impossible to build a 7-foot-
tall sandcastle, so long as the 
water from the shoreline falls 
short of attempting to sabotage 
their efforts. They are only 

occupied with the task in front 
of them and the pursuit of its 
completion. 
When 
we 
embrace 
this 
part of our inner child, we 
find ourselves in a headspace 
that puts us in a position 
intentionality free from the 
stress of outside forces. Honing 
in on this mindset can allow 
us to approach all of our tasks 

and problems, no matter how 
numerous 
or 
stressful, 
one 
at a time. These actions, that 
fall 
under 
the 
colloquially 
understood idea of immaturity, 
make 
us 
forget, 
even 
if 
temporarily, some of the more 
stressful tasks of adulthood. 
The snowball fight in the 
Diag wasn’t just a case of 
students finding something to 
do in spite of the harsh weather 
conditions. It was a microcosm 
of the potential good that 
embracing the wondrous nature 
of your inner child can give you. 
When you only focus on the 
task ahead of you, even if it’s as 
menial as aiming your snowball 
at just the right angle, you find 
yourself in a world where only 
that task exists, which allows 
you to approach it as if it was the 
only thing that truly mattered in 
the world. 
When applied to other areas of 
our life, this “immature” tunnel 
vision can give us the power 
and courage to face life head-
on. It can range from focusing 
on one step of one problem of 
one homework assignment, to 
focusing on one sentence of one 
text to one person. Either way, 
allowing yourself to focus on 
nothing but the goal ahead of 
you can help you feel free from 
all else that might be weighing 
on you. 
It’s still true, though, that 
this tunnel vision is inherently 
immature. But, this facet of 
immaturity 
is 
a 
strength. 
Immaturity itself can be harmful 
at times, but at other times it can 
provide a helpful, optimistic 
approach to life and its tasks. 
Embracing your inner child 
can mean a lot. For some, it 
can be making a phallic joke 
at the beginning of an article, 
marveling at the simple beauty of 
the world or carrying a youthful 
optimism despite the harshness 
of reality. 
For University of Michigan 
Students on Jan. 25, it was 
assembling in the Diag for a 
snowball fight of spectacular 
proportions.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

ZHANE YAMIN
Senior Opinion Editor

Jenna Hickey/Daily

Alarming

Design by Edith Hanlon

