An anonymous chalk message in the CFA, c/o Yuliana Alejandra Martínez-Rico
Dear Wesleyan community,
As part of an intercultural exchange and teaching-learning program, Wesleyan receives a group of Foreign Language Teaching Assistants (FLTAs) from different countries around the world each year. With different backgrounds, stories, and mother-tongues, the current cohort of FLTAs brings together women from Colombia, Taiwan, Spain, Korea, Japan, France, Italy, India, Algeria, and Germany. Wesleyan has three kinds of FLTAs—nine are graduate students, two are Fulbrighters, and one is an undergraduate. The graduate FLTAs would like to take the opportunity both to thank the Wesleyan community and reflect on our experiences for the benefit of future FLTAs. We all agree that although this past year has been a rewarding experience, it has also been a challenging time due to certain inequities which have become evident throughout the program.
As FLTAs, our job is to share what we know about our cultures and languages in TA sessions. In our capacity as native speakers, we not only help students in their learning process but are also cultural ambassadors in the classroom, promoting reflective, critical, and interdisciplinary practices in our respective languages. As international student workers, we have different degrees of responsibility and workloads since each department has its own employment structure. Considering the complexity of teaching different languages, we understand the necessity of maintaining differentiated administrative structures. However, the fact that we all fall into the category of FLTAs—as almost all of us live in the same building and share the same office—should, in theory, guarantee basic conditions favoring work performance without discriminating in terms of language and cultural status. Unfortunately, this has not been the case.
Teaching assistants come to the U.S. with J-1 visas which allow them to work only 20 hours a week, yet some departments here on campus overlook this regulation. For the most part, our departments respect the limits of our visas. However, in the midst of our many discussions as a cohort, we realized that in our appointment letters we received upon acceptance to the program that the number of hours we were expected to work per week was never specified, leading to the current issues many of us are facing.
The most urgent issue is that some FLTAs have weekly workloads which far exceed 20 hours, and they thus spend so much time working that they are unable to take classes at Wesleyan for their own academic progress and intellectual fulfillment. Moreover, the ability to take two classes per semester as an FLTA falls under the requirements of the J-1 visa. Part of the official FLTA program and the way it’s advertised before people commit to spending the year here entails the opportunity to take classes in addition to teaching them. In addition to not being able to take classes as they were promised, these same FLTAs who have been working excess of 20 hours per week on a regular basis to meet their department’s demands often find themselves without time to each lunch at a reasonable hour because of the quantity and intensity of work.
Again, since the workload is determined by each department, there is no unified system that can efficiently insure, verify, and fix possible cases of job exploitation, as each of us are paid the same but our workloads vary greatly. In response to this problem, we are asking for a clear and more standardized contract across all departments that host FLTAs in future years to better promote equity.
In fact, our group discussions throughout the year have revealed a disturbing lack of job-related equality and dignity in our daily routines which affect our quality of life, food access, and mental health concerns. Due to visa restrictions, we are only allowed to have one paid job in the United States—in this case, a part-time contract with a reduced salary that barely covers our living expenses. Having to pay for food, transportation, a portion of our health insurance, and rent for a pre-assigned Wesleyan apartment (without the option of finding cheaper accommodations or switching locations), means that we are obliged to make every dollar count.
Even though we are considered non-degree-seeking graduate students who can take courses during our stay, our primary status at Wesleyan is as salaried employees. As international workers/students, time is also a valuable and limited resource when working and studying at the same time. Since job parameters are defined differently by every department, there is no system in place to guarantee the same rights (equal working conditions, workloads, food access, opportunities to take university courses), protections (food security, work safety) and general support (e.g., transportation to and from airports, and locally) to each FLTA. In other words, the general structure in which FLTAs work and live remains complicated and oftentimes ambiguous.
One of our responsibilities is to host weekly conversation tables in which students practice their foreign language proficiency while having lunch. Because of this, some FLTAs are offered WesCard points by their respective departments (in this regard, it should be clarified that the Fulbright FLTAs, being in a different program, also have a different agreement on compensation for food). Some of us were given dining points by our departments for one meal per week at Usdan and others, until recently, did not even have this option. Having equal and expanded access to food has become one of our most primary and pressing concerns. Why is it that, even now, only some of us can enjoy the privilege of having guaranteed access to food at Usdan? Why did we, until only recently after bringing the issue up with our departments, deserve only one meal when other universities in the state provide a full meal plan to their FLTAs?
After multiple discussions with our respective departments, we acknowledged their willingness to help the FLTAs, and we are grateful for it. In fact, after several meetings with our departments, some FLTAs have now received a daily meal plan. But only some of us. Others still have not been granted meal support from the departments for which they work. However, the food issues and the impact of general inflation in this country are just the tip of the iceberg. Shouldn’t Wesleyan try to provide common benefits and fair assistance for all FLTAs regardless of department? We feel that there should be a unified policy that guarantees equal, fundamental rights for all FLTAs.
All the FLTAs are in various stages of academic life, so while we are devoting one year to this institution, we simultaneously want to look out for prospects and opportunities moving forward. When some of us have gone to the Gordon Career Center for advice, it has become clear that helping us is not a priority, as we are not degree-seeking students. Thus, the FLTAs end up in a vacuum outside the category of degree-seeking students, and when looking for help or career mentoring/advice, we often find ourselves at a crossroads where different centers on campus keep directing us to go elsewhere. Without greater administrative uniformity regarding FLTAs, beneficial information and opportunities are easily missed, or even withheld.
We also depend on public transportation to buy our groceries and attend to other shopping needs. In the past, Wesleyan’s ride service for groceries was more convenient and accessible. We could use it according to our availability of time after finishing our daily obligations. Unfortunately, since the beginning of Spring 2023, the situation has changed: drivers are not allowed to leave us in front of Park Washington apartments, and from April 1st onwards, we have had to pay for the grocery service. Finally, the XtraMile Shuttle reduced its service to only two consecutive days per week (Friday and Saturday), and in some cases, drivers didn’t pick us up because of an app error, leaving some of us to pay for Uber rides because of this malfunction and inconvenience. While we could order groceries through an app, this remains an incredibly costly option in comparison to the free, reliable transportation to which we had access in the fall. Another notable issue was that during winter break, when most of us were still living on campus, we had no access to any sort of public transportation to buy food and other supplies.
Despite the challenges, we are grateful for what Wesleyan has brought us, such as being part of an international environment rich in diverse cultures, the job opportunity, the American university life and the special bonds we created with other people that we will carry in our hearts forever. Yet, we also want to highlight the lack of parity we have faced during our time here. We hope that this will allow the university, and especially the departments, to become aware of the issues faced by FLTAs, who are an essential part of language and culture learning within this university. Through this statement, we hope to improve the living conditions of future FLTAs at Wesleyan so that they can make the most of the wonderful experience of being an FLTA in this university and within this beautiful community.
Sincerely,
The 2022-2023 Graduate FLTAs