Books and being assertive…
May 29th, 2007 by ailsa
This whole stack of books will be travelling with me soon. And I only bought one of them, the others belong to my book-hunter brother.
By the way, being assertive works 
About two weeks ago, a group of us, desperate doc students, brought up the issue of our stagnanted stipend to the faculty. I’ve never felt such unity and determination among our group. We came together and worked on a letter and a table of hard data, and submitted it to the chair of the department. Then the day came for our research forum where we met with the faculty. We were anxious to hear their responses, but when my own beloved advisor strongly stated that the stipend was not meant to cover all our living expenses and that we should find our own additional sources of funding (e.g., family, loan), that basically shot down all our hopes. So we left the meeting, a little crushed but life goes on.
Today, my advisor brought in my 2007/2008 funding letter, I needed to sign it before I leave so that I’ll get paid in the summer. However, in the letter was an unexpected surprise…I got a $100 raise!! It feels good that our concerns were not brushed aside. It feels even better that our efforts were not in vain.