Dean Norberto Grzywacz is in the process of implementing major changes to the work requirements for doctoral students on Georgetown's main campus. We are currently expected to work about 15 hours per week for our doctoral stipends. We are also allowed to work part-time at Georgetown for up to 5 hours per week, in order to gain professional experience and to earn extra money.

The new policy requires doctoral students to work up to 20 hours per week for our stipends (5 hours more per week), and forbids us from working the 5 hour/week part-time jobs allowed under the old policy. This new policy was designed without any input from Georgetown's doctoral students, nor were many faculty - including department chairs - involved in the decision.
 
This policy is harmful to doctoral students for a number of reasons:

------For many students, this policy could result in an increase in work without a proportionate increase in pay. If, under the current system, you are a doctoral student with only TA responsibilities - and no 5 hour/week side job - then your department can demand that you work 33.3% more hours per week next year, with only a 3.8% increase in your stipend.

------Doctoral students who currently have part-time, 5 hour/week jobs in addition to TA responsibilities will likely be making less money next year to do the same amount of work that they are currently doing.

------This policy is especially troubling for international students, who are legally allowed to work a maximum of 20 hours per week, either on- or off-campus. This policy will not only remove opportunities for international students to work in part-time jobs on campus, but will prohibit from taking any thesis-relevant paid or unpaid work off-campus.

------Since the Graduate School refrained from announcing this policy until the last minute, the policy will place substantial burdens on doctoral students who must scramble to find new apartments and make new childcare arrangements to accommodate their lower incomes and altered work schedules.

We strongly urge Dean Grzywacz to notify all doctoral students of these changes directly, so that we can have an open and public discussion about them.

We also demand that Dean Grzywacz delay these changes for at least one year. This will allow doctoral students and departments to have their rightful say in this policy change, and to work with the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences to find mutually acceptable solutions to the problems this new policy is intended to address.