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Local 33 leader Eckert-Erdheim: “Transparency, accountability” needed.
Preparing for a possible pandemic spread and mental health crisis on campus, Yale is hiring “public health coordinators” to provide “on-site crisis intervention and emergency management” for undergraduate students living on campus.
Those coordinators will be graduate and professional students with three weeks of training under their belt by the start of the academic year, if all goes according to plan.
Graduate students have been hearing about the job opportunity via emails from various academic departments since July 22. According to the job description, training is expected to begin on Aug. 3.
The public health coordinators will live on campus with undergraduates and will respond to “student emergencies and critical incidents related to the health and safety of students,” according to the job description. They will be supervised by a professional from Yale Mental Health and Counseling as well as the Office of Student Affairs.
Yale is aiming to hire 15 of these coordinators, one to live on Old Campus and one within each undergraduate residential college. They will not be residing with students self-isolating due to Covid exposure, according to Alison Cole, the director of development at Yale, who is reviewing applications for the position.
Compensation for public health coordinators will take the form of a $2,600 stipend per semester in addition to free room and board within undergraduate dormitories. “Should the college go to a completely remote mode the PHC will maintain access to their room through the end of the specified period, if guidelines so allow, but no other compensation will then be provided,” the job description reads.
Kathleen Galo, a senior administrative assistant in the Graduate School Dean’s office, wrote that the job “represents a good opportunity for students unable to teach” in an email asking department administrators to forward the opportunity to their students.
Some grad students disagreed.
“The pay is absolutely meager — 5,200 bucks for the year and they will cut that off if undergrads move out,” said Kate Needham, who is pursuing a PhD in English at Yale. “Even covering housing and meals — that’s not really compensation, that’s a condition of what this job would be.”
Needham expressed concern over the safety of grad students living with undergraduates during a pandemic. While Yale has committed to de-densifying dormitories through its reopening plan, the extent to which groups of students will be spread apart and socially distancing from one another remains unclear.
All students, including grad students, are required to sign the “Yale Community Compact,” a commitment to following public health measures such as regular testing and certain social distancing practices. The compact does not offer rules or guidance about the number of guests that undergraduates can invite to their dorms, although it does ask students to follow unspecified “protocols for group gatherings both indoors and outdoors.”
Needham noted that most graduate students aren’t trained in public health enforcement or mental health counseling. She also questioned whether enough people would apply for the job, as many grad students have already signed leases in New Haven for the year.
“I am suspicious that the move to let students back is mostly a financial one for Yale, and that these kinds of positions might be more about making Yale appear to have done due diligence in making those spaces safe,” she said.
Tess Grogan, another English grad student, wrote over email that the move to hire graduate students as public health coordinators seemed to be prioritizing “Yale’s bottom line.” “To me, the wording of the letter we received was a sign that Yale is moving ahead with residential reopening without acknowledging just how dangerous that choice is, the degree to which it is a choice that the university is making, and the disproportionate level of risk local employees will have to take on as a result,” she wrote.
“It seems to be intended to appeal to graduate workers who are in the most precarious position,” Adam Waters, a history grad student, said of the job. Waters is an organizer with Concerned and Organized Graduate Students (COGS) at Yale, a group advocating for grad student extensions in light of the Covid-19 crisis. Given the short notice and the low stipend, he suggested that the job would be most appealing to “people who have currently not secured housing for the fall or spring, people who have not been able to secure teaching or some form of paid employment, people who are otherwise facing financial insecurity.”
Waters said that many graduate students who had planned to do research off campus are now remaining in New Haven due to pandemic-era travel restrictions, with canceled funding and no guarantee of a teaching job.
“I’m not in the nursing school. I’m not in the med school. I don’t work in Yale New Haven Hospital,” he said. “It scares me that graduate workers who are not trained to be medical professionals or public health professionals are going to be responsible for taking care of undergraduates.”
Lena Eckert-Erdheim — the co-president of Local 33, the union representing Yale graduate students — criticized the job posting as well as Yale’s reopening plan as a whole.
Based on a survey of graduate students from earlier the summer, she wrote in a statement, “grad workers said loud and clear that we do essential work at Yale, and we deserve resources and protections to do our jobs safely, including the option to opt out of in-person activity. Undergraduates and grad workers deserve adequate and well-funded healthcare, not stopgap measures. We need transparency and accountability from the administration. This new plan provides neither.”
Read the full job posting here.
How It Will Work
Alison Cole (pictured) responded by email to questions from the Independent. The questions and answers follow.
What kind of crisis intervention and emergency management do you foresee the job entailing? Will it involve mental health support as well as Covid-related supervision?
The public health coordinators’ role, in all situations, will be to coordinate students, staff, and resources, and to serve as a knowledgeable person who can answer questions. They will be well trained and well acquainted with the network of deans, counselors, and clinicians across campus.
What will it mean for Public Health Coordinators to be “on duty”?
The team of 15 PHCs will work together to ensure that someone is always available to students.
Does the job entail enforcement of the Yale Community Compact?
Their job is to help students understand the compact and how to abide by it.
How does this job interact with the Froco [first year counselor] position within residential colleges?
The position will be a part of the residential college team, which includes the heads, deans, and first-year counselors. The first-year counselors support first-year students, providing broad mentorship, whereas the PHCs will support all students in this one area.
What brought about the decision to seek out grad students for this job?
Graduate and professional school students already work closely with undergraduates in the classroom, and this work builds naturally on that foundation.
What will the training entail and how long will training last?
The training will be led by Yale College’s Office of Student Affairs, with support from Yale Health. Topics will include life in the residential colleges, the community compact, and infection prevention strategies, including the use of personal protective equipment.
Is the Development Office in charge of running the Public Health Coordinator program? Is this a centralized program or will the coordinators be supervised by Heads of College and Deans within each college?
Alison Cole, in her role as a member of Yale College’s senior management team, led the effort to start and support the program, but once it is launched it will report to the Office of Student Life and be a part of the residential college teams.
Have you been receiving applications for the job?
Yes, many of them from graduate and professional students who worked in residence life as undergraduates.
Do you anticipate hiring enough people by then? Are there plans to supplement or change the position if not enough individuals apply?
I expect that we will be able to hire enough people by the start date.
Could you talk a bit more about what you are looking for in candidates?
Ideally, the public health coordinators are good communicators who are organized, approachable, and able to connect with students. At heart, they are educators.