Being a PhD student during this pandemic has left me completely jaded and questioning ‘what is the point?’ and ‘is everything performative?’
Thread 1/?

In the next 10 days I have two assignments, a take home stats exam, a 15 minute presentation, two reading memos, and two drafts of 15-20 page finals due.

I really think academia as a whole can and should have done more to protect some of the most vulnerable people on campus (ie grad students of color) during this pandemic.

We are being forced to choose between our mental health or our careers and it’s incredibly dehumanizing. We are people first. These grades and assignments are arbitrary. I cannot pay my rent w my transcript.

I can only imagine how this pandemic and the lack of support from universities will push marginalized grad students out of academia all together.

Not to mention those of us who are losing family members and have to deal w the stress and strain of being away from our families during all of this. Can we have time to grieve? It’s just too much.

And I hate to come off as ungrateful about the decisions made to modify the grading system or scaling back some of the readings but in reality the *totality of the workload* is the issue.

I have decided to have meetings w my professors to express how I’m struggling but I honestly feel like it shouldn’t have even gotten to this point. I shouldn’t have to plead my case about less coursework when all of us are working under such extreme conditions.

I’m tired. 9/9