Yale teaching fellows are students
In August, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that graduate students at private universities like Yale, who assist with teaching and research as part of their education, are employees who have the right to unionize. This represents the third time in 16 years that the NLRB has changed its position on the issue. Yale has long been concerned that the current faculty-student relationship would become less productive and rewarding under a formal collective-bargaining regime in which professors would be “supervisors” of their graduate student “employees.”
The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences enrolls the world’s most promising students in its doctoral programs. Students choose Yale for the opportunity to study with an outstanding faculty and to take advantage of the university’s wide array of academic resources, generous financial aid, and comprehensive benefits. Teaching fellows typically lead a weekly discussion session or supervise a lab—a commitment of 10 or 20 hours a week—for one or more semesters, and are never required to teach for more than six semesters of the 12 they typically spend at Yale. Independent of any teaching responsibilities, PhD students get full funding of their annual tuition ($39,800 in 2016–17). They also receive a stipend of about $30,000 each year, access to research funds, and free health care. Over six years, the total value of this support equals nearly $375,000 for a single PhD student. For a student with a family, the support totals more than $445,000.
Preventing flu in cancer patients
Andrew Branagan, MD (investigative medicine) has won a $100,000 Clinical Scholar Award from the American Society of Hematology to support his research on an influenza vaccination strategy for patients with plasma cell disorders.
Normally, plasma cells in the blood produce many different antibodies to fight infectious microorganisms. In plasma cell disorders, malignant cells multiply uncontrollably and secrete abnormal antibodies, disrupting the immune system. This makes flu infections six times more common than in the general population. Branagan is studying a two-dose series of high-dose vaccine. Results from a pilot clinical trial suggest that this strategy is safe and leads to very high rates of protective antibodies and fewer than expected cases of flu.
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