Villanova Graduate Students Seek Assistance
In March, doctoral students in philosophy and theology at Villanova University wrote to their administration seeking support in light of the economic effects of the COVID pandemic. Their request was acknowledged as received, but the semester is winding to a close and they’ve not yet heard much in response.
Villanova Campus
The students, who are on a 9-month salary, requested summer pay and a continuation of the $1000/year* health care stipend they recieve from the university in lieu of health insurance coverage. As summer approaches, they are worried about their precarious situation, and are calling on professors and students elsewhere to help them get the attention of the administration.
They are doing so via a “Statement of Solidarity” you can sign in support. At the time of this post it had close to 500 signatories:
The students are also circulating a series of testimonials about their past summer experiences as Villanova graduate students and their concerns about the upcoming summer.
* Initially this was mistakenly reported as a $1000/month health care stipend. My apologies for the error.
Thank you so much so posting on this! I’m one of the graduate students at Villanova that has been working on this and appreciate seeing news of this being spread is heartwarming to say the least. There is one small correction to be noted for what you said here, though: we are asking for a one-time extension of $1000 to help supplement healthcare costs over the summer. As it stands, we don’t receive any kind of healthcare waiver or any kind of subsidized access to healthcare via Villanova, but we only get a single $1000 ‘stipend’ ($500/semester) to help mitigate healthcare costs (whether that be insurance premiums, medical debts, emergency care, or anything else). So we are simply asking for an extension of that amount given that this is an unprecedented *health* crisis.
Put more simply, in terms of a health stipend we are asking for $1000/student for the whole summer (not $3000/student).
One last note: beyond the statement of solidarity you have posted in this article (which is meant to focus in on academic support), we also have a more general petition going around. Signatures and support on this would be welcome and very much appreciated as well: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/villanova-university-fund-philosophy-and-theology-doctoral-students-in-crisis
Again though, thank you so much for posting this.
Thanks for pointing out that error. I’ve now corrected the post.