The faculty of the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies support our graduate students in their efforts to address the cost of living and the inadequacy of existing financial support for graduate students on campus. The rent burden experienced by many of our graduate students, lecturers, faculty, and staff has become untenable, and an increase in graduate student funding would benefit graduate student well-being, research, and teaching, which would in turn benefit our undergraduate students.
As a department, we will not penalize those who choose to participate in action related to cost-of-living adjustments. We will also not endorse disciplinary measures directed at graduate students for participation in such action. Moreover, the department will continue to recommend employment of teaching assistants as originally planned and will award graduate student fellowships independent of participation in campus actions.
We hope that all members of our community will continue to keep avenues of communication open and that our graduate students will come to faculty with any questions or concerns they have.
