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For better or worse, comparison is a huge part of Lawrence’s campus culture. Comparing ourselves to other students, comparing how hard classes are, comparing your free time to someone else’s. We all have that one friend who seems to always have time for everything. You’re taking the same amount of credit hours but seemingly don’t have any of the time that they do. Yes, maybe they don’t work or don’t do clubs or something similar. But maybe we’ve been comparing wrong this entire time. Maybe, it’s about their major — or yours.
Education has a huge problem with expectations and equity between departments, and Lawrence is certainly no exception. This may seem like a no-brainer; obviously some degrees are more work than others. What I’m saying is this: some degrees give you way more work per credit hour than others.
There are a few easy examples: science, music and theatre. Lab classes are usually six credits but require an extra three hours in lab, with pre-lab and post-lab assignments that can sometimes take hours. In my experience, these classes have just as much “regularly scheduled” work as others, just with lab work piled on top.
The hardest classes I’ve ever taken have been 200-level musicology classes. They have around nine substantial assignments a week and require so much reading that many Conservatory students under-load on credits the term(s) they take these classes (typically 15 instead of 18).
I rehearsed five days a week from 7–10 p.m. for the musical, a one-credit theatre lab. Many music ensembles have long rehearsals and are difficult to schedule. I’m not trying to complain — I signed up for these classes, and I knew what I was getting myself into. I’m not saying that I regret them or think I should’ve been given less work. I think the workload should remain the same, but we should be given more credit.
More importantly, though, I want to address the societal standards that are so commonplace in these fields that no one bats an eye at the clear differences from one six-unit class to another. The classes are a symptom of a larger disease: the devaluation of work, particularly students’ work, in certain career fields. The classes can perhaps be explained away by some excuse or another, but finding work and internship opportunities in these fields just highlights this attitude even more.
When I was applying for summer internships, I looked for ones in various career fields. The ones I really wanted — in environmental advocacy, ecological research, music and dance — were either barely paid or unpaid. Even with a stipend from Lawrence, I wouldn’t be able to afford to travel and live while working them. I knew that there were hundreds, even thousands of other students vying for those spots that would take the substandard or nonexistent pay, take the devaluation of their knowledge and labor, because that’s what they’ve been told is okay. These internships, and society at large, tell us we should be okay with extra work for no credit, scheduling issues and non-paid internships because we should be grateful to be doing it at all. We’re “lucky” to have something so good to put on our resumes to distinguish us for grad school, where we’ll acquire more debt we can’t pay off.
In industries where there’s “always someone willing to take your spot,” young, capable, qualified people are made to feel less-than and ungrateful when we ask for a somewhat livable wage for our hard work.
And I know I’m certainly not the first person to think about it, but most who acknowledge it still go along with the status quo anyway because they have no alternative. We feel powerless in this capitalist machine and are desperate to find a way to have a job that makes us happy, a job that we actually want to do.
Things won’t change overnight, but the first step is looking within yourself and recognizing that you are smart, successful and good at what you do; you bring value to your classes and your research and your performances. Yes, it’s hard to make it, but if you don’t try, then making it won’t ever be an option. Someday, you’ll get the credit you deserve. Maybe it won’t happen at Lawrence or grad school or wherever you go next, but it will happen.